TeaCake is supposed to be DARK SKINNED!

Obviously, you must not be black, darkskinned, or read the book superfically. The fact that Janie is a black woman with light skin and straight hair married to a black man, especially a dark skinned black man is problematic in Jim Crow south. All black people know that this was taboo in their time. There is symboism here you might be missing. Janie was symbolic of a white woman. Unlike most black women in her time, she was wealthy and propertied. Tea Cake was poor. In other words, Janie married down on several levels. Perhaps you should re-read her grand mother's or Mrs. Turner's feelings about dark skinned blacks and ask some older blacks (50 years plus) about the taboo of dark skinned blacks.

At any rate, I've got to get to class.

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I just finished reading this book and easily see Janie playing this character. What Halle has over the other suggestions (Michael Michele, Perisa White) is the talent to play this country girl role. Do any of you remember Baps, Queen, and Jungle Fever? Well anyway, Halle seems to do well with different dialects, and this book was a hard read for many because of the dialect. This book was a masterpiece. What I saw in Janie is that her appearance never really changed. She was pretty much ageless. After Joey died, men were pursuing her left and right. Pearl and her crew were going on about her looking like some young girl. Remember Phoebe said, Janie you like your daughter sister. (Something to that effect). Anyway, I think Halle is a perfect choice and I think Oprah got this right.

Who the hell do you think you are to tell someone what they do and don't understand?? How do you think you understand when you're also young enough not to have even seen that take place? Jimbob is right, all you people are doing is finding discrimination in places where it isn't there. It's not the 1950s anymore, you know. Not everyone hates black people! Except of course, when all they want to do is cry discrimination! Get over yourselves, all of you!

I'm white, I've read the novel, probably, three times in 10 years and KNOW that they left out a crucial part of the Ms.Hurston's novel.

I kept thinking during the movie "I've got to re-read the description of Tea Cake because I have NO recolllection if he had light eyes" I knew he was suppose to have dark skin.

Plus as someone else mentioned there was a significant amount of the story left out from their time in "the muck". That was central to the story.

I thought the visuals of Lake Okachobee (spelling?) were beautiful. Also I wish they would have started her story from when she was a girl. They cut that out too.

I think this book is a great lesson in Afican-american history and should be taught in schools. It is a beautiful story with so much insight.

I never read the book - I did look at the movie.
Since it seems to matter to so many - I am a West Indian woman with a young African American son. I have so many races running through my veins, that geneticists did not know WHAT or WHICH genetic traits/ markers to test my son (or myself) for.
I thought that the movie was a breath of fresh air. I got all the issues raised by others posting on this site - without having read the book.
People must try to resist the urge to over analyze - try not to feel picked on and down trodden.
I get racism, classism, sexism - I get it. But you know, every one is entitled to an opinion. I hate to see women - in particular - bashing other women.
Every shadow does not have a gun - sometimes it is just a shadow.
Now I will go read the book - I think I will enjoy it as much as the film.
By the way - Ms. Grad school - props to you, but a lot of us have been there and done that.

Of course Halle Berry is an amazing actress she's got the Oscar to prove that. However, Hollywood seems to have amnesia or something because Halle isn't the ONLY black woman in Hollywood but she might as well be. Given the fact, that as Cicley Tyson has stated recently "black women we still are struggling after all these years." I do have a problem with one woman getting all the work while all the other sisters get the scraps. However, I do wish we can see the younger black women like Sanaa Lathan or Gabrielle Union get the good roles as well. Also, women such as Vivica A Fox I believe deserves her due and Angela Bassett. The problem I have with Hollywood is they never seem to give the young black actresses a chance to shine or headline a movie although things are changing for them slowly. Although Hollywood has changed for black men I still think another black actress could of been given the opportunity to play Janie Crawford. Kimberly Elise was on NRP radio and she says casting directors tell her all the time she is "too black" and doesn't have the "right look" to be considered a leading lady. That's why I am so happy for Kimberly that Diary of a Mad Black Woman is doing so well.
Sanaa did star in AVP and although critics trashed the movie it still grossed $81 million in the United States and over $151 million world wide. However, we all know drama is where an actress can excel to get the awards and the acclaim. I really like Sanaa because she has achieved a wide range of roles despite the infrequency of good roles for black women in Hollywood. Sanaa will star in an interracial love story with the handsome Australian actor Simon Baker next year. Gabrielle I think is a good actress as well but she needs to do more drama.

I think that Mikhi Phifer would have made a wonderful Tea Cake.

My grandmother just died. She was 101 years old and she grew up in Virginia(south hill). We would look at TV and Halle Berry came up a few times. Granny did not believe she was half white because according to her she was too dark and she was not alone. A lot of her friends when they were alive had different views of what was dark and light skinned. Heck they called us "Colored people"! Never Black or African American! Light skinned 70 years ago is different then light skin now. A lot of black folks people were color conscience back then. And apparently some still are. Never in a million years would the man who played Tea Cake be considerded light skinned if you were not "high yellow" you were dark skinned. They called you red if you were a little darker. If they could not see your blue veins well you were not considered light skin. Also it had a lot to do with hair. Something IMO black people still make a Big deal out of. I think we need to understand this movie is not about now but then and the perception of what is light skinned is different then it once was. We as black folks need to get past this skin color thing, It is very devisive and dumb. It was a way whites kept black folks divided and we still do it our selves. I still hear supposedly cool black folks telling my best friend that she is pretty for a dark skin woman!!!! And black men making nasty remarks about dark skin women to me because they think because I am considered "light" I wouldn't mind hearing that garbage. And in 2005 someone is screaming about how Tea Cup looked. It sure shouldn't matter because in the end all of us African Americians came off the same slave ship. Remember that. Oh and the person with the Degree was that suppose to show us that you were superior? Is that why you were so miffed that a so called light skin man dare play a dark skin man. OMG. You see what I mean about that color stuff still dividing us.

It is in most cultures, the color thing. The northern italians who are light look down on the southern Italians who are dark. Irish call darker skin Irish black irish. Like you mentioned the East Indians too.

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I saw the movie last night and I thought it was great. Admittedly, I was concerned about how it would all turn out. Their Eyes is classic American literature. Janie is iconic her search for self, and her relationship with Tea Cake is the real deal. I was nervous to see what Halle would do with the character. This is one of the first times I've not walked away in disappointed in her performance. I thought she and Ealy were fantastic and had great chemistry. The fact that Ealy is 'light-skinned' to me is not relevant to the story. I read the book on my own in high school and in an African American Lit class in college. The issue with Tea Cake was more his youth and lack of social/economic status. Case in point, if he had been 40 yrs old and rich and dark skinned no one would have cared if she married him or dated him.
I am a quite chocolatey African American woman. There would have been a problem if say, Janie were portrayed by a dark skinned actress with short hair as the novel revolved around Janie's physical appearance and the reactions it aroused in others, and in herself. However, Tea Cake's color is not central to the novel. What is central is what he adds to Janie's life and what she adds to his.

The history of black women in America is never interchangable with the history of white women in this country. A black man would be killed for dating a white woman in the 1920s. A black man would be killed for flirting with a white woman in the 1920s. Emmitt Till was killed in 1955 for saying "bye baby" to white girl. A dark skinned man and a light skinned black woman, was taboo, but not the impetus for murder.

Well said, chieka.

While I agree that color is somewhat relevant to the story, I certainly object to people telling other people that they OBVIOUSLY don't know what they're talking about because they are OBVIOUSLY not black.

This is a ridiculous and insulting statement, to say the least. There are ignorant and ill-informed persons of ever color, regarding every issue, and pointing fingers at individual posters rather than trying to inform them in a polite and construtive manner only serves to perpetuate the discriminatory attitude which you are trying to confront.

And just as a reminder, "persons of color" once referred to MANY ethnicities and races. Irish and Italians, for example, were considered persons of color at various times, because they were outside of the 'majority' (i.e. Anglo and Germanic peoples). These terms are all relative.

I am not saying that coloration is an insignicant issue in this particular context, but to broaden the discussion to "you don't understand because you are white" is to trample on the progress we have made thus far, and to dampen hopes for future enlightenment.

And one more thing, attacking someone else for either their wealth of OR lack of education is particularly insulting. This is a message board.... spelling and grammatical errors can be found in almost EVERYONE'S posts, so it is in poor taste to dismiss someone's opinion as uneducated merely because he or she has made such errors.

On the other hand, if someone has risen to the level of higher education (while I don't necessarily condone waving that flag), it is insulting to suggest that his or her studies are completely irrelevant to his/her opinion on the subject matter.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is, if you want to discuss the issue of race and color within the novel/screenplay, then please keep it within that context. Taking it further, and making assumptions about a fellow poster's intentions and beliefs is highly inapproriate, and dangerously counterproductive.

Thank God someone finally said this

It's a shame how COLORSTRUCK this thread is. (That word should ring a bell as the title of a Hurston story. If it doesnt then you, dear "scholars," REALLY need to get over yourselves.) Getmydegree has so much to prove to herself and others, regarding her degree, skin-color, levels of "blackness." When u go home are you challenged because higher learning is a "white thing"? Do they say YOU'RE acting white?