I think that although Lucious truly hates that his son Jamal is gay, he does love him in his own way. Lucious is ashamed of Jamal and he thinks he’s being hard on him for a reason. I believe that he’s been trying to toughen him up from the first time he saw him in those heels and he put Jamal in the trash. His battle with Jamal last Wednesday on Empire showed it. He was battling Jamal, not really over a song but because he knows how tough the world is going to be on his son and being good or talented is not enough. Lucious is trying to make him tougher. Who better than your father to be the toughest on you so that when you’re out in the world you’ll be able to say “That’s all you got!”
(this is beautiful…watch below)
Now, I’m not advocating or agreeing that Lucious is right for the treatment of his gay son but I’ve learned to not judge people’s parenting skills since most of the time I’m a bit sketchy about my own. All I’m saying is that’s what I believe he’s doing. I’ve seen someone say that they refuse to watch Empire and called it Ratchet. They stated it so because they were Christian and I was kind of offended being someone who prides themselves on reading the word and to be honest, the Bible has the most ratchet stories in it if I might add: but most of us still read the Bible because we know that in the end someone gets delivered. Now, I’m not saying that on Empire someone’s going to be delivered but I do see where weekly the characters on the show are evolving. What they are evolving into is different altogether but I think this show works because Lee Daniels has found a dialogue of relatability within the black community. No, I’m not saying that Empire is every person in the black community’s story but surely if I can watch this story unfold I might be able to understand some people in the community. We tend to denigrate things before we’ve had a chance to see the morality in mortals. We don’t really believe that God can change people helping them to extend themselves, grow, and evolve. There can be no light without darkness and sometimes it’s almost as if we are afraid to look at the dark. How will we ever be able to understand the magnitude of the light if we’re too afraid to look at the dark.
I think it’s time to tell our own stories. We need new ones anyway.
