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Thanks Kimberly! “The movie plays out over two school years, but the action changes so suddenly, harmony seems to arrive overnight, punctuated by a musical montage or two…But too much of “Freedom Writers” rings falsely hopeful…”
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Thanks Kimberly! “In new book “Off the Record,”…Denzel Washington reveals that he refused to do a love scene with Julia Roberts in 1993’s “The Pelican Brief” out of loyalty to his female African-American fan base.”
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“the hip hop is dead movement is fueled by classism, racism, and a fear of changing technology…The parents of todays children grew up on the same genre that their kids listen to. And as you know, every generation’s music is hated by it’s parents.”
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“White Rapper is funny and sneakily smart, and that probaby has to do with the first two words in the title: The Ego Trip team’s fingerprints are all over this thing, from the guest stars (Prince Paul, Grandmaster Flash) to the tongue-in-cheek visuals”
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Thanks Jason! “If white-on-black hate crime is covered with an apologetic tone and references to the legacy of slavery, what’s the tone for covering black-on-white hate crime? Can a minority be a racist? And how can we, the media, get out of this?”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Rachel wrote:
I’ve been following the Bixby Knolls case since I first saw it reported in the Press-Telegram. I was surprised that it didn’t get more play in the L.A. Times (until very recently) or the national media, but I think it’s one of those stories no one wants to touch with a ten-foot poll.
The juxtaposition of this case and the Freedom Writers movie just goes to show how little progress we’ve made.
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 1:37 pm ¶
Rachel wrote:
Oops, I meant “pole”.
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 1:39 pm ¶
merq wrote:
Carmen, I e-mailed as soon as I saw the trailer for Freedom Writers. The “White Savior” is back, folks.
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 3:08 pm ¶
Meg wrote:
Merq: the actual teacher was on the view the other day (here in oz we get 5 eps in a row so i can’t reference a date for you) and she talked about the oprah thing. It didn’t click in my head who she was so i wasn’t really paying attention but i think she took issue with the oprah ipod comment thing of “no inner city kids want to learn”. I raise this by way of saying it would be a shame if real-world (cos she has done something positive i assume) good work became collatoral damage of a general disdain for “white saviour” movies.
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 9:47 pm ¶
Rob wrote:
Is it possible for my respect of Denzel Washington to possibly get any higher?
The last time I thought my respect for him was at it’s peak was shortly after he won an Oscar for Best Actor when he mentioned that “now it’s time to work on Asian Americans.”
Keep on truckin’, Denzel.
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 9:56 pm ¶
Meg wrote:
regarding the “hate crime” article – it sometimes feels like the australian media does the opposite. There were cases of chinese businesses being fire-bombed or threatened which did not seem to fill ppl with a lot of angst about where our community is going. But crimes of “ethnic minorities” are reported ad nauseum and we get the rounds from shock jocks and tabloid journalists saying aussies (i.e. whites) have to be pc and those “other” people can get away with what they like. I think where race is involved ppl get touchy and our “leaders” then try to calm everyone down with no real dialogue about why ethnicity does seem to be invoked in some crimes.
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 10:03 pm ¶
kim wrote:
Re: Denzel and love scene
I like Denzel as much as the next, though I didn’t fall in love with him until Deja Vu.
In an interview in GQ years ago he was asked about his leading roles and on-screen kisses, and said he was never offered any leading roles with white women where a kiss was in the scene, and therefore had not turned any down.
I thought it …suspect honest at the time, but have to take a man at his word, and, considering his stature at the time, it was disappointing to hear.
He stated even then that he was not at the level of ’star’ in Hollywood to receive so many scripts (in comparison to other leads, one must suppose) to have his pick and choose of voluminous amounts of scripts. Considering his incredible stature in the Black community, that was a slap in the face.
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 10:55 pm ¶
kim wrote:
Re: Long Beach Hate Crimes trial.
WTF? Is Farai Chideya serious with that line of inquiry?
Even if the gang of girls did not seek white girls on which to prey , thereby making it pre-meditated, certainly their inclusion of the use of the ‘white’ before ‘bitches’ qualifies the attack as riddled with racial hatred, right? The attack did not (from what seems to have been reported) escalate from any existing altercation or incident, wherein tensions had risen, or tempers flared.
Does it not fall to the level of hate crime because they were not wearing hoods? Because the members of the group didn’t sport mullets and baseball bats?
Yes, ” ‘hate-crime laws “could end up punishing blacks who commit violence against whites — which is a far cry from the historical experience that inspired hate-crime statutes,” ‘ if Blacks commit crimes whose genesis and expression is racially hate-filled.
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 11:53 pm ¶
Chris wrote:
Regarding the Long Beach Hate Crime trial, the hate crime law should be applied to all crimes that fit the description of a hate crime regardless of the race of the people committing the crime.
Posted 08 Jan 2007 at 9:18 am ¶