Month: August 2013
Randomness: Twerking
ATTENTION WHITE MEN: A black woman walking down the street doesn’t equal booty for sell. I know (unfortunately) culture vulture Miley Cyrus has made twerking a household name, but not all black women have a desire to booty clap for you. Get a life…
Queen Latifah
Eh, another talk show. I used to love some Queen Latifah. I know folks need to grow and evolve, but Hollywood Latifah has been blah to me. Bring back the regal queen!!
I guess I need to leave the late 80’s/early 90’s behind 😦 Queen Latifah’s new talk show premieres on September 16th. It’s odd she’s hosting another show, as her first talk show failed, and that was during a time when folks still watched talk shows. Oh well, good luck to her this time around. I won’t be watching:
“Crazy.Sexy.Life”
I always thought Oprah’s OWN would’ve started off with a bang, if she had appealed to women of color/black women. Instead, she continued to pander to her white female audience, kicking women of color/black women to the curb. Not surprisingly, her white female audience failed her. Now, she is turning to the group she should have reached out to from the beginning (IMO). The women in the new series “Crazy. Sexy. Life” seem like cliché reality folks. But, I think it’s good to show diversity of black life, even if it doesn’t necessarily resonate with me. It’s amazing that two of the women have survived breast cancer:
The show will be featured on OWN Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 10 p.m, but doesn’t officially air until 2014.
When Your (Brown) Body is a (White) Wonderland
Truth…
This may meander.
Miley Cyrus made news this week with a carnival-like stage performance at the MTV Video Music Awards that included life-size teddy bears, flesh-colored underwear, and plenty of quivering brown buttocks. Almost immediately after the performance many black women challenged Cyrus’ appropriation of black dance (“twerking”). Many white feminists defended Cyrus’ right to be a sexual woman without being slut-shamed. Yet many others wondered why Cyrus’ sad attempt at twerking was news when the U.S. is planning military action in Syria.
I immediately thought of a summer I spent at UNC Chapel Hill. My partner at the time fancied himself a revolutionary born too late for all the good protests. At a Franklin Street pub one night we were the only black couple at a happy hour. It is one of those college places where concoctions of the bar’s finest bottom shelf liquor is served in huge fishbowls…
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Miley Cyrus
So, I heard Miley Cyrus made a fool of herself at MTV’s Video Music Awards. I stopped watching MTV years ago. The channel has been garbage for the past 15 years. MTV went from showing actual music videos to a reality tv channel. When music videos are shown, it’s for the boring/generic/un-danceable pop mess that’s on the radio, these days. As someone who grew up during the 80’s/90’s, I member when MTV videos were an eclectic mix of metal, grunge, hip hop, r&b, and pop. Blah, them days are over. So, I don’t waste my time watching their awards show. I do like to read reviews/watch clips of the show, after the fact.
I enjoyed this article:
Rosen: The 2013 VMAs Were Dominated by Miley’s Minstrel Show
Miley Cyrus irks me. She’s the cliché rich white woman getting her empowerment through the degradation of black culture/black women’s bodies. I’ve read some counteract arguments to this view. She’s just a young woman having fun. She’s not being racist, twerking isn’t racist! Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Cyrus has history of engaging in questionable behavior towards ethnic groups. She knows what she is doing:
Cyrus behavior is being excused, because of her white privilege. While some white feminists are running around criticizing folks for slut-shaming (they feel Cyrus is receiving), they are mute on her exploitation of black women’s bodies/minstrel behavior:
“Even worse, in her performance last night Miley used black women as props – like, literal props – and barely anyone said anything. I saw very few people displaying any outrage over the fact that Miley was, at one point, slapping a faceless black woman on the ass as if she was nothing more than a thing for Miley to dominate and humiliate. I saw barely anyone discussing the fact that Miley’s sexual empowerment, or whatever you want to call it, should not come at the cost of degrading black women. I saw a whole lot of people giving Miley a pass for her behaviour because she’s young and naive and sheltered.”–From http://bellejarblog.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/on-miley-cyrus-and-racism/
When Cyrus gets bored with this image, she will move onto something else, as most white cultural appropriators do. In the meantime, black women will be left to (once again) pick up the pieces of our broken images.
saturday swag
Sleepy Hollow
I have liked Nicole Beharie since watching her in “American Violet.” The film was based on the true story of Regina Kelly. Kelly (and almost all the other black folks in her small Texas town) were swept up in drug busts organized by racist law enforcement. Unlike other victims who were coerced into taking a plea bargain, Kelly maintained that she was innocent of all charges. She fought back and resisted the pressure to admit she was a drug dealer. Eventually, the ACLU stepped in and charges were dropped against Kelly and other victims. However, those that had taken the plea bargain, remained in prison. It’s an anger making movie. I would encourage folks to watch it. It shows how easily any one of us (but especially those that are poor/people of color), can get pushed/trapped in our corrupt “justice”system…
Beharie will be staring in the new show “Sleepy Hollow.” It premieres next month. The trailer looks a bit corny, but I am still interested in watching, as I love a good thriller:
When People Show You Who They Are…
“I think they are prejudiced upon even from the African Americans too. I think that the reason we have AIDS…I did a movie called ‘Previous’ and when I was doing the research for ‘Precious,’ I walked into the gay mens health crisis center in New York City and I expected to see studying [of] AIDS and HIV, I expected to see a room full of gay men, but there are nothing but women that are there – black women with kids, I thought I had walked into the welfare office – but they service black women with AIDS, why? “Because black men can’t come out. Why? Because you simply can’t do it. Your family says it, your church says it, your teachers say it, your parents say it, your friends say it, your work says it. And so you’re living on this DL thing and you’re infecting black women.”–Lee Daniels
Umm, so many things wrong with this statement. (1) the stereotype the black community is more homophobic than other communities (2) associating a welfare office with black women.
I used to defend the movie “Precious.” Unlike other folks who only saw the movie, I had read the book. Many black moviegoers were upset at what they perceived to be a stereotypical black characters. The book is a complex journey of a young black woman who struggles to overcome her invisibility at home/society. Maybe, that’s why the book resonated with me. As a black woman living in a system of white–supremacist capitalist patriarchy, there is always the challenge of getting people to “see me.” While I have never been abused like Precious, I understand this can be reality for SOME black folks. I was not offended by the book or the movie.
But, after reading Daniels’s comments, I ‘m now unsure. It’s obvious Daniels has hatred/low opinion of black women (I mean, why would a welfare office be the first thing to pop in your mind?) It’s hard not to believe that his misplaced anger hasn’t creeped into his films. Maybe that’s why Mo’Nique’s character was so extreme. Maybe that’s why Daniels casted Paula Patton as Ms. Rain, when she is clearly described in the book as a dark-skinned/natural haired black woman. The point was that Precious sees this confident/intelligent black woman (her reflection) and decides she wants more out of life. Maybe this concept was hard for Daniels to grasp. Two (dark) black women loving/bonding in sisterhood/rejecting their oppression.
But, why am I surprised? I mean, this is the same man who made “Monster’s Ball.” A film about an abusive black mother, who sleeps with the white executioner of her black husband. Blah…
“The Butler” won’t be getting my money. oh well, it’s been getting poor reviews anyway.
Lee Thompson Young (February 1, 1984 – August 19, 2013
I was shocked when I read this headline on Yahoo!
Former Disney Channel Star Lee Thompson Young Found Dead
What!! While I never knew the young man’s name, I immediately recognized him from “The Hills Have Eyes 2” (yes, i watch movies like that). Even in that crappy film, I thought he did a good job with what he had to work with. He was articulate and charismatic. Also, he was very handsome. I felt sinful looking at that young man (glad to know he was a bit older).
I was surprised to read that Young was a former Disney star (maybe it’s because I don’t have kids). I know that he was on the ABC show “Flash Forward,” as well. So much potential for this young man. It’s sad to know that it was possibly a suicide. It just goes to show you never know what’s going on in folks lives.
RIP Lee Thompson Young 😦
If you are struggling with issues in your life:
NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFE LINE
http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
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