I thought this article was interesting. Go to bugmenot for a log in. You know, my image of blackness is quite mediated by the written word. I never do feel much kinship to the images of blacks on the screen- even the relatively normal black people in those UPN sitcoms like Girlfriends,etc, seem to me more like the characters in Seinfeld than someone who I would actually relate to. The fabulous middle class blacks with their love problems, I don't really relate to either. I think I just find film a less relational medium. Even if a book character has experiences much different than mine I can often find that I can relate, probably because books can cover the internal much more than movies can. Even if the two have the same plot "middle class blacks have love problems" I can relate more to something like Not a Day Goes By than The Best Man(I have blanked out on the names of most of the movies I ended up stuck watching in high school).