Everybody Has a Dream

Everybody has a dream--even when life's circumstances suggest otherwise. When I was a young boy, I dreamed of playing professional basketball. I dreamed of a time when my family would move to a different neighborhood, one where spacious homes and manicured lawns prevailed. Dreams come in all fashions and shapes. They evolve from every neighborhood and every class of people. Don't be quick to judge. That's the message I took away from Hustle and Flow which hit theaters in mid-july.

The central figure in Hustle and Flow, DJay(Terrence Howard), captures the meaning of "everybody gotta have a dream" as he struggles to escape from the world of pimping. You might say that it's not very far to go from pimping to getting your flow as a rapper---but in DJay's world, the dream meant everything. I'd read reviews that questioned yet another movie that seemed to glorify the misogynistic images of pimping and, yes, another narrow image of black men. I dug that perspective and found a way to see Hustle and Flow when it finally came to a local cinema that runs movies for two dollars a pop. That afternoon, when I left the muggy theater, I appreciated the power of having a dream---even when it seems narrow. Everybody gotta have a dream.