20th Anniversary of Malibu’s Most Wanted: Black Culture as Food for All

Malibu’s Most Wanted Cast: The community created as a result of widespread disenfranchisement in a foreign country and the reclaiming of identity lost via ancestor erasure is the source of the singularity of Black culture. Black Americans’ compelled segregation gave rise to a distinctive culture within a single nation. The majority of white people were unable to understand it or even try until it was amusing to them. As a result, a culture that was treasured by its members became envious of its members.

This year, “Malibu’s Most Wanted” celebrates 20, and the societal themes that were pertinent when it was released in 2003 are still relevant now. The movie is a parody with a lot of humor that explores the discomfort and ridiculousness of overt cultural appropriation. B-Rad G (Jamie Kennedy) is a politician’s son who is wealthy, Caucasian, and a wannabe rapper who embraces all facets of Black culture—from dialect to durags—to an extreme degree. His father employs two actors, PJ (Anthony Anderson) and Sean (Taye Diggs), to mimic his kidnapping and transport him to the ghetto in order to scare the so-called “Black out of him” and put an end to his gangster-inspired harlequinades.

Hip-hop’s explosive growth in the late ’80s and early ’90s helped black culture break through into the forefront of mainstream popular culture. A generation of white young adults raised on a heavy diet of Black culture was one of the early 2000s’ consequences, as depicted in the movie. This is the backstory of B-Rad, who is shown in his early adolescent years listening to Run D.M.C. and Naughty by Nature. Although he bumps “O.P.P.” poolside at his opulent bar mitzvah and rocks to “It’s Tricky” as his Black housemaid cleans the living room behind him, his acute detachment from the culture remains in the foreground.

Now an adult, B-Rad employs the shiver-inducing AAVE language, reads BET as a compendium of Black life, refers to Brad as his “slave name,” and takes Black culture as his own. He claims Black culture according to his own standards and fetishizes a particular facet of it—traits that are magnified in the hip-hop genre of growing up in violent, impoverished inner cities. He squeezes the corners of the square gangster lifestyle inward till it conforms to his own definition of reality before forcing it into the cylindrical hole of his own privilege. It’s an extensive display of what it means to appropriate, to be performatively Black, and to stake a claim to a culture that isn’t his own.

This concept of performance is applied to both the PJ and Sean characters in “Malibu’s Most Wanted” equally. They serve as humorous, knowledgeable foils to B-Rad, exposing both of them as con artists. PJ and Sean were hired for $15,000 to portray two gangbangers, but they are anything but. They are Pasadena Playhouse and Julliard graduates, walking LL Bean commercials, and any English teacher’s grammar fantasy. They stand for a very distinct Blackness that is denoted by all the conventions of respectability politics.

The repression of any overt displays of Black culture and a homogeneity with standards held by White people characterize respectability. Every every character in “Malibu’s Most Wanted” is a caricature because the film is parody. What distinguishes these characters—personalities that have been developed and played with extreme severity—is what offers a critical eye to the question of what culture actually entails. PJ and Sean are parodies of Black guys at opposite extremes of the spectrum; they represent the height of respectability politics while posing as South LA thugs. They read dictionaries of Black slang, plait their hair in cornrows to “look urban,” and walk with a “pimp limp.” They frequently fetishize cultural tidbits that were fed to them by the media rather than via personal experience. In actuality, they use Sean’s cousin Shondra (Regina Hall) as their only genuinely realistic figure in order to carry out their plan.

 

In the end, the plan to convince B-Rad to stop the deed uses Shondra as a pawn. Her persona serves as a vehicle for misogynoir by serving as a symbol in everyone’s performances. Whether it is B-Rad’s fetish or the sexualization of being instructed to “show a little ass” to help PJ and Sean try to tear him down, We are introduced to her as the subject of masculine gaze and purpose with the words, “I’ve never been with a real Black girl before.” Additionally, Black women have historically served as cultural ambassadors to their captors. Shondra is the only member of the main cast who does not support cultural artifice, but she is also the one who must deal with all of their repercussions.

The social impact of appropriation can also be seen in the impalpable effects of who bears the bulk of the load, in addition to more overt manifestations like speech or dress. In the movie, Shondra does it. The suffering caused by appropriation in contemporary American society is not the criticism leveled at white people for engaging in it, but rather the agony Black people endure as they witness their identities being appropriated and dressed up, becoming fashionable only when they are not the protagonists.

Comedy “Malibu’s Most Wanted” is inextricably linked to its release date in terms of both aesthetics and political propriety. Although several aspects of the movie don’t keep up well over time, overall, the principles of the movie hold up better than the execution. White appropriation, which dilutes and selectively uses Black culture, is experiencing a similar comeback in the 2020s as it did in the early 2000s. Hip hop is the most popular musical genre right now, and recent beauty trends have favored Black traits to the point where we had to invent the phrase “Blackfishing” to convey the seriousness of it.

Additionally, our society is now more aggressively online than it has ever been. The voices of regular Black people (as opposed to only those who are well-known) are magnified in equal measure and at the highest level of accessibility thanks to the internet and social media. Many people believe that Black culture is synonymous with internet culture, that AAVE is internet lingo, and that blaccents are essentially “funny voices you put on for comedy” as a result of Black culture’s migration online and how it permeates all elements of culture. In addition to the in-person performative Blackness existing during the film’s 2003 release date, the abusive appropriation of Black culture has expanded to online minstrelsy in 2023.

 

It is noteworthy that the writer’s room for “Malibu’s Most Wanted” is all white, but this whiteness really serves to highlight how the film’s themes can be applied and do so even now. Writing this story by White authors reflects their own perception of Black culture. The misogynoir and respectability stereotyping kindle a blaze of the exact effects of appropriation, which are the throughlines of the film, even though they were able to be self-aware enough for the film to not be utterly dumb. Although “Malibu’s Most Wanted” is not a work of progressive philosophy, looking at its intention and impact through a contemporary lens reveals how appropriation has changed over time as well as the many ways it has remained the same.

The unique culture of Black Americans is a result of the community created through years of disenfranchisement and segregation. Despite being misunderstood and undervalued by many, this culture has been treasured and cherished by its members. As we move towards a more inclusive society, it is important to recognize and celebrate the contributions of Black culture to our shared heritage. ChopNews aims to bring awareness and understanding to the experiences of Black Americans and their culture.

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