Jezebel's Latoya Peterson had a similar reaction to the news, asking "Is Tyler Perry the Right Man to Tell Black Women's Stories?"

Directing? Fine. Producing? Cool. But writing and adapting it? From someone who writes flat, two-dimensional woman characters in all of his work?

Even under the best of circumstances, I would be skeptical of a black man tackling a project like this. To bring Shange's vision to light would take an understanding of why this work of art is so deeply intertwined with black women's articulation of their own struggles under racist, patriarchal oppression — something that unfortunately, many still deny to this day. Black women's voices are often lost in discussions of race (because all the blacks are men) and discussions of gender (because all women are white) and Ntozake Shange was beyond brave to put down all of these ideas and present them for public consumption even in the face of heavy criticism from black men when the play was released.[