D. Barbara McWhite grew up in York County, S.C., and lives in Orange Park, Fla., with her husband and cat. Her column is published here each Tuesday. Opinions expressed are solely her own.

Kim Kardashian has confirmed that she will co-star in the upcoming Tyler Perry movie, “The Marriage Counselor,” and some black women are mad.

Kardashian will play the assistant to relationship expert, Judith, who struggles in her marriage despite being successful in her profession.

The casting of Kardashian has been a hot topic on the Tom Joyner Morning Show in recent days. It also has been debated in my circle of friends.

Some of my friends echo opinions expressed on Joyner’s radio show -- that Perry should have chosen an African American woman for this role.

"If he needed a woman with a big butt…, there are many talented women of color who fit that bill," one person said on Joyner’s show.

"Kim Kardashian has stolen enough of our black men already," said another.

Most of us remember where we were when we learned Michael Jackson died. We remember how we felt the night President Obama was elected. And we remember where we were when we first caught a glimpse of Madea.

We were touched that Madea embodied the souls of our mothers and grandmothers.

We remember seeing Tyler Perry in the beauty salons as we were getting our Jheri curls exchanged for braids.

We loved that his beautiful female characters were so much like us…our sisters, our friends.

Tyler Perry belonged to us!

His movies, maybe more than any others, depicted black love in its beauty and its ugliness. And while we laughed and cried in the darkness, we admitted and discovered personal truths both tender and tough.

When we saw a Tyler Perry movie, sitting with a hundred other black folks all talking back to the movie characters as if they could hear us....

"Girl, I wouldn't let him do that to me"

"Throw those grits, honey! Hit him again."

We somehow believed that Tyler understood.

We believed that he knew that we are more than our hips and thighs. We believed he saw that too many of us have been made to carry the weight of our families and have become hardened under its burden.

We thought he knew that we sometimes feel left out and looked over by our own men as so many of them pursue women of other races, the street life or lives of crime.

Tyler Perry, like no one before him, slew our dragons, showing us that we were indeed princesses, worthy of our fine prince.

So we gave our hearts to Tyler, and now we feel betrayed. Has our handsome prince left us for a woman with fair skin and straight hair?

I concede that Perry has become a Hollywood titan not only through black patronage but on the patronage and support of other races. Most of us understand, with our heads, that African Americans are cast in movies produced by white filmmakers, and so it’s only right that other races be included in his productions.

What happens in our hearts is another matter.

There is a line in a movie I love, “Pretty Woman.” In that movie, Richard Gere's character becomes jealous that Julia Roberts' character has enjoyed a conversation with another man, so he tells the man that she is only a prostitute. When Roberts tells Gere she didn't do anything wrong and didn't deserve to be treated that way, though he knows she’s right, his only defense is..."but I didn't like it."

Sometimes it’s just that simple.

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