Ray Brown

Ray Brown was a tragic villain in the 1991 movie Straight out of Brooklyn.

He was played by George T. Odom.

When he angry at work, he abuses his wife and kids. He often is unsupportive of their kids going to college, because they teach nothing, according to him, about the black man. Contrary to what some have speculated, not all of his abuses are alcohol-driven. A lot of the time he's sober, and he knows exactly what he's doing. On the job he can be quite obnoxious (though not Eddie Murphy-level obnoxious, hence he's not really an obnoxious man), insulting white people. Mind you, while I don't intend to excuse white racism at all, racism out of revenge can be a villainous trait (and I don't say that to put down victims of racism who are racist right back), but for definitions of the term, revenge racism is what this must be called. It's different from white racism (and I'm not a liberal) in that his racism comes from anger, and since this movie was filmed in 1991, it's clear he lived through the terrors of Jim Crow violence and racism (he came from Georgia, which mind you, though all of America had vicious racism, the system of deceit down South and in the Midwest took a particularly cruel form), and so it's made him angry and evil towards whites.

That's not to say he's always a bad guy. He does bond with Dennis, his son, in one scene. And he does hug his wife and kiss her.

However, it's too late when he realizes he must change. His wife is in the hospital, because of all the abuse he's done to her. He gets killed by Luther and his gang later (and possibly this is his punishment from God for doing this, we're looking through the lens of this family, who are Christians, so I don't mean to instill my views on anyone, but the man who made this movie was most likely rasied in a Baptist home). His wife dies. Everything goes south at the end. It's a shame.