Photo by Quantrell Colbert ©2011 Very Perry Films.

White explained his comments  in the Hello Beautiful interview by saying, “I never had any beef with Nene. I was talking about images and being careful what we celebrate in the media.Please understand I do not hate anyone let alone black women that raised me. I am fighting for the images of black women.”

Here is the except from the interview that caused the controversy:

Do you think Tyler Perry only depicts black people in a negative light? There are a lot of black people who fit into the stereotype but there are a lot of black people who don’t.

“You can’t call it a stereotype if it’s the majority. The most prevalent image in ‘urban society’ right now is women like Nene. If there’s a fight that breaks out on Love & Hip Hop those people are on every blog, the cover of every magazine the next week. It’s not Taraji or Gabrielle, it’s whoever just got into a fist fight. Tyler’s not stereotyping, he’s holding up a mirror and people are mad at him because people don’t want to look at that image in that way.”

White indicated in the press at the time that author of the article, Shamika Sanders, wrote the article in the most unflattering way possible.  Sanders does begin the article by inserting a mean-spirited bias stating that. ” I concluded that he has something – maybe not “hate” – but something… a gripe perhaps, not only with black women, but the black race.” Sanders lists “journalism major” in her brief bio but something tells me she didn’t complete that degree or attend many classes. Bias aside, the typos (fixed) in the brief quote above as well as the use of ‘sic’ inappropriately (deleted) on several occasions makes me tend to believe that Sander’s  not likely to be a Peabody award winner any time soon.

That said, the interview with Wendy Williams had an odd feel to it. Williams asked White about the reaction from black women when he married his Latina wife.  White replied, “I caught a little flack but it’s a table setter for positive discussion”. It seems that White can’t promote the movie or share fun stories from the set because he is to busy discussing racial bias and stereotypes. I suppose that is to be expected if you are in a Tyler Perry film. White does come off a bit “whitewashed” for lack of a better term in his speech and demeanor. He has a awkward demeanor that is a bit off putting in a general since. The whole interview just seemed awkward. Then, at the end, White and Williams enjoyed some chocolate covered bacon to bring the segment some sweet closure. The bacon was wrapped in white chocolate.