So this is where we’re at right now, black folks? Shoot, and here I thought the Love & Hip Hop Atlanta boycott petition on change.org was bad. Now Al Sharpton’s outfit is leading a boycott of the Django Unchained action figures being sold. Jesus Christ! Do we need another black kid armed with Skittles and Ice Tea to be shot because black rage is idle? But seriously, I could think of many other things to be pissed about as a person of color, other than some $299.00 collectibles being sold on Amazon. But hey, I suppose that’s just me being tired of being the angry black dude.

This from NewsOne:

Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network has been largely silent on the raging controversy surrounding Quentin Tarantino‘s ‘Django Unchained’ — until now.

In the wake of the release of action figures in the cast’s likeness, Rev. K.W. Tulloss, NAN’s president in Los Angeles, the progressive, civil rights organization called for a national boycott of the slavery toys which can be purchased for $299 on Amazon.com.

“Selling this doll is highly offensive to our ancestors and the African American community,” Rev. K.W. Tulloss, said to the NY Daily News. “The movie is for adults, but these are action figures that appeal to children. We don’t want other individuals to utilize them for their entertainment, to make a mockery of slavery.”

Now  yesterday I mentioned how this movie has made some of my “cousins” upset. And as I said then, some of them are probably more upset because the film was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino who happens to be white. I firmly believe that most are upset for no other reason than that fact. So, as far as the action figures go? Well, let’s just say that I don’t see them being packaged with chains, branding irons, or any of those ghastly iron masks used to torture slaves. That said, I really don’t see the big deal; because, it’s not like kids are running out to buy them.

It’s just standard movie marketing actually, and the National Action Network is doing a fine job by boosting sales with this frivolous attempt at a boycott of these dolls. Besides, it’s not like black folks are going to break their necks to drop #299.00 on Amazon to buy them anyway.

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So there’s a “Django” action figure being sold now; and, of course, some of my cousins are upset about it — yep, yet another reason yo hate this movie for some. The action figure isn’t actually a stocking stuffer, but I hope it doesn’t have a Kung Fu grip like G.I. Joe. Nope, no need to get Spike Lee any angrier about the movie than he already is at this point. Seriously, how much more disrespectful can they get with this thing? Oh well, it could have been worse. Yes, somebody could have had the bright idea to start selling a crack head action figure after the movie Do The Right Thing.

Oh, and speaking of “angry black men who hate white men with the audacity to make movies that illustrates what it was like for black folk back in 1853″. Did you hear what Tavis Smiley had to say about Tarantino and the movie Django Unchained? Well, like Spike Lee, he too hasn’t seen the movie nor intends to “pay to see it,” like he said in a recent interview featured on The Daily Beast. Like Lee, he too takes issue with a white movie director using his craft to bring to the big screen a film that revels in the painful but often avoided legacy of slavery. Responding to a question about his first reaction to the film, Smiley opens up the interview with the following:

Quentin Tarantino’s film, Django Unchained has as much to do with the history and culture of American descendants of African slaves as Dumbo has to do with the plight of Weimar Jewry. Spike Lee says that it disrespected his ancestors. It does not. It has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with one white man’s fevered, second-hand vision of what it would be like to be something he probably can’t conceive. It’s like me attempting to write an intimate account of the pains of childbirth. I may have held a baby and changed a diaper, but one would doubt my authority on the subject.

Tarantino obviously knows black people, but only a white man in America could believe that this provides him with the authority to speak on the black American experience. Like 99.9999 percent of the white population, he has minimal intimacy with the culture of the descendants of American slaves. That culture, imbibed from birth by American blacks raised in black American households, involves an intimate, often subconscious acknowledgment of history, of a unique place in the American hierarchy, of a struggle against mainstream paradigms of who and what we are. These are intimacies of which whites are necessarily ignorant — they’re white. Just as I, as a male, have no intimate knowledge of birthing pains, whites have no knowledge of being black. They can gain an abstract conception, but that’s it.

Um, excuse me, I know Tarantino is white and all, but I sincerely doubt whether anyone alive today — including black folks — are able to have more than an abstract conception of what slavery was like. Yes, though many of its scars still run deep throughout the diaspora, to suggest that by virtue of one being charged with melanin comes with a certain esoteric knowledge of slavery even if we’re fifty years removed from Jim Crow. Which is funny because it’s as though being able to endure “the struggle” was woven into our cultural and biological DNA — it’s as if unlike any other race, we’re predisposed to endure any struggle. And thus, we’re exceptional or something.

Of course, Tarantino has every right to make a film on any subject he chooses, and he knows his audience well. The film has become the white literati’s preferred lens into the forbidden territory of black rage (a sort of reverse Uncle Tom’s Cabin). But when blacks discuss it as if this product of white Hollywood is a legitimate expression of our culture or our rage, we do ourselves a gross injustice; we follow the pattern of outsourcing our history and self-image to the majority; we marry ourselves into the grotesque self-images that their history has tried to stamp upon us.

Django Unchained is nothing more than one white Hollywood director’s fantasy of what black revenge would look like. It would be no more to us than another big screen cartoon if we dealt honestly and independently with our own history — a history white studios or directors would never touch. Such history puts the lie to the frames and simplifications with which Americans maintain our halo of historical innocence on matters related to race.

If we lavished similar imagination upon the history of the blacks who fought for the British during the American revolution to escape slavery, the German Coast uprising, the Prosser and Vesey rebellions, the ‘Crazy as St. Paul’ Nat Turner rebellion, the Black Seminole rebellion of 1835, the innumerable anecdotal tales of black resistance against slave-owners, perhaps we wouldn’t glom onto the work of a white director who (with his infantile insistence on his right to fling the word “nigger”) seems frightfully similar to the clueless character in Lou Reed’s infamous, “I Wanna be Black.” If we taught ourselves to regard the Civil War as “a failed war to protect and extend slavery,” and not “a war to free the slaves,” we would be less seduced by the siren song of second-hand revenge fantasy. If we debated among ourselves the virtues and vices of real old-west outlaws like the notorious Rufus Buck Gang, Cherokee Bill and Isom Dart, perhaps one white man’s notion of blacks in the old west would be less noteworthy. If we knew that black freedman populated Indian Territory and that a black lawman named Bass Reeves served as a Deputy U.S. Marshall for “Hanging Judge” Isaac Parker, we’d have a far richer, more complex view of our history than that promoted by the likes of Hollywood and Tarantino.

Yes, blacks are giving this film too much credence, but it’s our own fault. We have outsourced our history to the majority and failed to devise the means to teach our history to ourselves. In a country in which we have been historically subjugated and reviled, we accept instruction about our history and our place in it from those who subjugated and reviled us. That’s a bit insane. As long as we continue to do so, the likes of Django Unchained will rise from the level of mainstream curiosities from black-cultural dilettantes, to fake nipples mimicking the teat of cultural sustenance.

Listen: We can only imagine just what it must have been like for African slaves not just in America, but also those spread all throughout the new world; but even so, we have no earthly idea, despite the documented research, of just how bad it actually was. So what is the point to this post? That I can’t wait for Tarantino to do the sequel where Django and Madea try to bust John Brown the abolitionist, out of prison for killing white folks so everyone can be happy. Yep, let’s try to rescue a white man in the next one, since folk wanna act like he had Harriet Tubman giving lap dances in this one. as cathartic as this film isn’t for some, maybe my suggested sequel will be received with open arms only if a black guy produces, writes, and directs it. Because quite naturally, who else is there better to tell stories of the black struggle than black people, right? After all, last time I checked, black kids are still picking white dolls over black dolls; and, it ain’t like y’all Negroes supported Akeela And The Bee anyway.

So yeah, blame Tarantino for that too.

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Hollywood has again deigned to allocate space for a movie set during slavery to be disseminated for public consumption. It has debuted to mostly positive reviews and a massive PR machine is doing its best to make sure everyone takes in the movie for the “holidays”.  Which is what they should do because its a business venture and the priority is to make money.  Making money is all well and good, retelling accurate portrayals of history, in this country with each day becomes more crucially important.

Post-Racial America – NOT

This last year especially has shown the ugliness of racism rear its ugly head during one of the most contentious presidential elections in recorded history.  We were able to bear witness to how, one demographic group willfully could and would ignore any information based on facts, and instead opt to create whatever facts would suit their beliefs and position.While on the one hand this country had managed to get to the point of electing, and re-electing a black man to hold the highest office in the land, the journey to get there has been hallmarked by a serious uptick in intolerance coupled with an astonishing show of ignorance and bigotry that has not been seen in this country for quite some time.

This would not be of much significance if it weren’t for the fact that this has manifested in attempts to change what is put into the textbooks that our children use in schools. It really wouldn’t matter much if there were not people like GOP Rep  John Hubbard from Arkansas - who reiterated a theme that has been getting a lot of airtime in conservative circles of late – “slavery was good for black people”.

Letting Others Tell Our Story Has Consequences

Folks are up in arms about Quentin Tarantino’s(Django Unchained) comments regarding “Roots”which was just run in its entirety on BET. His comment was that “Roots” was not an authentic representation or telling of slavery. Basically he’s right. There was no way in this universe that the TV network back then could have aired an accurate telling of slavery – it would never have made it past the network censors.  Additionally, one can argue that many are still not ready to hear the awful truth or brutality that was a common component of slavery. There was nothing pretty about slavery in this country.  There are many “authentic” stories that are available to read if one so chooses.  What is amazing is that people would get upset with Tarantino for making this statement. He made a movie. His purpose was not to provide an authentic retelling of slavery. His purpose was to make a movie to make MONEY – period. I don’t see too many people upset with the notion that he choose to make money by making an “entertaining” movie about the slave trade. Then again I don’t see too many getting upset with the portrayals of blacks in the entertainment business much anyway. That whole – well they are making money, they are making a living, they are providing for their families etc. with a nice dose of calling haterade just is way overworked.

I have seen this line of reasoning used to justify the upcoming “reality” series that is based on a“rapper” who has 10 baby mama’s and loads of kids which is being brought forth by Oxygen network  – really ??

When you entrust a vital part of your history to be retold by those who have no vested interest in accuracy and who’s sole motive is to make money, what exactly do you expect?  If  a Nazi decided to do a movie about the Holocaust with an “entertaining” spin to it – there would be all kinds of hell to pay if it ever even got released or distributed in the first place. It is not a false equivalency, but an apt comparison of a period in history where an entire ethnic group was subjected to horrors which included extermination and that continues to impact the group to this day. The major difference being the need in the black community to find a way to make slavery entertaining instead of accurate.

Don’t Get Mad – Get Busy

I don’t see why anyone should get mad at Tarantino, especially the black community. When there are large numbers of us watching shows that depict black women acting in ways that perpetuate negative stereotypes, and WE spend money on “entertainment” that continues to perpetuate negative stereotypical behavior – why get mad?  Getting mad at Spike Lee for publicly saying he would not go to see THIS movie accomplishes what exactly?  All this energy expended in pointless action – how about asking  Spike or some of the other directors when they are going to do a movie based on “Incident’s In the Life of a Slave Girl”.  Where is the “petition” asking Oprah when she is going to back a movie production of the Tademy Family saga – Cane River and Red River. Both of which are REAL stories based on the lives of real individuals.  For entertainment, get a director to do Some Sing, Some Cry, which is fiction but is based on the REALITY of the times it takes place in.

The money we spend on supporting negative imagery could just as easily be spent in supporting directors, producers, and programming that at the very least is not always based on the least common denominators in our community.  The expectation of moral conscience being expressed by network executives and any other profit driven entities is completely ridiculous. Placing blame on them for airing these shows is misdirected – REALTALK – they only air what people WATCH. IF we were not watching this stuff  and spending our money supporting advertisers who buy ad space on these shows – they would never see the light of day.

The time and effort spent going back and forth on this could be better spent in trying to get some of this stuff actually done. Which is what I plan to do by working on a compilation of African American Art and making it available via mobile devices.

Ya’ll have fun with the arguing and debating back and forth.

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OK, let’s get something straight: Django Unchained is not about Martin Luther King Jr, nor is it the black version of the epic The Birth Of A Nation. However, it’s a very timely film.

I doubt very seriously whether it was Quenten Tarrantiino’s intent to spark a conversation on race. But with his new movie Django Unchauined, boy did he ever. Having said that, I’m just going to go on record and say that if Jammie Foxx wins an Oscar for his role as Django, that’s when I’m going to start believing all this post-racial talk I’ve been hearing for the last four years. Now, about the movie, I’m not offended that the word “nigger,” is used 110 times. I have yet to see the movie, so I’m not sure why this may be offensive to some.What offends me, however, is that Django has excellent command of the English. No diss to my ancestors, but I’m having a hard time accepting the fact that a slave in the 1950s is able to understand that the ‘D’ in his name is silent. But hey, maybe I shouldn’t complain; yep, at least they didn’t make him come off a bit Green Mile-ish when there are black folks today who you’d swear they’re looking for Harriet Tubman when you hear them speak.

Now of course this movie has seen it’s share of controversy even before its Christmas Day release. In fact, I blogged about how “certain people” were a bit put off by a joke told by Jamie Foxx while hosting Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago. Yes, and apparently it’s beyond reason for an enslaved African with a gun to “kill all the white people,” like Foxx does in this movie. I suppose, to some, the notion of a slave murdering the un-melanined seems to be bad for race relations in America. Of course this was all bullshit, as I’ve already pointed out. That said, you can imagine my surprise when I heard that there were more than a few black folks who took issue with a few things in the movie. Not surprising, however, was the critique that came from my man Spike Lee, who believes the film is “disrespectful,” to his ancestors who were slaves.

This from Rolling Stone:

Although he hasn’t seen the movie, director Spike Lee tells Vibe that Quentin Tarantino’s new Civil War-era Western Django Unchained is “disrespectful to my ancestors.”

Lee, whose latest film Red Hook Summer deals with race and class in the South Brooklyn neighborhood, said he has no plans to see Django Unchained. He elaborated on his dissatisfaction on Twitter, writing, “American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them.”

This isn’t the first time Lee has taken issue with Tarantino’s films, particularly when it comes to the use of a racial epithet that is used myriad times in Django and appeared frequently in Tarantino’s 1997 film Jackie Brown.

Lee spoke out about the film after apparently telling Django star Jamie Foxx that he wasn’t going to. In a separate interview withVibe, Foxx recalled an encounter with Lee at the BET awards saying, “You know Spike, he’ll let you have it whether it’s good, bad or ugly. And he said, ‘I’m not going to say anything bad about this film. It looks like y’all are getting it.’”

Now I respect Spike Lee, and I’m a huge fan — hell, can’t you tell from the banner above? — and he is of course entitled to his opinion. However, I don’t agree with his assertion. Why? Well, maybe I’m wrong, but I’d like to think that African slaves had more important things to worry about other than being called “niggers.” Was it degrading to them? Assuming that they had a grasp of the English language like “Django,” I’m sure it was. However, I’d like to think that they were more concerned about escaping the horror that was slavery, and maybe even trying to get a paycheck. The way I see it: What better way is there to “honor” our ancestors than to use a film to illustrate just what they endured for a very long time? Sorry, Spike, you’re my man and all, and like you I love the Knicks; but, until Kunta Kinte comes forward and says he feels “disrespected,” I’m not hearing you, bro. But Spike isn’t the only one, as I found out while watching Melissa Harris-Perry last weekend

Case in point, check out this from Melissa Harris-Perry:

So, for Melber who writes:

Django is fighting for his life against slavery, torture, rape, and murder, arming him with a moral clearance to go on a killing spree…

[...] The spectacle is more like pornographic violence than a dénouement, and even if the corpses are not total innocents, the nation’s tolerance for wanton, mass shootings is quite low right now.

[...] There is nothing to be gained from sanitizing our nation’s violent, racist history, to be sure, but Tarantino has shown that sensationalizing it is not worthwhile, either. That is unfortunate, because Django Unchained ultimately boils down to a tragedy in search of a point.

I suppose for him and others who share his opinion, the fact that a black man is doing the this killing makes them a little uneasy. I mean, lord forbid if someone makes a movie about John Brown, the white abolitionist who enacted his “vengeance” upon white men for no reason. Yep, for some, it’s as though Django should have employed Martin Luther King Jr’s strategy of non-violence. Because we all know how well that worked out for black folks during slavery. I’m sorry, but something tells me that Dr. King wouldn’t be above bussin’ a cap in more than a few asses to get back to Coretta.

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But seriously, how dare a slave with a gun “Kill all the White people,” in a movie? A few days ago, Sean Hannity had a huge problem with Janie Foxx and his Saturday Night Live opening monologue last weekend. As you may know by now, in the upcoming film Django Unchained, Jamie plays a slave with an itchy trigger finger — imagine that, a slave with a gun. Yep, leave it to Jamie Foxx to play the first slave with a gun in a movie, who doesn’t start a revolution, right? Yeah, how’s that for Black History? I’m sure Nat Turner would be so proud.

In his monologue, Jamie most pleasurably jokingly mentioned that he kills all the white people in the movie. Now I’m no fan of Jamie Foxx, but even I — though I struggled — had to laugh because it was pretty funny. I mean, if you’re a slave with a gun in the 1850s, um, what else are you supposed to do? Exactly! It’s really a no brainer, right? But no, don’t tell that to Sean Hannity. Forever in search of the elusive Black Bogeyman, Hannity took offense and found Foxx to be racially offensive. Um, isn’t it hilariously funny how a host on Fox thinks that Foxx was racist.

JAMIE FOXX: My name is Jamie Foxx. Give it up, give it up, New York City, Saturday Night Live. Come on, make some noise, man. New York City, New York City, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, it’s crazy. I’m black, and I’m dressed all black cause it’s good to be black. Black is the new white. I’m telling you, how black is this right here? Nice fly, I’m saying. You know how I know black is in right now? Cause the Nets moved to Brooklyn. How black is that? They got black jerseys, black court. I mean, how black is that? And Jay-z is the owner, a rapper. How black is that? And Jay-z only own about this much of the team. But he act like he own all of New York. How black is that?

And I got a movie coming out, “Django,” check it out. Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson. “Django Unchained” I play a slave. How black is that? And in the movie I had to wear chains. How whack is that? But don’t be worried about it because I get out the chains, I get free, I save my wife, and I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that? And how black is that?

And of course, Hannity found two not-so-unchained folks to have a discussion:

How does it help race relations in this country when a black actor jokes on national television about killing white people?

One has to believe that his opening monologue was approved by SNL’s writers, meaning they were in on it.

Imagine the uproar if a white actor joked about killing all the black people in a new film he was starring in.

That would probably be the end of his career.

By contrast, for Foxx, this will probably win him another Oscar.

It’s a grave new world isn’t it?

Yes, it is a “grave new world,” indeed; but, obviously not much has changed since there’s a black family living in the White House. The truth is that neither Sheppard nor Hannity are interested in helping race relations in this country. If anything, what we’ve seen for the last four years especially, is that black is not the new white as Jamie Foxx suggested. But that may be my penchant for the tragicomic coupled with my ever-present Negro cynicism coming through. Forgive my pessimism, but when I look at the right-wing’s new black fetish, and how they rarely miss any opportunity to demonize people of color. Let’s just say that though it has been four years, I’m not feeling very post-racial. Case in point, check out the following video. Maybe it’s me, but the obvious appeal to the racial sensitivities of “certain people” in America, is blatantly obvious.

Yep, whether in movies or real life, black folks have done a lot of things in America since slavery. Hell, we’ve even been to space for crying out loud. That said, is it too hard to imagine or accept that we’re at a place in history where a black person can simultaneously be president of the United States, while another one uses a gun to “kill all the White people,” in a movie? Or is that, like truth, too much too fast for some to accept? Sorry, but the days of Blazing Saddles are long gone.

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So some right-wing idiot just hit me up and said, “Rosie Perez is an ‘illegal’ and should be deported,” in response to the following campaign ad. Yeah, of course he was white. I mean, what else would you expect? Much like the anti-immigrant crowd, to them, by Rosie being a person of color with an accent, she’s “an illegal.” Don’t believe me? Well, take it from me; I’m black, and I’m also an immigrant. And quite naturally, in right-wing world, this means I’m too lazy to steal a job from myself; yes, and like Rosie, I too have a funny accent. Which is funny because without seeing me, my government name would have you assuming that I was quite possibly a recovering Irish-Catholic drunk — at least that’s what a nun in Catholic school once told me when I was seven-years-old.

But anywhichaways, check out the following ad put together by Actually.org. In their first ad of this election cycle, Rosie obliterates Mitt Romney for jokingly stating that his life would be better if he was Latino, and not the wealthy and successful privileged white man that he was cursed to be.

Oh, and by the way, Rosie Perez was born in Brooklyn.

The post Rosie Perez Blasts Mitt Romney’s “Latino Joke” in SuperPAC Campaign Ad appeared first on Madness & Reality.

So, did you catch Bill Clinton’s speech at the DNC last night? Yeah, I know, he totally destroyed not only Mitt Romney’s campaign; he also basically shitted on the GOP as we know them to be today as well. No need for me to rehash anything he said. Why? Because most of what he said (if not all of it) has been the same shit I’ve been writing about daily on this site. Yep, just like Clinton, I bring you the wonk shit with in such a simplistic manner for your consumption. And why do I do it? Because the GOP as we know it are a bunch of liars; and, they’ve kicked the lies into overdrive because our president has a melanin affliction. Not that they’ve never lied previously; but hey, lemme get back to the pint of this post.

So yeah, it would appear that world-renowned bad-ass, Chuck Norris, is afraid of the dark. Amazing, right? I mean, who knew? Chuck Norris has been kicking ass since I was a kid in the 70s (shit, I even used to have his poster on my bedroom wall). But now that he’s old and decrepit hung up his Texas Ranger badge, he’s taking an interest in politics (I guess he’s bored hocking that Total Fitness Gym crap). But hey, with D-List celebrities like Hank Williams Jr., Ted Nugent, and Clint Eastwood being in the tank for Romney, ol’ Mr. Hairy Chest may feel a little left out.

This from the Huffington Post:

Chuck Norris has offered a dire warning to America, claiming that U.S. citizens face “1,000 years of darkness” is [sic] President Obama is reelected for a second term in November.

In a two-minute video posted on his official YouTube channel, which also includes work-out tutorials and promotional appearances for “The Expendables 2,” Norris and his wife Gena warn of the “growing concern” that the America we know can be lost forever if Obama is reelected.

“If we look to history, our great country and freedom are under attack,” Norris says. “We’re at a tipping point and, quite possibly, our country as we know it may be lost forever if we don’t change the course in which our country is headed.”

Watch the video below:

Sounds crazy? Yes. But please believe, somebody is believing this crap. Now as a parent of a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old this type of fear-mongering scares me. Why? Well, remember when “certain people” started purchasing guns across America in record numbers? Yeah, word on the street was that Pres. Obama was going to take away everybody’s gun and the right to bear arms which obviously gives black people the advantage when the race war starts because all the guns they own are illegal anyway. Well, as a parent of two very young children — one of whom who is afraid to sleep in the dark like Chuck Norris — the last thing IO need is for “certain people” to start purchasing every single night-light they can get their hands on out of fear. Should that happen, it may be 1,000 years before my wife and I are able have sex, again because of the kid sleeping in our bed between us. Shit, we’ve got it bad enough; Lord knows we don’t need a shortage of night-lights.

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If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Sideshow Bob was arrested for shooting up a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado last week. Either that or that Carrot Top finally erupted in a fit of ‘roid rage after all of these years. Let’s be honest, alleged movie theater shooter James Holmes doesn’t look the part of a thug or a brilliant criminal genius; yep, he’s definitely not as intimidating as Lex Luthor. Scary looking, but not intimidating.

Maybe you’ve noticed, but I haven’t said a single word about the Colorado massacre, which saw fifty-eight people shot, and twelve people dead at the hands of one, James Holmes. Here we are about a week later, and I’m finally ready to address or even mention it in passing. Why did I wait this long? Because, to be honest, I’ve been disgusted by the media coverage and subsequent debate over gun control that it has sparked. Yes, to borrow a line from my man Corey Booker, it’s been “nauseating.” And why do I say that about only the largest mass shooting in American history? Because there’s something troubling about everyday gun violence in major US cities being ignored, and having the actions of one person create such outrage, and even a call for stiffer gun control legislation.

I know, what I say sounds silly and maybe even crass to some; yes, and maybe it’s too soon to speak this way while everyone is in mourning. But the truth remains: more people are shot and killed on average within a twenty-four hour period in major cities than the number of persons upon whom Holmes inflicted his sick and twisted will. But hey, I suppose last week’s shooting in Aurora is reminiscent of the days when crack cocaine hit the suburbs: it was never a problem until “certain people” started abusing said illegal narcotic.

Check out the following discussion:

Shamecca Davis hugs her son Isaiah Bow, who was an eye witness to the shooting, outside Gateway High School where witness were brought for questioning Friday, July 20, 2012 in Denver. After leaving the theater Bow went back in to find his girlfriend. " I didn't want to leave her in there. But she's ok now," Bow said. A gunman wearing a gas mask set off an unknown gas and fired into a crowded movie theater at a midnight opening of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises," killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 50 others, authorities said. (AP Photo/Barry Gutierrez)

But like my man Ice Cube said in the 1991 classic film, Boyz In The Hood, “Either they don’t know, don’t show, or even care what’s goin’ on in the hood.” Which is ironic in itself because I can remember when that movie was released, there were a slew of shootings and violence at movie theaters all across the country as urban youth gathered to partake of the latest in ghetto cinematography. The funny thing then like now? Nobody blamed those shootings assault weapons, called for gun control; instead, they blamed it on Hip Hop and melanin. This week, Batman was never once blamed for James Holmes’ decision to play target practice in a darkened movie theater. Which in itself is peculiar especially when you consider that more people died in the Batman movie (as they do in violent films) than the number of people killed at its midnight showing on that fateful night in question.

SIDENOTE: The following is what I think to be the best commentary on the subject:

“For every Columbine or Virginia Tech, there are dozens gunned down on the streets of Chicago and Atlanta, and here in New Orléans. For every Tucson or Aurora, there is daily heartbreak over young Americans shot in Milwaukee or Cleveland. Violence plagues the biggest cities, but it also plagues the smallest towns. It claims the lives of Americans of different ages and different races, and it’s tied together by the fact that these young people had dreams and had futures that were cut tragically short.” – President Barack Obama

There’s an obvious disconnect when it comes to violence in America. As a nation we mourn the tragic loss of twelve lives in Aurora, Colorado last week. And we do this while ignoring the hundreds of thousands of lives negatively impacted by the presence of US soldiers with automatic weapons in foreign countries. We mourn the loss of life in Aurora while ignoring the loss of life inflicted on many in small villages in far away places by military drone strikes. Just once, I wish we coul;d be reminded in some small way, that we live in a violent nation and are all accomplices in state sanction violence ourselves, when we fail to speak up and out about it. When we ignore this reality, we become inhuman and just as sadistic as the James Holmes’ of the world even without pulling a trigger ourselves. But sadly, when it doesn’t happen on our block, it never happens.

Finally, allow me to make this last point. In no way should we trivialize such a traumatic event and loss of life as a result of last week’s horrific theater shooting out in Aurora, Colorado. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t share some of my observations from the past week. Maybe it’s just me, but things are pretty different when white people kill. Relative to when black folks or a person of color does it; things tend to play out differently One thing I know, is that white guys won’t have to worry about being looked at suspiciously as they enter movie theaters from here on out no matter the color of their hair — not in the same way as brown-skinned people with funny names who travel on airplanes; or like the black guy who “forces” white folks to cross the street and clutch their purses in fear; the same black guy who might be “brilliant” and on his way to earning a PhD as James Holmes was.

That much, I know…

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So actor Morgan Freman said that Pres. Obama isn’t America’s first black president. And now that scientist have found the God Particle, which has completely killed the notion of God looking anything Yoda or a black guy who wears white outfits. I suppose Morgan Freeman is frustrated.

Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors. Not exactly a renowned rabble rouser as far as the industry goes, trust me, he’s the epitome of what many of us consider to be a :safe negro. And how safe is he exactly? Well, let’s just say that more white folks would vote for him in 2012 than they would Barack Obama Ironically, in his latest movie The Magic of Belle Isle, Freeman plays a struggling writer who fight the demons of alcoholism. In a recent interview with NPR’s Michele Martin on Tell Me More, Freeman made an interesting comment when asked about the historical impact of the election of America’s black president. Freeman, an Obama supporter said the following:

“First thing that always pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier for him … they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white — very white American, Kansas, middle of America,” Freeman said. “There was no argument about who he is or what he is. America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet. He’s not America’s first black president — he’s America’s first mixed-race president.”

At first I wanted to give him credit for his statement. I figured he was taken out of context; but when I actually listened to the interview, it was quite clear that he meant what he said the way he intended and is being interpreted. And how so? Because in the very same interview he jokingly mentioned that he mentioned to Bill Clinton that he was America’s first black president.

Freeman also mentioned in the interview that he once had a drinking problem. Well, my guess is that he still has that problem because he’s obviously hitting the bottle. But I respect Freeman; like I said, Freeman is one of my favorite actors of all time. And of course there’s a certain God-like quality to him which reminds us of the inerrancy of the Bible. But with all that aside, I’m just going to go on record and say that Freeman’s position is one that gives rise to a certain mindset that exists in America today. It’s the mindset shared by many who take no pride in validating the symbolism that is an Obama presidency. Which is quite peculiar considering Obama being the first president to have his citizenship questioned and debated publicly in a court of law as it has.

The question I have for Freeman and others who think like him, however: Since Barack Obama is half white and not the first black president, is America only racist by half? Surely we all know the answer to that question given the flawed media-driven post-racial narrative. But as much as I love Freeman, I’m going to give him a pass by saying: Barack Obama is black; and you’re not really God, Morgan; oh yeah, and sit’cho ass down. Like one of my friends on Twitter said: clearly, Morgan Freeman has officially entered his cranky crazy old black man stage of his life.

I’m sorry, but Obama’s mother being white means nothing; it gets no “blacker” than a sperm deposit directly from Kenya that didn’t have to travel here via the Middle Passage. Come to think of it, that’s probably why they hate him more; his daddy was one of the ones who got away; but that’s just me.

CLICK TO LISTEN HERE

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When thinking down the line of Hollywood actresses of color who’ve made an indelible impact on current films, Michelle Rodriguez probably doesn’t register on anybody’s radar; at least not enough so, that she’d be recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. So when Vulture caught up with the actress at an amfAR event at Cannes this past week, the actress had just come from a screening of the controversial Lee Daniels directed film, The Paperboy– (which has been garnering unfavorable reviews by critics) — and expressed her appreciation for the film…

“I say fuck them because they don’t get it”, the actress opined. “He’s so good at keeping me entertained. When I don’t like the dialogue, I’m amused by the visuals. And when I don’t like the visuals, I’m amused by the dialogue. It’s always switching up senses. I’m intrigued by his ability to capture me in a theater. It’s not easy to capture me in a theater — I’m ADD like that.”

When prodded about a scene in which Nicole Kidman apparently pees on actor Zac Efron  to soothe a jellyfish sting, Michelle waxed philosophical about the politics surrounding Black actresses and actors who’ve been nominated for and/or won film awards…

“I fucking loved it. One of my friends said, ‘She’s going to get nominated for an Oscar for that.’ I was like, ‘Nah, man. She’s not black!’ I laugh, but it’s also very sad. It makes me want to cry. But I really believe. You have to be trashy and black to get nominated. You can’t just be trashy.”  (Source)

It didn’t take long for Michelle’s public gaffe to start circulating those Black pockets of the social media realm.  Re-tweeted and re-posted on Twitter and Facebook, Black bloggers and pop-culture critics were not amused and immediately took offense; but doesn’t Michelle Rodriguez present a very good point about the worth of Black actors and actresses (or anyone in that industry, of color)  in Hollywood? As a woman of color, navigating the landscape of the Hollywood machine, Michelle herself has been typecast since making her debut in Girlfight, whether she’d be inclined to agree with that very obvious point or not, so on some level perhaps she speaks a very honest (albeit it an unfiltered and somewhat tactless) truth.

Consider some of the voices of displeasure when Octavia Spencer nabbed an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role (playing a sassy domestic) in The Help. And most of us couldn’t even fathom Viola Davis emphatically defending having played a maid in the same movie.  Some of our sistren and brethren still harbor the bitter aftertaste Halle Berry’s 2002 Oscar win  for her turn in Monster’s Ball left in our mouths… the same evening Denzel  won for playing a corrupt and unscrupulous police officer in Training Day, to which he quipped, “Two birds in one night, huh?” during his acceptance speech. Box office numbers for movies that are  rife with racial and/or ethnic stereotypes don’t lie… because ofttimes, we’re the ones rushing out to the theaters to see them. We aren’t running out in droves to see highly nuanced and thought-provoking films about us, written and directed by us.

Michelle Rodriguez

In a sometimes tense Black social media sphere, where certain ones us hurl accusatory epithets like Mammy, Ghetto Queen,  Sapphire and thug towards entertainers who portray such roles, directors (both Black and non-Black, who help steer actors in those roles), and towards everyday people who don’t convey modes of behavior befitting the ideals and expectations of an upwardly mobile person of color; I get and understand the exasperation and desire to see better images of ourselves on the big screen and to see better behavior modeled by some folks in our community.  So in essence, isn’t Michelle Rodriguez mimicking a truth we often voice out loud about ourselves?  One commenter who actually agreed with Michelle’s assessment, wrote on Facebook…

The “black and trashy” are the most recognized and talked about which tends to silence all the valuing nominations into the backdrop or a footnote. What she speaks of are not absolutes but are of the most resonating nominations.”

What say you? Is Michelle Rodriguez’s comment about rewards for “Black and Trashy” roles a dig at Black actors or a critique of Hollywood’s perpetuation of racial stereotypes?

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