No Diversity in 'Bridesmaids'? No Support From Me

Much has been said about the new movie 'Bridesmaids', and most if not all of it seems to be good, as the movie went on to gross well over the 24.2 million that was hoped for.  Don't get me wrong, I am really happy that a movie with women holding down the fort was a hit in the box office... I'm still not going to see though.

I normally get down with Kristen Wiig, but I have to let this one burn...

From the jump I had a feeling there wasn't going to be much diversity in this movie at all, and I wasn't wrong.  The minute I saw the movie poster, I knew.  Yes, Maya Rudolph is a woman of color, but as usual with her, that is something that is left to the viewer to hopefully assume.  Nobody outright comes out ever and says, Maya is a woman of color.  They just don't.  Is that my problem?  Nope.  That's something for Rudolph to figure out on her own. 

For some reason, I guess I held out hope that maybe the trailer would have more people of color.  The trailer I saw did not have people of color in any role except for in the background, as if they were shadows or something.  That bothers me. 

Another thing I noticed was the circle of friends, minus Rudolph, is explicitly white.  Statistically, this is not far off from being accurate.  Studies show that after high school, most Caucasians and Blacks will have very few friends of a different race in their circle, if at all in some cases.  It's absolutely tragic (and a bit pathetic) but it's true and accurate.  However, for a woman of color to not have any POCs as friends is odd.  She has no cousins, no relatives, no friends who are of color?  None? 

Tea Party Turning Back the Clock to the "Good Ole Days" of Segregated Schools

by JuJuBe (Joanna)

Well the Tea Party has been crying out about "Taking our country back!" recently. They seem to want a return to the (not so) "Good Ole Days" when "those people" knew their place. And, they have been successful in their attempt to turn back the clock in the Wake County School District in North Carolina. Yes, they have won their battle to re-segregate a school district that had one of the most successful economic integration programs in the country.

RALEIGH, N.C. - The sprawling Wake County School District has long been a rarity. Some of its best, most diverse schools are in the poorest sections of this capital city. And its suburban schools, rather than being exclusive enclaves, include children whose parents cannot afford a house in the neighborhood.

But over the past year, a new majority-Republican school board backed by national tea party conservatives has set the district on a strikingly different course. Pledging to "say no to the social engineers!" it has abolished the policy behind one of the nation's most celebrated integration efforts.

And as the board moves toward a system in which students attend neighborhood schools, some members are embracing the provocative idea that concentrating poor children, who are usually minorities, in a few schools could have merits - logic that critics are blasting as a 21st-century case for segregation.

Source

John Tedesco, one of the new school board members and a staunch opponent of the integration policy has made the outrageous claim that segregated schools BENEFIT the children who attend. "If we had a school that was, like, 80 percent high-poverty, the public would see the challenges, the need to make it successful," he said. "Right now, we have diluted the problem, so we can ignore it."

Selling Out: Do Some Blacks Think Diversity is Bullshit?

By Tracy Renee Jones

Malcolm X had a gun and said "Respect me, or put me to death."

Martin Luther King had a dream….blah, blah…and it went a little something like this:

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today”.

Well apparently, Martin Luther King had a dream but many Blacks are all too comfortable holding onto a historically self-sabotaging class system of beliefs that are the exact opposite of Dr. King’s vision of ‘equality’.

Some Blacks think equality is just a nice thought, because I don’t think they actually believe that ‘the White ma' is willing to (or capable of) viewing Blacks as equal. And quiet as it’s kept; these same Blacks do not want to re-evaluate their own precious perception of themselves as a sub-standard race. They would never openly admit they themselves don’t see Blacks as being equal to Whites and they want to make sure that people like me don’t think I’m equal either.

“Oh, So You Think You’re Better”

Shit, if I had a dime for each time someone started a derogatory rant with this line right here. It’s often the prerequisite before the laundry list of reasons I am not ‘better’ than them. They will point out each and every visual and assumed indicator of why I must feel ‘better than’ them and how each visual indicator isn’t good enough. They make sure to remind me that I’m not White and therefore I am NOT equal (and I dam sure don’t matter either).

In the end ‘You Ain’t Nothing but a Nigger’

Pure F*ckery: Arizona Residents Think Elementary School Mural is "Too Black", & City Councilman Hates Diversity

I say the mural isn't black enough...

If you think you've stepped into a twilight zone, I would urge to read on:

In Prescott, Ariz., a new mural at Miller Valley Elementary School has caused an uproar. The mural shows a group of children of several races using "green" transportation methods. It appears to have struck a nerve among some Prescott residents.

The controversy started when comments made by Prescott City Councilman Steve Blair aired on his KYCA radio talk regarding the mural. On May 21, Blair said, "I am not a racist individual, but I will tell you depicting a black guy in the middle of that mural, based upon who's president of the United States today and based upon the history of this community when I grew up, we had four black families — who I have been very good friends with for years — to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, 'Why?'"

Blair also admits that "whenever people start talking about diversity, it's a word [I] can't stand."

Oh, Arizona... It's like your stuck in your own version of the Middle Ages.  The only problem is, this is 2010.  With access to the internet, rapid globalization and easy access to so many different cultures and races of people, there's no excuse.  I mean, it's like your intentionally saying, "Yeah, we're a bunch of idiots.  But we don't care!  We want to have our own thing anyway!" 

Might I suggest you call it Stupidia? 

Many would argue that's what the damned problem is. Arizona does NOT have enough diversity, and that's why this is an issue. And let me tell you, that being overrun by Central Americans, mostly Mexican, does not a diverse state make. If the population in Prescott for black folks is less than half a percent, then the mural with the black child would be a perfect opportunity to EDUCATE.

Where the Heart is...

-=[ Home ]=-

A house is not a home…

[Editor's Note: The following piece comes from my good friend, and newest member of our writing team, Eddie Blue Eyes. His blog, [un]Common Sense, is highly recommended as daily food for the soul.]

My first morning here, a bright sunny Sunday morning, I was awakened by a hushed but insistent, not particularly good mariachi singing right outside my window. Annoyed, I got up to see who it was and to request they take their singing ass somewhere else. When I looked, I saw a short, older Latino, dressed in black, with black cowboy hat and boots. He wore dark wrap-around shades, and with the small accordion he held, he played the same three chords over and over again. He sang songs of heartbreak, of love lost and regained and lost again, in his hushed, not particularly good, but insistent voice.

Next to him, stood a large shopping cart full of roses for sale and young Latino/a families on their way from church would occasionally stop and purchase a few. I realize he is blind, his cane pressed up against his armpit. He comes here most mornings to sing of love lost in that same hushed, not particularly good, but insistent voice.

I have moved from the largely upscale, yuppie Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope to Sunset Park. It’s not that far away, and still somewhat upscale, but there is definitely more diversity. It's a neighborhood first colonized by a wave of Puerto Ricans in the 50s and 60s and later revived by an explosion of Latin American and Asian immigrants. One avenue block up, on 5^th Avenue, you can walk the main drag and see scores of businesses offering their goods and services to the many different Latino/as that live here. Young Salvadoran teen girls and Mexicans from Puebla pass by Dominican hair salons, Puerto Rican and Mexican restaurants, or buy treats from sidewalk vendors selling everything from aguacates to mangoes, caña, and piraguas.