what a woman who could have joined the D.A.R. has learned about the socially-constructed, political notion of "race" by just paying attention and NOT keeping her mouth shut...
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Just A Quickie Mention...
I'm working on a post that should be up by noon today, but want to steer you in the direction of a post by Eric on his frustration about holding African-Americans responsible for reflecting the overall culture in the U.S. as if it was all about them. Maybe I've just missed it, but the discussions involving Bill Cosby and Juan Williams, et al, always seems to revolve around whether or not they're right, rather than why their comments focus only on Black folks to the exclusion of the broader consideration. Go, Eric!
i was thinking about this after watching the movie- step up- yesterday with my friend and her children. simple premise- urban ghetto kid meets up with rich caucasian girl and dances. weird take on west side story and dirty dancing. what struck me was the fact it was a european foster kid who hung out with african american kids who got in trouble for trashing a school of the arts. the ea kid dances and acts like the aa kids but he is the featured one in the movie. so- let's put a 'white' kid in the lead role and the 'black' kids in the buddy role to sell more tickets. i have always found it strange that the ea kids hijacked rap and clothing styles and ways of talking etc- from the aa kids. mainly because it was born out of an oppressed culture of the majority's making. i guess that the same things happened with jazz, blues and rock and roll. it is hard for me to wrap my mind around. so- the ea kid ends up being able to go to the school of arts and the aa kid's brother gets killed for stealing a gang member's car. i will let it stand for itself. i would tell you to see the movie but the acting wasn't that great.
ReplyDeleteThe saddest part about this "script" is that stories not unlike this in many ways play themselves out in real life daily in the U.S. And worse, all kinds of European-American movie-goers will watch this and find it "inspiring" while the African-Americans watching have their feelings of hopelessness reinforced...
ReplyDeleteThanks Changeseeker, I was trying to assert that what African- AMericans are going through is an America dilemmia mass consumption of everything in it's path and Broken Promises and dreams from the poorest of it's citizens. Seeing life through the eyes of the "Idiot box" has been bad for people of all races and we can thank Rupert Murdock for that. By showing every aspect of 'reality telvision', we have perverted the very meaning of citizenship by saying you do not have to sacrifice anything for your fellow man and greed is good. In many ways they are "Reagan Children" a direct perversion of the "tune out " rhetoric of the 60's.
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