Diary of an Anxious Black Woman

Moving Yet Sloppy Portrayal of a Harlem Girl: My Review of Precious (Spoilers)

2009-11-29T08:26:00.005-05:00

I have a problem with sloppy directors, and to me, Lee Daniels is one of them. Take the opening voice-over lines uttered by our titular character, Precious (played by Gabourey Sidibe in a spectacular acting debut):

"I wish I had a light-skinned boyfriend. I wish I was in a BET music video."

Sigh. Why do I call this sloppy? We're given the story timeline - "Harlem 1987" - and as someone who grew up not far from Harlem (the Bronx, where I was attending one of New York City's problem inner city junior high schools before I entered one of the specialized high schools in the area that was destined to put me on the college track since I proved I had the smarts), I expect a filmmaker to pay attention to historical details since there are enough people in his audience that could correct him on this (like myself). In 1987, my friends and I knew nothing about BET because most of us in the inner city didn't have cable access, or if we did, our cable may not have carried the BET channel. Which basically meant that BET was not on our cultural conscious. And it certainly would not have been on the conscious of a poor Harlem girl living on welfare!

More to the point: in 1987, hip hop was fast shaping the vocabulary of our New York City youth culture before the world started listening. We were jamming hard to Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, LL Cool J, Run DMC, and were truly excited, as women, at the recent entrance of Salt-n-Pepa. And all these artists mostly came directly to us from the radio, boom boxes, and our personal walkman. Outside of hip hop, we were excited by Janet Jackson's music from her Control album, and Whitney was all over the place.

You know, if you're going to represent a period, get your popular culture references right!

But, Lee Daniels, growing up as a gay black man in Philadelphia, doesn't seem invested in doing his homework. When we get references to 1987, we get the sensibilities of someone who does not know New York and relies on a lazy representation of what inner-city black life looks like (if ever there was a time I wish Spike Lee was at the helm, this was it, because whatever gender issues he has, he would have gotten 1987 Harlem down pat!) and, more specifically, we get his gay sensibilities when he peppers his soundtrack with a whole lotta house music. His idea of 1987 Harlem is a Gay Ball, which we get elements of in the many fantasies Precious uses to escape her harsh realities (in short, in her fantasies, Precious is doing some serious "vogueing").

It's not that I have a problem with Daniels introducing his own personal elements, but in the process, we don't get a centralized black female sensibility that shapes this narrative, and that, to me, is a problem. What Kasi Lemmons or Julie Dash or Gina Prince-Bythewood (the director behind Love and Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees) would have done with this story gives me chills just imagining a different movie.

Here's another element of sloppy directing. If any of you have seen Gaby Sidibe in interviews, we know the heavyset first-time actress is a warm, bubbly woman who is quite comfortable in her own skin. And there are several shots of her walking down the city streets looking large and looking like a force to be reckoned with. No sexually harassing man is going to assault her, that's for sure, but this seemed quite out of character. Sidibe the actress walks with a confidence skinny girls just can't emulate (because their size makes them vulnerable on the streets), and yet, her character is someone who is severely abused and wishes she was someone else (there's a scene, an unnecessary one in my opinion because the whites in the audience either chuckled or expressed their pity, where she looks in the mirror and sees a slender blonde white female). One would not expect an abused girl like Precious to convey that kind of confidence; as such, I fault Daniels in not being consistent with his direction of Sidibe.

Since we were already subjected to Precious's many fantasies in which the glitz and glamour of the fantasy world contrasted with the dark dingy claustrophobic surroundings represented by her slum apartment, we already get the point: she wishes she were someone else. It's not necessary to drive this point home further with a "Bluest Eye" moment of a fat black girl wanting to be a skinny white girl - there might be some abused black girls who do have that fantasy, but there are just as many black girls who don't, and if the response from whites looking at the movie is: "See, they just all want to be like us," then politically, that's not really helpful, is it?

And honestly, there is something visually subversive in these fantasy scenes, in which the heavyset black woman, with her "fantasy" light-skinned boyfriend adoring her, the red carpet treatment, and glammed up appearance, gets the "beauty" treatment, and Sidibe looks gorgeous in these shots. Such scenes suggest that Precious has a vision for herself beyond poverty, miseducation, and abuse. Why undermine such visual shots with some random white girl appearing in her mirror? While my white moviegoing counterparts moaned or chuckled, I wanted to throw a brick at the screen! "Go away, you skinny white female! You are oppressing us with your presence!"

Finally, there is an element that I can only call Fatphobia, and I'm amazed very few people picked up on this. Probably because, as a culture, we are all fatphobic and, therefore, did not have a problem with the director's portrayal. Precious's weight is part of the abuse she suffers. In one scene, we see how her monstrous mother forces her to cook a deep-fried meal, and because it's not to her liking, she forces Precious to eat it all before cooking some more. Such scenes remind us of how her obesity stems from her oppressive home, but did we need that reinforced with another "unnecessary" scene in which Precious goes to a corner Soul Food shop (which is a regular thing in Philadelphia but not necessarily represented in Harlem - sorry, but I'm going to go there again: Daniels gets the culture wrong!). There, she steals a whole bucket of fried chicken and proceeds to run down the streets and chow down, greasy face and all.

There is such an aversion to food in this movie, what with the close-ups on pork, grease, and sizzling oil, that it started feeling less like a commentary on how Precious turns to food and deliberately gains weight, as some abused girls do, to regain control of their own body and more of a food pathology and condemnation of the "soul food" lifestyle. Again, here is yet another element of anachronism. I can tell you that, in 1987, there was no obesity epidemic, we all ate at MacDonalds without the stigma, and teenaged girls in the inner city had no clue what "organic food" means (yes, this was in one of the dialogues). Black people were eating soul food long before there was an obesity epidemic, so that means that, if there is a health issue to worry about, concerning our food and our weight, then the issues are about "access" to healthy foods and what has transformed in the food industry in the past 20 years, in which more genetic engineering in food has taken place.

Meanwhile, we get close ups of deep fried chicken, pork, and pig's feet (I'm sorry, but this is 1987 inner-city Harlem, not rural Georgia! Where the heck would Precious's family be able to find pig's feet and pork at a corner grocery and on food stamps no less? Even if they wanted to eat like "welfare queens," as the culture imagined them living, they certainly don't have the means to do so).

And yet, we never get that sense of poverty and struggle. For all the focus on food, we don't ever get to see Precious trying to shop for food on food stamps. That one scene alone would have conveyed how difficult it would have been to find healthy food in a poor minority neighborhood (we may also have gotten a helpful shot of the crack epidemic that was rampant in 1987), added to the problem of her abuse situation at home.

But we don't get context (and how can we when the director is sloppy in creating context?), so we just have a holed up situation in which Precious must contend with a mentally ill mother (talk about a health issue that Daniels could have shed light on but didn't).

As you can see, I've got tons of criticism. And I haven't even touched on the light skin vs. dark skin debate. However, I did like Precious's teacher, Blu Rain (played by the light-skinned, relaxed haired Paula Patton, although the novel specifically described this character as a dark-skinned dreadlocked woman), and as an educator myself, I do appreciate realistic portrayals of how teachers can make a difference in a young girl's life, and Paula Patton does a convincing job here. I especially appreciated the light-hearted moments of the classroom, where Precious finds friends.

In particular, there is this ongoing back-and-forth letter-writing occurring between Precious (who finally learns to read and write - an important point of the novel since Precious is able to write her own story), in which Ms. Rain tries to convince Precious to give up her second child for adoption since she won't have a viable future a a teen age mom, and Precious bonding with her newborn: is the "Teen Mom" epidemic the problem or the fact that our society does not provide social structures that should not impede on a woman's biology as she pursues education or a career? We'd rather condemn "welfare" and fail to ensure a "living wage." Not to mention the simple fact that Precious is a "Teen Mom," not because she's an "irresponsible," "hormone-driven" girl, but because she's an incest survivor.

By the time our heroine deals with the next hurdle - she finds out she's HIV positive - we finally get her breakdown. "Why Me?" she writes in her journal. "I've never even had a boyfriend!" she wails, and here she is, being stigmatized with a death sentence (this is 1987). In these ways, the film becomes much more nuanced, as it does ask all of us, who love to stigmatize those with HIV, those who are overweight, those who are unwed teenaged mothers, to really take a look at their lives. It also confronts us with our easy stereotyping and condemnation. Mary Jo, Precious's mother, specifically tells Mariah Carey's caseworker, "You sit there and judge me, writing all your notes, but what you know about what I'm going through?"

I'm inclined to think that monologue was designed less for the caseworker and more for the rest of us who are often invited to sit in judgment at women like Precious and Mary Jo.

Overall, what saves this movie from being a failure are these effective performances. Mo'Nique does deserve her Oscar buzz hype, as she saves her character from turning into a one-dimensional caricature. The monologue at the end of the movie is worthy enough on its own to carry her to the podium Oscar night. There were moments in which I teared up, and so much of those affects are due in part to the strong performances. But, you see, Mo'Nique and Gaby Sidibe were aware that they were portraying human beings, not Mammy or the Circus Fat Girl. And to some extent, Daniels realizes this is the humane portrait he is giving us. I just wished he set aside his fatphobia long enough and had done his historical and cultural homework so that the seams don't show.

Precious has its moments and would have been a brilliant movie. A less sloppy director would have made it so.

The Oprah Winfrey Effect

2009-11-24T08:53:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, Whoopi Goldberg on The View had to calm down fans, who are already in mourning because of Oprah Winfrey's recent announcement that her show will come to an end in September 2011.

"Two years, folks," Whoopi quipped. "She's still on for two more years."

Meanwhile, Mark Anthony Neal offers this critique, "Post-Modern Mammy? The Oprah Legacy":

For much of her career, it was believed that Winfrey’s success was rooted in her ability to deftly cater to middle-class white women—a significant segment of her viewing audience. Given the popularity of her show—it’s been the highest rated program of its type for two decades—there was an expectation that Winfrey would weigh in more forcefully on issues that directly affected African-Americans. Though Winfrey played an important role in championing African-American fiction (with varying degrees of success), producing cinematic and television adaptations of works by Dorothy West (The Wedding), Toni Morrison (Beloved), Zora Neale Hurston (There Eyes Are watching God) and most recently Sapphire (Push/Precious), she eschewed taking public stances on issues that affected Black Americans, unless they intersected with those of her, arguably, more important white viewers.

Read in Full.

How Precious is Igniting Some Much Needed Conversations

2009-11-21T09:39:00.003-05:00

I was planning to see Precious this weekend, but a few of my friends have conflicts and want to wait to see it as a group next weekend. I've decided to wait next Saturday to see it in a group rather than see it by myself.

Anyway, here are some interesting articles and blog posts (when are the non-white incest survivors going to weigh in on this topic? I'd like to know how non-blacks, who have intimate experiences with the subject, respond to this movie? Does the movie give voice to their own pain, or does the blackness of the cast allow them to keep a distance and from empathy?)

Black Youth Project Blog:

I begin by asking the question, what if the movie Precious was not told from the point of view of Precious, but told from the point of view of Mary. I know many of you are scratching your heads asking, “Who’s Mary?” Well, Mary is Precious’ mother. I think it is important that we know the name of the woman who is “solely” responsible for making her daughter overweight, infecting her daughter with HIV, allowing her father to rape her, and forcing her to quit school to get welfare. Given all of this, I think it is important to know the name of Precious’ mother, Mary.

Read in Full.

Also on BYP:

Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry said Precious was awesome and that everyone should go see it. Since I am the most obedient of Negroes, I saw it last Friday. If Flavor Flav is the world’s greatest hype man, this duo is officially the world’s greatest hype machine. I found Precious slightly underwhelming, uninspiring, and lacking much of what makes the novel, Push by Sapphire, so powerful. Sorry, Ms. Winfrey. I had no “A-ha!” moment.

Read in Full.

To Blacks, Precious is "Demeaned" or "Angelic" (NY Times)

“A white artist can make a film about a family of 10 drug addicts, and the public sees it as a film about a family of 10 drug addicts, not 10 white drug addicts,” Mr. McCall said. “A black artist can make that film, too, but you have to be aware of the history.”

Read in Full.

"'Precious' Girls Without a Happy Ending (The Washington Post)

I cannot recall another opportunity raised by popular culture that invited us to thoughtfully address the largely hidden issues of incest, violence and girls at the margins. As the executive director of a national organization that works to raise awareness about and to reduce violence against vulnerable women and girls, I am moved and grateful that attention is finally being paid to our forgotten girls. But this movie is in many ways a fairy tale.

Read in Full.

Empire State of Mind Unplugged

2009-11-20T10:46:00.004-05:00

Update: Of course, it wasn't long before YouTube pulled the video (they are so lame!). I found another video at some Rap Basement site.

As a proud New Yorker, who used to turn up the volume in my car when Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" came on, while driving amidst the fall foliage on I 87, I'm really digging this stripped down version of the song:

So, Is the Military Too "PC," Or We'd Rather Just Demonize Arab Americans?

2009-11-19T00:49:00.003-05:00

As someone who is appalled by the Islamophobic coverage of the Fort Hood controversy (seriously, did we ever implicate an entire race or group when the lone gunman was a white man, or when the domestic terrorist was Timothy McVeigh?), I find this smart critique of the media coverage by Alia Malek in the Washington Post a worthwhile read:

Arab-American history is long and deep in the United States but Arab and Muslim Americans are not part of how we imagine who we are as Americans or how we perceive what makes up the American experience. Now, in the national discussion among commentators, politicians, and others in the aftermath of Ft. Hood, we can see the dangerous effects of Arab-American invisibility; in that vacuum, acts of a single individual, Major Hasan, cast a shadow of collective guilt on millions of Americans.
Timothy McVeigh warped the interpretations of the Constitution but we easily dismissed that without pondering whether there was inherent evil in the Constitution. The same cannot be said of how we view the relationship between the Koran and violent behavior - we unfairly blame individuals' horrific acts on the teachings of the Koran. We ignore needed discussion of evident mental health issues, which were the focus when other service people have cracked and murdered their colleagues, and instead engage in lazy analysis about ethnic predilection of violence.
How can we move the conversation forward? If we knew more about the soldiers mentioned above and other Arab Americans, if their stories were familiar to us, if the origins of their names recognizable to us, how would the conversation be different?

Read in Full.

Why Hasn't Precious Received The Color Purple Treatment?

2009-11-16T10:48:00.004-05:00

Here's a really insightful review by Salamishah Tillet, founder of A Long Walk Home, which uses art therapy to address violence against women, in an article in The Root, titled "The Color Precious." The movie is finally opening this coming weekend in my area, so I'm looking forward to doing my own evaluation.

The Color Precious

Lee Daniels’ second film, Precious, fared quite well last weekend. Despite its soft release in only 18 theaters, Precious pulled in a remarkable $1.8 million, suggesting that on average, each theater made $100,000 off its showing. Even my brazen attempt to see the film in Times Square on Sunday night resulted in my having to purchase a ticket for Monday morning, because all four of the remaining shows were sold out in Harlem and Union Square.

With its mostly positive critical reviews and its popularity among African-American audiences, Precious, for all appearances, has struck gold. In many ways, the cultural phenomenon that has become Precious harkens back to the financial success of The Color Purple, Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel of the same name. A year after its original release date, The Color Purple, which also boasted a strong openinghad made almost $100 million.

However, unlike the favorable reception that has greeted Precious, The Color Purple sparked great controversy about its negative portrayals of African-American families, and, in particular, African-American men. Given their explorations of the similar themes of incest, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy and colorism within the African-American community, why has Precious received so little backlash?

Read in Full.

Sesame Street Smarts

2009-11-08T22:42:00.006-05:00

Sesame Street, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, is such a staple in our culture. Nurturing us with our favorite muppets like Kermit the Frog and Big Bird (my favorites were Grover and Cookie Monster), teaching children diversity and multiracial, as well as multilingual, education, and bringing "head start" to urban children (hence its urban setting), this show has always been progressive. This week, First Lady Michelle Obama will make an appearance to promote healthy and organic food.

So, imagine my surprise to learn that the Fox News Network actually tried to make a "controversy" over an episode, which aired either last year or the year before, featuring Oscar the Grouch in his trash can offering a parody of news reporting. He's a reporter for GNN (Garbage News Network - get it?), and a viewer who is dissatisfied with his news show threatens to switch to Pox News (get it?). Except a number of folks over at Fox News (and their conservative supporters) didn't get the joke since they believe this was some form of "liberal" political indoctrination of our children. Hmmmm, sounds familiar? Isn't this the same accusation leveled against President Obama when he was speaking to school children?

I mean, I have to believe that this so-called "outrage" over Sesame Street is itself a parody of the way marginal groups have often complained about racist and sexist indoctrination occurring in children's shows. This has to be a joke. It just has to. Because, really, if this is not a joke, then we've got a bigger crisis on our hands than the economy and H1N1. The "dumbing down" of America is a major, major pandemic.

Seriously. Anyone who has ever watched Sesame Street (and after 40 years that's a whole lot of us) should know that, when Oscar the Grouch and his fellow grouchies call anything "trashy" or vile or ruinous, that's supposed to be a good thing. They wallow in trash, and this parody was an equal opportunity pun on the news media. Shouldn't CNN also be offended that they were likened to a "Garbage News Network"? And what about Walter Kranky and Dan Rather-Not (BWAHAHA! You gotta love Sesame Street for being able to appeal to the grown ups while entertaining the kids with muppets)?

In short, where is our sense of humor? Where did our basic understanding of puns and parody and the fun play on words (which has always been a staple of Sesame Street programming) go? Are certain segments of the American population so dumbfounded at having the Obamas in the White House that they have lost all their senses (including their sense of humor)? Or, has our education system failed so miserably that an extension of that education, via a children's TV show, is now too "complex" for a regular TV viewer's understanding?

Scary stuff, I tell you. But, in the mean time, I want to commend Sesame Street for keeping up the good fight in sustaining popular education and especially public television for persevering with a vision of education as fun and fun as education.

Now, if only certain adults would lighten up, or just go back to school and learn some basic skills.

The Impossibility of Representation: The Spectacle of the Abused Black Woman

2009-11-07T12:36:00.010-05:00

How do you represent black women's pain? I mean, really represent it? How do you represent it as something that someone else can empathize with (not just non-blacks and men but black women ourselves)? You see, for so long our "pain," our abuse, has been so distorted, so stereotyped, that any representation becomes problematic.

I'm thinking of Rhianna's recent sit-down interview on 20/20 last night with Diane Sawyer. She was so self-conscious, very much on the defensive (from the Sharon Stonesque Basic Instinct posture to the furrowed brow that indicated she was ready to mask herself. It was self exposure but a very guarded one. And who can blame her?

Perhaps her most "authentic" moment was when she described the humiliation of seeing the photo of her battered face, first released by the trashy gossip site, TMZ, all over the Internet and on TV. It was evident, actually, that this moment - even more than what Chris Brown subjected her to - is the one thing she's still traumatized over.

And we wonder why her more recent images incorporate so much darkness and S&M spectacle. Tell me if those images (the cover for her single "Russion Roulette" and her "Rated R" album) are not a performative attempt to reclaim her image and flip the script of the "abused black woman" as one who gains power through the spectacle of violence?

"I am strong," she insisted to an incredulous Diane Sawyer, who had the audacity to treat Rhianna as some pathological freak and not the very typical woman who represents yet another statistic crossing all races, ethnicities,

nationalities, and socio-economic levels when it comes to domestic violence. No. Being black means to not be representative, to in fact be a contrasting mirror that we safely hold up to and say triumphantly, "At least that's not me!"

And that black women ourselves do this suggests that we too have forgotten what we look like. Beneath the barbed wire and eye patch is yet another black woman learning to wear the "mask." It's for our own protection. We must be "strong women," lest our scars and bruises get magnified and turned into a "lesson" for the rest of the world to treat as some sociological tract on why it is black people are so screwed up when compared to the rest of the world. At least that's what the "representation" wants to tells us.

It is with this reality of the problem of our representation, or rather, the "impossibility" of our representation, that I'm reading various reviews of the independent film, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. Sadly, this film is not yet released in my area, so I can only go by reviews so far, and I'm getting some interesting news on this end. There are those calling it "poverty porn," another accusing it of reinforced stereotype - especially concerning the mother - and I believe Armond White (who's always negative and who I don't pay much attention to since he likes Norbit) actually called it "Up from Incest, Child Abuse, Teenage Pregnancy, Poverty, and AIDS." Or more specifically, "Flashbacks to Precious' rape contain a curious montage of grease, sweat, bacon, and Vaseline. Later, (the director Lee Daniels, he of Monster's Ball fame) intercuts a shot of pig's feet cooking on a stove with Precious being humped while her mother watches from a corner." Of course, I will have to see the movie for myself, but the idea that an obese black woman's sexual and physical abuse could be reduced to this iconography of urban black ghetto paraphernalia is disturbing. (But then, I found Sapphire's novel Push equally disturbing, considering the ways she clumsily tried to recreate Alice Walker's The Color Purple or Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and instead came up with some horrendous book version of one of Kara Walker's grotesque silhouettes; curious too that both Push and Kara Walker are beloved by progressive whites who are fascinated by the "black experience").

Unlike Armond White, I'm not disturbed about the subject matter. We don't get enough of these stories to begin with. What I'm disturbed by is the spectacle of the Abused Black Woman who is reduced to spectacle and nothing more. Where is the compassion for her pain? If her representation can do that, then I won't be complaining about one-dimensional or overly prescribed images of our pain and suffering.

It's a fine line. For example, I'm constantly debating with a good friend the merits of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. I love that novel, and it's perhaps Morrison's greatest writing outside of Beloved. But, my friend hates that novel with a passion (and Morrison by extension) because, when attending predominately white schools, the teaching of The Bluest Eye was always in the context of using this work of fiction as some sort of sociological thesis on the modern black family. I would argue back that it's not the author's fault if certain audiences want to take from our fictional works some kind of "authentic" interpretation of black women's lives. It's simply a response to their own "white guilt" for having never lived in integrated neighborhoods and communities where their own encounters with black folk could help figure out the difference between "fantasy" and "reality" of the black experience.

Either way, once my friend revealed the problem of treating black representations through the veneer of "authenticity," I began to realize what Toni Morrison started doing in the wake of her first novel. After The Bluest Eye, her subsequent novels began to get more and more fantastical, incorporating elements of magical realism, with characters who were so extraordinary, sublime and out-of-this-world (literally in the case of Beloved) that I realized, Of course! She's trying to make sure some ignorant non-black reader doesn't read her novel and think this is some "authentic" depiction of black life in America. I mean, once you start reading about black women born with no navels, and black men who can literally fly like birds, and talking trees and demented rivers, you really need to give up on the idea of reading fiction to learn the sociology of the black experience!

The same applies to cinema, and already, I'm reading online various debates in response to Precious about whether or not this is an "authentic" portrayal of urban ghetto life. Why are we invested in "authenticity" when it comes to the representation of black women's pain and suffering? Why do we need to know if this is "real" or not? It's just a movie. It's just a novel. Or is it?

See, when we have real life occurrences of black women abuse victims, we either ignore them or we immediately assume they're lying. So what exactly are we looking for when we insist that certain representations of black women's victimization are "real"?

The way I see it, our society has yet to fully embrace us as human beings. Somehow, our blackness, our gender differences get in the way. And until our full humanity can be recognized, it will continue to be "impossible" to represent our stories and our lives. Until then, we will have to treat every new image that comes out in cinema or music or literature as suspect, no matter how well meaning they are.

Moreover, maybe we should all go grab our Rhianna eye patches to cover up what we don't want to see or to remind everyone else that we'll continue to wear our masks until you're ready to look at our faces underneath.

Stereotypes Reinforced in Precious?

2009-11-05T19:12:00.003-05:00

Here's a review about the new film, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, which seems to think so. It's titled "The Black Matriarch as Villain," by Juell Stewart, in Color Lines:

There has already been considerable Oscar buzz surrounding both Mo’Nique and Sidibe, and the film has received numerous accolades, including the Grand Jury Prize for the Dramatic category at Sundance and the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The actors and director Lee Daniels deserve the praise they’ve received for making such a powerful movie.
But beneath the film was something that I found to be problematic: a reliance on the villainization of Black matriarch—rather than a mention of systemic race issues—to make the larger message of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” more palatable.
This is a problematic image to see in white media, but it’s even more disheartening to see in examples of Black media. What’s so problematic about Mary is that the woman is made into a monster with no redeemable qualities—a decision that isn’t only lazy on behalf of the filmmakers, but also wholly irresponsible to the African-American community.
But director Lee Daniels makes the critical mistake of ignoring the social and political reality that his characters inhabit. Besides a title card in the beginning of the film and some outdated hairstyles, we as the audience see little of the forces that compel Mary’s actions. To ignore 1987 Harlem as the foundation for the permanent Black underclass created by the Reagan Administration through its abhorrent social reform policies—including the War on Drugs and welfare reform—is to ignore a crucial aspect of his characters’ lives.

Read Review in Full.

Pictured: Mo'Nique as the villainous "Black Matriarch."

How the People Became Color Blind and We Came to America: A Multimedia Art Perspective by Faith Ringgold

2009-11-03T13:57:00.003-05:00

This is too precious: View Here.

Michael Moore's Best Movie Yet: Capitalism: A Love Story

2009-10-05T07:18:00.002-04:00

When I get more time in the midst of a super busy week, I need to offer a full review of a definite "must see" movie:

So, It's All About Hair Again, Is It?

2009-10-03T01:52:00.003-04:00

First, there was the Tyra Banks' "real hair" spectacle. Now, Chris Rock has a new movie coming out on "Good Hair." Here's a clip from Oprah's show from earlier this week:

Here's the official trailer for Good Hair (I'm curious to go see this, actually, because the motivation behind Chris Rock's interest in doing this film stemmed from his concern as a father that his little daughters, whom he reassures that they are beautiful, are already understanding the difference between their own hair and "good hair"):

Is the Beating Death of Derrion Albert Must-See TV?

2009-09-30T22:08:00.005-04:00

Check out this commentary from the Root:

I winced when I saw the wooden railroad plank being smacked against Derrion Albert’s head. My stomach turned when I saw the five other young black men stomp on Albert. By the end, my eyes welled up with tears when I realized what I saw: A 16-year-old child beat to death. No doubt it was difficult for me to get through the entire 2:27 of footage, even with parts blurred out, and I’m sure it will be difficult for others to watch as well, but the fact remains: We need to watch. We need to watch and not turn away because as history has taught us, it’s the only way we’re going to learn.
Back in the 1960s, we only needed to see footage of black protesters being beaten, hosed down and attacked by police dogs once to understand how bad racism was down South.
Back in 1992, we only needed to see the video of Rodney King getting beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department once to understand the boys in blue aren’t always on the right side of the law, even if a judge says otherwise.
Now, in 2009, many of us need to see the video of 16-year-old Derrion Albert being beat to death at least once to understand it’s no longer just the police and white people of whom we need to be afraid. It’s also each other.

Read in Full.

The Future of Music

2009-09-24T10:17:00.001-04:00

Here is an interesting documentary featured on Hulu: Before the Music Dies

Post-Racial America, or Neo-Reconstruction?

2009-09-20T12:18:00.004-04:00

In light of the recent hate crime incident at the Cracker Barrel in Georgia, coupled with the "circling of the wagon" that had occurred in D.C. on September 12, here's a disturbing report on the rise of Militia Groups (called "The Second Wave") from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Fall 2009 Intelligence Report.

And for those of you unsure about what I'm referring to, check out this site on Reconstruction: The Second Civil War.

More "Lost Girls" Films: Fall Movie Preview at the Toronto Film Festival

2009-09-18T15:31:00.006-04:00

TORONTO (Reuters) – Three hard-edged movies about young women screening this week at the Toronto film festival depart from Hollywood formulas by avoiding sentimental or romantic cliches that often define movies about teenagers.

The films, which range from a small-budget debut from a Newfoundland director to the directorial debut of British actress Samantha Morton, tell stories of abused or abandoned girls struggling to come to terms with their traumatic pasts.

While there is some lightness and hope in them, the emotions behind these movies are raw and sometimes harrowing. They are far removed from the safety of the industry mainstream dominated by stories about young love or teen angst. As is often the case with Toronto International Film Festival fare, they will likely play in art house theaters this coming year.

Read in Full.

No Borders, No Homes

2009-09-18T08:13:00.003-04:00

Here are some useful consciousness-raising projects that won't be getting much coverage on your local news:

Awareness-Raising Video on Migrant Rights in the U.K.

Just a Bump in the Road, a one-woman, walk-across-America-thon to raise awareness of homelessness in this country.

Moderation Alert

2009-09-16T11:52:00.004-04:00

I hate it when random commenters have me resorting to name-calling. Just this past week, I've called someone a jackass, and today, a moron and idiot. All because they can't seem to disagree with my position without being insulting.

It seems since I've been on blog hiatus, the lowest common denominators have come out of the wood work. Which is why I felt compelled to call Kanye West out on his bad behavior. We've become such a rude and uncivil culture.

If I'm going to re-enter the blogosphere, it seems I need to put my comments on moderation, so please understand the need for this change. I've been enjoying the kind of open blog atmosphere since I started my blog back in 2007. Now, no more.

I'm sorry, but I will not let random strangers feel at ease hurling insults at me in public and resort to humiliation. If you disagree with my position, then do so in a way that is respectful. One can present an opposing viewpoint without behaving like a 12 year old. And even saying that is being ageist since I happen to know some very mature youth.

I will absolutely not tolerate crudity and boorish behavior, so I'm putting everyone on alert. From now on, when you comment, you will be on my moderation list.

Peace.

President Carter Speaks Out Against the Racism Leveled at President Obama

2009-09-16T07:25:00.004-04:00

Thank you, President Carter, for expressing many of our concerns. I'm actually grateful that someone, especially a former president, can call out the "Opposition" for what so many of us have seen as a worrying growth of rage and hostility that has taken on a racial tone.

Here is part of that interview with Brian Williams:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Just some personal context. President Carter is the first president that I can remember. Therefore, just on a sentimental level, I love President Carter for being the first leader I was in awe of. I was conceived around the time President Nixon ordered the Watergate break in, was born around the time the investigations against President Nixon intensified, was learning to walk by the time he resigned, and was still stumbling over my feet as much as President Ford. So, when I had full consciousness of the world about me, I learned that Jimmy Carter was my President. I was seven years old when I made my first trip to Washington, D.C. and was so eager to meet the president when we visited the White House (he was not there). I was quite disappointed. So, 20 years later, when I finally met President Carter in person, I instantly became that seven-year-old girl in awe of Mr. President, in the way only children can be in awe of their leaders. Fascinating, because I know I wouldn't have had the same awe if I had met any other former or current presidents.

So, it is in this context that I always listen to President Carter, who is a Southerner through and through but a human rights advocate who has done much more than any other former president. I'm grateful to him to finally voice a real issue that everyone else wants to pretend doesn't exist.

Mixing Metaphors and Videos: Incivility Remix

2009-09-15T18:21:00.002-04:00

This is going to be my last post on the Kanye controversy. Here is a You Tube video that is hardly more than a day old and already has nearly 2 million views.

Talk about literally erasing Rep. Joe Wilson's "moment" and replacing it with Kanye's. Hmmm, wonder if this is a GOP effort.

Framing Kanye West in the Larger Context of "Post-Racial" America

2009-09-15T07:14:00.014-04:00

So, waking up to the news this morning of the passing of yet another childhood hero of mine, Patrick Swayze who finally died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57, I've been dwelling on this rapidly ending era and the dawn of a new one. A new era, I'm afraid, that is sorely lacking in civility, integrity, and honor. See, there's a reason why I'm just very angry at Kanye West, who keeps proving time and again how we have become such self-absorbed individuals with no care of our integrity and the integrity of those around us.

Let me break it down. Because my main horror at the spectacle was the sexism that he displayed and which has been allowed to flourish in hip hop, precisely because our racist and misogynistic society supported its popularity by allowing this music genre to completely degrade black women for the sake of

entertainment. There was the sexism in thinking he could just disrupt

a young 18-year-old girl's acceptance speech, replete with grabbing the mic from her hands, the sexism in inserting himself during a moment that honored female nominees for the Best Female Music Video category, and the sexism in thinking he has a right to "speak" for Beyonce while proclaiming her the rightful winner in this category. Moreover, he took away from Bey her own moment in the spotlight - having won the top honors of Best Music Video of the Year - to share it with Taylor Swift, whom she invited back on the stage to right a previous wrong in letting the young girl complete her interrupted acceptance speech.

Yet, our society is one in which we can't rightfully critique either individual bad behavior or the specific sexism that was displayed because we would rather focus on the racial difference of the situation. And many of the press photos (top picture) accompanying reviews of the VMA show featured the specific moment of Kanye grabbing the mic from Taylor, thus reinforcing the Myth of the Black Bogeyman preying on innocent white femininity.

It is this opportunity that Kanye gave the nation in making that myth manifest, indeed giving it concrete flesh, that I am most especially angry about because, had Kanye had enough integrity and racial consciousness, he should have thought twice, five times even, about how that moment would be framed. Because, in our so-called "Post-Racial America," in which members of Congress feel perfectly at ease texting while the President is speaking and blurting out to him "You lie!", in our so-called racially tolerant America, in which the media foolishly circulate reports about a fringe group of our citizens who are terrified that an African American President would "indoctrinate" school children, in this America, where black bogeymen are seen all over the place - precisely because one of them, who happens to be the most conciliatory leader who is bending over backwards too many times for my taste to set that fringe group at ease, is in the Oval Office - in this context, Kanye West's behavior does none of us any favors.

In the past, sometimes it took just one misbehaving black man to set off a white mob to burn down entire African American towns. Granted, as one of my friends reminded me, these things happened just because whites were bored and wanted to have some sport terrorizing black people since the racist society in which they lived let them get away with it. And yes, we have come a long way from those dark days, but are we, as black people, liberated enough to speak and act as we please without our actions implicating an entire race, yay, even the way our black presidents can function?

Beyond the sexism and the race-baiting is the affront to the legacy of Michael Jackson. After the show started with a music-video and dance tribute to the King of Pop (whom Kanye isn't worthy to shine his shoes, let alone claim rights to his crown, which he is already reported to have done), Kanye - in his splendid drunken ignorance (for he was seen chugging a bottle of Hennessy) - proclaimed Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video the "best video of all time." How dare he say such a thing, after both live and televised audiences just saw a montage of Michael Jackson's greatest music videos! Michael Jackson made it possible for trifling artists such as himself to even grace the MTV stage. And, when Janet Jackson finally decided to break her public silence and come back on the stage to pay tribute to her late brother, she had a moment to shine and even tweeted after the event how special this moment was for her. A moment that most of us forgot, thanks to the actions of one trifling black man. Yet another woman Kanye had wronged that night.

Last night, when appearing on Jay Leno's new show, Jay Leno asked him a question that finally left Kanye in silence: "How do you think your mother would react to you if she were still here?"

Yep. For once, the bragging, bombastic hip-hop celebrity looked properly shamed. And it saddens me that so many of our men would easily forget what their mamas told them, or what their communities have taught them, all for the sake of chasing publicity - no matter how shameless that publicity causes them to act - and "keeping it real" in a genre of music (hip hop) that hasn't been "real" for the past 15 years.

It really is time for all of us to stop thinking about ourselves and rise up to greater goals of what is best for the greater good. What a concept.

When Black Public Figures Behave Badly

2009-09-14T14:06:00.004-04:00

Here's an interesting perspective from "New Black Man," Mark Anthony Neal:

Staging Impropriety: Jes Grew at the VMAs
by Mark Anthony Neal

Twitter and Facebook were aglow, seconds after Kanye West’s most recent
flare-up, this time snatching the microphone from a bewildered Taylor Swift, who
had just won the “Best Female Video” award at MTV’s VMAs. West was ostensibly
“protesting” Swift’s victory over fellow nominee Beyonce Knowles. West’s
behavior at such events has become something of a cliché and as such it was
almost to be expected. But this time was a bit different, in that West was not
protesting on behalf of his usual favorite charity—himself. Something was
afoot.

In a weekend that was in part defined by black impropriety—Michael Jordan’s
Hall of Fame acceptance speech and Serena Williams vitriolic verbal
attack on a line judge at the US Open—West’s moment seemed like staged Jes Grew, as Ishmael Reed might refer to it, in response to what has been several months of
improprieties liberally taken at the expense of black bodies, be it the late
“King of Pop” or the current President of the United States. It is part of a
script that West has carefully crafted, in the best (post-modern) spirit of P.T.
Barnum. The boos that appeared whenever West’s name was mentioned throughout the evening were also part of that script and we all sat enraptured wondering how
Knowles might respond to West’s misguided attempt to “speak” on her behalf.
After a stirring performance of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” all eyes
were on Knowles when she received the award for “Video of the Year” and called
Swift to the stage to recover her interrupted moment.

Read in Full.

Kanye West is an Arrogant Jerk: He Does Not Represent All Black People

2009-09-14T02:18:00.006-04:00

What Kanye West did tonight at the VMAs - in which he rudely disrupted the acceptance speech of newcomer teen star Taylor Swift - was low, disgusting, utterly disrespectful, and foolish. He does not deserve anyone's respect, no matter how creative he is as a hip-hop artist, and he really does need to get banned from shows like these since he clearly doesn't know how to behave like a grown man.

However, why this fool's crappy behavior is suddenly an excuse for various folk to express racist thoughts and freely toss the N-word around, as if the color of his skin has anything to do with his psychotic behavior, is the dumbest and most ridiculous logic ever that only a bigoted mind could concoct.

Just as Rep. Joe Wilson and people like Rush Limbaugh are responsible for their own sucktastic and disrespectful behavior, which have nothing to do with the color of their skin - just the fact that they are jerks - so too should we recognize that the egotistical and horrendous behavior of Kanye West is a reflection of his tomfoolery - and NOT that he's black.

Come on, people! Why can't we just call individuals on their bad behavior and recognize it as the individual's bad behavior and STOP attributing it to insignificant things like race?

Kanye is NOT representative of me or black people in general. He's representative of himself, which is a first-class giant ass.

Upcoming Movie Season: More than a Few Women-Centered Films

2009-09-11T08:01:00.004-04:00

Coco Before Chanel (Sept. 25 - starring Audrey Tautou)

Amelia (Oct. 2 - starring Hilary Swank and directed by Mira Nair, whom I love but who has a strange fascination with Western imperialist narratives)

Whip It (Oct. 2 - Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, starring Ellen Page, and is that the rapper Eve in the cast? At least we get some girly fluff amidst all the Oscar-baiting drama)

An Education (Oct. 9 - now, this looks more Oscar-worthy than Oscar-bait-worthy, and is it just me, or does Peter Sarsgaard look a lot like Ewan McGregor, whom I don't get enough of in the movies?)

Precious (Nov. 6 - Sigh. Not gonna lie: I hated Sapphire's Push, which turned black-girl-suffering into a fetish, but the movie looks to actually humanize her suffering. And while I'm really excited to see a heavyset darker-skinned actress, Gabourey Sidibe, in a leading role, I have issues with the rest of the well-known cast. Why is the only other heavyset actress, Mo-Nique, playing the role of the villain, while the heroic characters (Mariah Carey, Paula Patton, and Lenny Kravitz) are light-skinned skinny girls or pretty boys? But, you know, I'm rushing to theaters to see this one!)

Meditation Sundays

2009-09-06T08:24:00.004-04:00

Fatimah Tuggar
Suburbia, 1998

Inkjet on vinyl. 47 x 96 inches
Courtesy of BintaZarah Studios