This blog is a visual articulation of MY views of the world around me. I will present various sides of arguments, and always sum them up with my own personal take.
My more entertaining/diverse/ridiculous/lovable blog can be found at http://mrjdjude.tumblr.com/ and I'll do all of my following from that blog as well!
Thanks and enjoy!
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Having just done Neighbors (a play that takes an interesting look at the history of Black stereotypes, primarily Blackface Minstrelsy) I’m always thinking about the small range of roles available for Black actors. This video always makes me laugh!
I Needed The Help
See what I did there? lol.
Anyway, I saw The Help over the weekend and it evoked a lot of thought out of me. It’s really hard to talk about it. I have a menagerie of feelings. I’m proud to know that we, as a people, have endured the life of the home servant. It makes me SO sad to know that after that, we still have so far to come. It pains me that the movie was more about the white women and their lives than it was of the Black women. I know that the movie didn’t focus on the Black men of the day but I wanted to hear from them. I am both happy and pissed the fuck off at some of the relationships the maids developed with the kids and women they were paid to take care of. I’m saddened that Hollywood will turn anything into a fucking love story! THE ACTING (by some) WAS FUCKING AMAZING! There weren’t that many moments that I realized that I was, in fact, watching a movie, so the production value was good. I don’t love the movie but would add it to my personal collection.
If you know me you know I don’t go to the movies. Before I give you more detailed reasons know that my NUMBER 1 reason is that it costs too much for me. I don’t get paid a lot and I’d rather spend my little bucks on other shit. My other reasons is that I’m just overall dissapointed in what the movies offer. I got so mad while watching the previews (I tweeted, twice! and three times about it and will talk more about that experience later on) that it carried over to the first 20 minutes of the movie. Granted, the first 20 minutes also pissed me off. Those images of Black women having to acquiesce to every whim of these white women irked the shit out of me. It made me uncomfortable, in a good way. I was forced to face my history and I wasn’t able to turn away.
At my new job, I’m working on this play Neighbors that does a similar thing, only with blackface. It makes audiences confront our own complicity and doesn’t let us just shrug it off but makes us sit in it, like a baby who has to stay in their soiled diaper for hours.
Theatre, and art in general, should challenge us, make us think, make us feel, make us talk, inspire us to make change (in ourselves and in the world around us) and entertain. While I disagree, in some sorts with a lot of the plot pieces in the movie, I overall felt like it satisfied my aforementioned criteria.
If you are on the fence on whether to go see this movie or not, please do. If not only to give Viola Davis, Cicely Tyson, Octavia Spencer, Aunjanue Ellis and others credit for their hard word, but to have the experience of confronting your understanding of self in relationship to others, in the context of the experience of Black women working in the domestic service.
I have to do more research on the origins of the movie and the book and will come back on how I feel like the movie did in comparison to the book. I’ll also give my review of the movie. Look out for my post about the previews before the movie and why that adds to the reasons I don’t go to the cinema. Busy week. I hope to write it all…(current history says I won’t…)
If you’ve seen the movie (or read the book) what do you think about the movie?
ARTICLE SHARE: "Flash Mobs: Being Young, Black, and Male in America Today"
So this article title almost has nothing to do with its content. This is coming from a white liberal who uses their “Black” friend to base their entire argument!
I don’t claim to be in to politics. I don’t watch a lot of the reporting or read a lot of the commentary. Not a big fan of being telling me what to think. I think and talk enough for myself, thanks. I find this article very interesting though. I am concerned about how Obama’s legacy will play out. In 5, 10, 20 years after his term(s) end, what will his story be? The book is being written as we speak but we don’t know how long each chapter is yet. What do you all think?
Can He Kick It? Yes He Can!
Another outdated article that I wanted to comment on during the days leading up to the NFL draft.
It’s no secret; football means a lot to me. I am the person I am because of my tumultuous love affair with the game. From my years playing the game, to my horrible divorce from it, to my infatuation with everything NFL, football is ingrained in me. One my favorite parts of the NFL season is the draft. What’s more exciting? Teams are looking for players to take their franchises to the next level, young men are anxiously waiting for someone to show interest in them. I normally spend the weeks and months leading up to the draft paying attention to every story that comes out, analyzing the players weaknesses and strengths and formulating my own mock drafts. What can I say? I get in to it.
When I came across this article, I was SUPER excited to share it with others. Not only is it about the draft, it also brings up an issue that is often overlooked in the NFL; the lack of Black kickers.
In high school, most predominately Black schools either had the lone white person on the team be the kicker, or the most athletic player did the double duty. Even if the kid was an AMAZING kicker, they would never want to continue in that position. Why you may ask? Because who really wants to be a kicker?!
I think there is something about the Black community and the stigma of being a kicker. Although kickers receive the same amount of scholarship money, opportunity to make it to the next level (i.e. NFL) than any other position, the Black community seems to think being a kicker is somehow less of a player. Granted, the TV shows on ESPN and commentators seems to disrespect kickers regularly, so I can see why nobody, especially Black youth, would want to kick, but I think we should give it more of a shot.
I don’t think the lack of Black kickers has anything to do with the same racist doctrine that surrounds Black QBs. Then again, it might…
Honestly, if I knew how to kick, I probably wouldn’t have been a kicker in high school. What I can say, honestly, is that when I coach my kids team, I will encourage all the kids to kick and to try and be good at it, just like they try to be great at the other positions.
I hope these two young men find a lot of success in their future NFL careers. I hope they become examples to young Black football players. I hope they help break the stigma. I think they can, we’ll see.
