Taking The Negative Movie Edition: Olympus has Fallen

I saw Olympus Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart with my friends El Viejo, the Angel of death and his lady and the ever present ever flowing Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey.

Terrorist storm the White House and manage to take it and hold the president Hostage. There was one scene it was of the American Flag full of bullets holes and burned, a terrorist takes it down and unceremoniously throws it down on the lawn. The scene touched me as an American, that flag actually means something to me. I tried to imagine what it would be like if someone just came to American stormed and defaced the white House took the president hostage, how awful I’d feel. It was a sobering thought that really touched me. Someone in the back row  said out loud: “That’s just fucked up. That’s just wrong” and we all nodded or chimed in with that sentiment.

After the movie, on the way back to our point of departure we all talked about how bad-ass Gerard Butler was   and how it would suck if someone decided to do that to America. That then is when it hit me, like a kick to the scrotum. Mentally I doubled over in pain when from the dark recesses of my mind the  last hundred years of US foreign Affairs arose.

Taking the Negative

Imagine that you were not an American or of a European  (Eastern or Western). Imagine centuries of your ancestors living closer to the equator than the frozen wasteland that was home to the frost giants and Norse gods of olden time, has given you an over-abundance of melanin in your skin. Imagine if you will a regular summer day, your wearing clothes that help keep your body cool , and all of a sudden someone storms the capital of your country, and  holds your president hostage and demands a ransom. Or perhaps they install a new government, or perhaps they just fuck shit up and leave

Unfortunately that isn’t fiction for a lot of people around the world in Latin American, Africa, and parts of Asia. Can I share with you some quotes?

William Blum, USA writer from the book, “Rogue State”:

“From 1945 to the end of the [20th] century, the USA attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements struggling against intolerable regimes. In the process, the USA caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair”.

______________________

Michael Krenn, quoting the USA chargé d’Affairs in 1929;

“Until the Venezuelan people could be trusted to make the right decisions concerning their political and economic direction – and that time was deemed to be in the very distant future – it was best for all concerned that they be kept safe from democracy.”

_______________________

CIA document, dated 10 September 1973 about Chile:

“The coup attempt will begin September 11. All three branches of the armed forces and the Carabineros are involved in this action. A declaration will be read on Radio Agricultura at 7 A.M. on 11 September.”

_______________________

Jack Kubisch, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. Testimony before the USA House Subcommittee on Inter American Affairs 20 September 1973 about the Chilean coup:

“Gentlemen, I wish to state as flatly and as categorically as I possibly can that we did not have advance knowledge of the coup that took place on September 11.”

The Reality

 “Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions”
― Frantz Fanon

chart taken from here: http://www.krysstal.com

Year	Country	Reason Given
1949	Syria	Communism
1949	Greece	Communism
1952	Cuba	None
1953	Iran	None
1953	British Guyana	None
1954	Guatemala	Communism
1955	South Vietnam	Communism
1957	Haiti	Haiti is near the USA
1958	Laos	None
1959	Laos	None
1960	South Korea	Communism
1960	Laos	None
1960	Ecuador	Communism
1963	Dominican Republic	Business Interests
1963	South Vietnam	None
1963	Honduras	Communism
1963	Guatemala	Communism
1963	Ecuador	None
1964	Brazil	Communism
1964	Bolivia	Communism
1965	Zaire	None
1966	Ghana	None
1967	Greece	None
1970	Cambodia	None
1970	Bolivia	None
1972	El Salvador	Communism
1973	Chile	Communism
1975	Australia	None
1979	South Korea	None
1980	Liberia	Democracy
1982	Chad	None
1983	Grenada	Democracy
1987	Fiji	Democracy
2002	Venezuela	None
2004	Haiti	Fraudulent elections
2009	Honduras	Attempted to Change Constitution

My Dilemma as An American

As a Haitian American I have a few dilemmas some other Americans wont have.  Well there is the history of American Involvement and occupation of haiti  for 19 years. Do you like that post of the Marine storming and killing Haitians.

In September 1915, the United States Senate ratified the Haitian-American Convention, a treaty granting the United States security and economic oversight of Haiti for a 10-year period. Representatives from the United States wielded veto power over all governmental decisions in Haiti, and Marine Corps commanders served as administrators in the provinces. Local institutions, however, continued to be run by Haitians, as was required under policies put in place during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson

I remember in the 80′s in NYC, a lot of people were saying that Haitians brought AIDS to the US.  Actually Arsenio Hall made a joke about it if I remember correctly. A lot of people are anti-immigrant in the US which is odd to me. I kind of on the one hand love being American but kind of feel that the long terms reason I am in America is because of gross atrocities committed by the American government in Haiti. (Btw do you think the Marines who were sent to Haiti  a few decades before civil rights saw “us” as people ?, do you know what that meant as far as treatment of the people under American occupation?)

The Confusion Doesnt Stop There

It’s no surprise racism still exists here. Well it’s no surprise for me. There are people still saying that slavery was good for blacks , gave them food and a roof over their head. I see America in a very different way from many other Americans

“If you’re black, you got to look at America a little bit different. You got to look at America like the uncle who paid for you to go to college, but who molested you.”

I’ve have often wondered how many of the black soldiers felt to go to war for your country and then return home to be treated by shit by it. I wonder a lot about patriotic duty vs social and legal treatments.

Wrapping It Up

It’s amazing how one person’s fictional movie situation is a nightmare living by millions, and that almost no one in a theatre full of people all from somewhere else think of that. I am a proud American, but there is a lot that I am conflicted about, there are many episodes of our history that trouble me. There are things that still trouble me. But that’s life I suppose.

Coincidentally I read this article today In the Guardian

The racism that fuels the ‘war on terror’

Taking the Negative Intl Woman’s Day Special: White Women & Movie Serial Killers

Recently I was reading online that Jason Voorhees – a fictional character, is considered  one of the leading cultural icons of American popular culture.  For those of you who don’t know, Jason is a psychotic mass murderer.  A cultural icon btw is an object that represents some aspect of the values, norms or ideals perceived to be inherent in a culture, or section of a culture.

Now, I should explain that Mr Mary does like movies like Friday the 13th or Halloween. Why you say ? Well for starters I have had night terrors all my life and  I prefer in my waking hours not to see or feel terror or fright. Those things are best left for the night time when silence and  an absence of light shield us from the constant need for rationality . The Main reason however I do not like horror movies is I do not like celebrating or laughing at the killing of innocents.

This Genre Of Movies

For this genre of movies there are the Big Three: Freddy Jason and Michael Meyers. One thing they all have in common  aside from the fact that  they are all unstoppable white male killing machines,  is that they kill white women with more tenacity and than the Bubonic Plague did during Medieval times. One cannot ascertain the rank of a cultural icon as a fictional serialkiller without killing tons of women,more specifically white women.

The Portrayal of Women in Movies

I have always been curious as to why women are portrayed the way they are in horror movies. Look what I found here:

Traditionally women are represented in horror films as the damsel in distress and are usually being attacked by the killer because they have committed a sinful act. This idea is supported by the website “bellaonline.com” as they say that “Horror films, and the slasher subgenre, are famous for portraying women as hypersexual damsels in distress who are usually murdered within the first five minutes as punishment for their indiscretions…”. Women are traditionally represented as the victims and men represented as the monster and hero. This was how women used to be treated before women had equal rights to men; so that was how they were portrayed in horror films.

Horror films also tend to follow the same narrative structure of a male killer on the rampage that kills his victims one by one until he is killed by the remaining female victim. This is also supported by the book “Men, Women and Chainsaws” by Carol J Clover “A phychokiller who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until they are subdued or killed, usually by the one girl who has survived.” – Page 21.

Taking a partial negative

I have always asked myself why don’t these guys every in the movies mass murder black women, then I rationalized that that wouldn’t be a horror movie but a tame re-enactment of an episode of American History.

The mistreatment of slaves frequently included rape and the sexual abuse of women. Many slaves were killed as a result of resisting sexual attacks. Others sustained psychological and physical trauma. The sexual abuse of slaves was partially rooted in the patriarchal nature of contemporary Southern culture and its view of women of any race as property After 1662, when Virginia adopted the legal doctrine partus sequitur ventrem, sexual relations between white men and black women were regulated by classifying children of slave mothers as slaves regardless of their father’s race or status. After a few generations, numerous slaves were mixed-race (mulatto) offspring of such unions, although white Southern society abhorred sexual relations between white women and black men as damaging to racial purity.

Book Recommendation

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl – Literary Touchstone Classic - Published in 1861, this was one of the first personal narratives by a slave and one of the few written by a woman. Jacobs (1813-97) was a slave in North Carolina and suffered terribly, along with her family, at the hands of a ruthless owner. She made several failed attempts to escape before successfully making her way North, though it took years of hiding and slow progress. Eventually, she was reunited with her children.

Concerning Ms Jacobs

No one believed she wrote her narrative because  she was a slave. It was believed that it was written by another white women Lydia Maria Child a white abolitionist. Today, with Jacobs’ authorship authenticated, her dramatic narrative provides new generations with a revealing look at a often-hidden side of slavery: the sexual exploitation of women. The brutalization of black girls and women by white slave-masters, who justified their dehumanizing treatment by viewing them as “sexual savages,” was a daily fact of life under slavery. Stripped, beaten, raped and forced to “breed” more slaves, black women suffered a double burden of slavery because of their sexual vulnerability.

Caucasian Women

I think these type of cultural icons  tell a lot about American culture. Because America is a super power we have never been forced to accept accountability for our actions like for instance Germany was forced to do in an international way with the demilitarization of the nation the creation of East and West Germany, the partitioning of Berlin , the Nuremberg Trails.

Taking a partial negative has really opened up many observations for me. One thing I have noticed is the role that caucasian women have played in Black history. There were many great caucasian women who were abolitionist and it’s kind of sad that no one mentions them. Their story needs to be told.

One thing I have never understood well, I do not know how to say it so ill give you an example. Let me tell you about the Harrison Narcotics Act -  a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates.

In the 1800s opiates and cocaine were mostly unregulated drugs. In the 1890s the Sears & Roebuck catalogue, which was distributed to millions of Americans homes, offered a syringe and a small amount of cocaine for $1.50. At the beginning of the 20th century, cocaine began to be linked to crime. In 1900, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an editorial stating, “Negroes in the South are reported as being addicted to a new form of vice – that of ‘cocaine sniffing’ or the ‘coke habit.’” Some newspapers later claimed cocaine use caused blacks to rape white women and was improving their pistol marksmanship.

The drafters played on fears of “drug-crazed, sex-mad negroes” and made references to Negroes under the influence of drugs murdering whites, degenerate Mexicans smoking marijuana, and “Chinamen” seducing white women with drugs. Dr. Hamilton Wright, testified at a hearing for the Harrison Act. Wright alleged that drugs made blacks uncontrollable, gave them superhuman powers and caused them to rebel against white authority. Dr. Christopher Koch of the State Pharmacy Board of Pennsylvania testified that “Most of the attacks upon the white women of the South are the direct result of a cocaine-crazed Negro brain”.

Before the Act was passed, on February 8, 1914 The New York Times published an article entitled “Negro Cocaine ‘Fiends’ Are New Southern Menace:Murder and Insanity Increasing Among Lower-Class Blacks” by Edward Huntington Williams which reported that Southern sheriffs had increased the caliber of their weapons from .32 to .38 to bring down Negroes under the effect of cocaine.

It is not just black men. Do you remember this:

• 1930, Anti-Filipino riots break out in Watsonville and other California rural communities, in part because of Filipino men having intimate relations with White women which was in violation of the California anti-miscegenation laws enacted during that time.
• 1933, After the Supreme Court of California found in Roldan v. Los Angeles County that existing laws against marriage between white persons and “Mongoloids” did not bar a Filipino man from marrying a white woman, California’s anti-miscegenation law, Civil Code, section 60, was amended to prohibit marriages between white persons and members of the “Malay race” (e.g. Filipinos).

It’s odd if you, as an outsider look closely at American History. It seems that there is that same mentality from olden times which persist: that white women exist to maintain the purity of the race and to

1. Be used as an excuse or means to lynch/or riot against minorities
2. Be used as fodders for serial killers both fictional and non.

Side Note: Lynching

In Duluth, Minnesota, on June 15, 1920, three young African American traveling circus workers were lynched after having been jailed and accused of having raped a white woman. A physician’s examination subsequently found no evidence of rape or assault. The alleged “motive” and action by a mob were consistent with the “community policing” model. A book titled The Lynchings in Duluth documented the events. Although the rhetoric surrounding lynchings included justifications about protecting white women, the actions basically erupted out attempts to maintain domination in a rapidly changing society and fears of social change. Btw – All across the former Confederacy, blacks who were suspected of crimes against whites—or even “offenses” no greater than failing to step aside for a white man’s car or protesting a lynching—were tortured, hanged and burned to death by the thousands. In a prefatory essay in Without Sanctuary, historian Leon F. Litwack writes that between 1882 and 1968, at least 4,742 African Americans were murdered that way.

Side Note: The ScottsBoro Case

On a cool, spring day in March 1931, two white women hitched a ride on a freight train in Alabama in the hopes of finding work in a neighboring state. When authorities stopped the train some time later, both women, fearing arrest for violating the Mann Act, which prohibited transporting even willing women across state lines for illicit purposes, told police that they had been raped by nine black men who were also scattered along the train. Their accusation caused a furor, and a mob that gathered to lynch the men dispersed only with promises of a speedy trial. Despite little evidence of rape, the men were convicted based on the women’s testimony and sentenced to death. As the case meandered through four separate trials and two supreme court decisions, local whites continued to support the women’s charges, even though one recanted her claim of rape after the second trial. Allegations eventually surfaced that the women were no paragons of virtue. Both had occasionally resorted to prostitution to support themselves and apparently had engaged in sexual relations with unmarried white men in the days before they made their accusations. Nevertheless, in an early articulation of what would come to be rape shield laws, which, in the 1970s, attempted to protect against attacks on the character of a rape victim, white southerners argued that the two women’s sordid sexual past should have no bearing on the case. As one spectator told a reporter, the victim “might be a fallen woman, but by God she is a white woman.” Though the nine accused men eventually won their freedom, the Scottsboro case, as it came to be known, has become the paradigm for all black-on-white rape cases in the twentieth century, in which the accuser’s whiteness overrode any consideration of her gender, sexual history, or class status.

Final Words

As a heterosexual man I like woman, all shapes, sizes colors, at the end of the day when the lights are off  all the meat is medium rare, (pink in the middle). Women’s rights,especially reproductive rights were a big issue in the last  election. I feel that the need to suppress women and their  rights has deep deep historical roots in American History.

This post came to me in a day dream.I thought about the horror movie genre and  I wondered what it would look like if all these famous fictional mass-murderers murder minority  women (specifically black women) as much as they do white women in the movies. I think just changing this one aspect brought many things to light which hopefully at one point will be a segway to a serious

Disclaimer: I am of mixed heritage and bear no ill will or violence towards anyone, well I really don’t like people who are close talkers, but that’s something else.

 

Taking the Negative: Voting in the 2012 Elections

DISCLAIMER: This post concerns itself with race and politics. While no people White or Black were harmed or made fun of in this post there is still a chance that you may get offended. While your getting offended is not and was not my intention, I will be happy to send you a free MrMary Sticker to compensate you for your troubles

Hello Friends,

The taking the negative series is one of my favorite series to write. Basically it is a simple tool to deconstruct social situation. The goal in doing this is to learn more about ourselves as a culture I have done a few of these and have many more to do. Here are the few I have done:

1. Introducing a new Series: Taking the Negative dedicated to Chinua Achebe
2. Taking the Negative: Islam and terrorism
3. Taking the Negative: The Movie Hero
4. Taking the Negative: The Monster’s Ball Syndrome

How it Works

I will illustrate how this works. In the debut Taking the Negative post  I looked at the trend of Caucasian Hollywood stars adopting African Babies. This is a very altruistic and laudable thing to do for many reasons that I listed in my initial posting.  Then I  said what would the negative of that look, what if Samuel L. Jackson or Don Cheedle or  Djimon Gaston Hounsou and other famous black stars and also couples started adopting blonde hair blue eyed babies ?   I asked if that image, the figurative negative image of the first image be as lauded and as acceptable. Before I continue I’d like it to be known that I’m analyzing social attitudes and the mentality from which they are born from.

I’m not calling anyone racist,
I’m not playing the race card
I’m not asking for a hand-out,
I’m not complaining,
I’m not promoting reverse-racism (which is a contradiction in and of itself),
I’m not being appreciative of what America has done for me and all the many other things I get accused of for just articulating some observations.

So with that Disclaimer I think I can get into today’s topic Voting in the 2012 Elections.  I notice every time I want to write about anything that might barely even touch upon race I have to issue a lot of disclaimers, not just on the blog, just to ensure that I can get my point out and not get accused of using the race cards or some other nonsense.

2012 Elections

For the first time in American History we have a mulatto president but owing to the one-drop theory in the US, Americans with any known African ancestry, no matter how slight, are often categorized as black.  During his first election many people asked the question are black voting for Obama because he is black the question still persists. Two common points that I hear much talk about can be summed up as follows:

• When it comes to black people: there is no critical thought involved in deciding on a candidate, when in fact we do vote
• Voting for someone just for his race/color is being racist

I would like to quote something from the article:

“African American support for Obama can be seemingly dismissed because black voters are using racial bias as a decision-making criteria, whereas everyone else is using merit. Yet it is more likely that holding the belief that African American voters are biased allows one to justify their own hidden biases. “

This statement is important because it shows how the issue is complex. It is not so cut and dry, black or white.

A Comments from the Net that sums it up

100% of the black people I know and 100% of the black people I work with only know two things about the election. Obama and Bush. They will not even engage in a conversation about Romney. They don’t care. Obama said Romney is a liar and that’s all they heard. Game over. Race is a very powerful thing when it’s on your side. And Sununu only said out loud what everybody already knows.

The comments made by Sununu are as follows: “When you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to look at whether that’s an endorsement based on issues or he’s got a slightly different reason for endorsing President Obama,” Sununu said, adding: “I think when you have somebody of your own race that you’re proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him.” Basically again saying that Powell is endorsing Obama again because he is black like Colin Powell used to be. Later, Sununu released a statement saying “Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the President’s policies.”

The Reality

I was going to publish this post on Thursday but luckily I waited and I came across these articles which thankfully helped me out a lot.  Let me post the article title and their respective pertinent quotes:

The Racial Bias in Dismissing Blacks Voters’ Support for Obama

An undeniable truth from the results is that the public is largely biased in their judgments of African American voting practices. And, if the public is biased, then concluding that it is not, which is the norm among political commentators, is incorrect.

These data show how easily politics become “racialized,” leading individuals to potentially associate their beliefs, prejudices, resentments and opinions about race with seeminglynon-racial instances . Just to be clear, one does not have to be racist (e.g., dislike black people or other racial groups) to use race in their thinking and, more importantly, racial thinking is not one directional; regardless of one’s own racial background they are susceptible to racialized biases and subsequently racialized behaviors or “racial discrimination.” The real problem is people denying it or tossing aside any need for self- or public- reflection.

My main academic point is that it’s nearly impossible to deny that race matters in politics even when one claims they are making an objective political assessment. My main social point is that nearly all people hold racial stereotypes and use them in their everyday life, but because these beliefs are socially unacceptable, we’ll deny them at all costs. But always remember, denial doesn’t mean you’re not guilty.

AP poll: Majority harbor prejudice against blacks

Although Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express racial prejudice in the questions measuring explicit racism (79 percent among Republicans compared with 32 percent among Democrats), the implicit test found little difference between the two parties……That test showed a majority of both Democrats and Republicans held anti-black feelings (55 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans), as did about half of political independents (49 percent).

Do black people support Obama because he’s black?

Black voters switched after Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the 1960s civil rights legislation and Republicans successfully pursued the votes of white people who disliked the civil rights agenda. Since then, Democrats have persistently wooed black voters with programs and platforms that African-Americans favor, and the party has been rewarded every four years. Clinton got 83 percent of the black vote in 1992 and 84 percent in 1996; the third-party candidate Ross Perot probably sliced away some of Clinton’s black support. Al Gore got 90 percent in 2000; John Kerry got 88 percent in 2004. Obama captured 95 percent in 2008, and 2 million more black people voted than in the previous election.

The Conclusion’s I’ve Reached

I have always felt personally that racism is still alive, not just against Blacks I should add. it is crazy to think that racism just went away disappeared after 1968. It is going to be around as long as humanity is going to be around. It may not be legalized but the mentality from which it is born is forever prevalent.

Because so much of politics nowadays is dominated by an Us vs Them Attitude it is very polarizing and divisive. In such cases it isn’t too long before people are divided by the factors that have a historical precedence in that particular culture, society and or nation. One cannot ignore historic precedence for class warfare, racism, hatred of Immigrants, Antisemitism, themes in US history. To make matters more complicated, I think what is also important to point to the fact that racism and class warfare enjoy a very intimate relationship. It’s impossible to talk about economic classes without talking about race.

These issues aren’t endemic to the US or Democracy they are part of the fabric of the human experience. I feel in the US our collective policy is denial. We deny something or oppose it  or force the facts into an artificial narrative that can quickly be concluded like the many sitcoms we love so much. But the problem with doing that is that the narratives we force the facts into do nothing for the complexity of the social issue.

I think that these words of Fanon are really important here:

“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.”

Every 4 years we (in the US) are given a moment of catharsis as a nation to look at ourselves. That is one of the greatest features of democracy. Granted it is very easy for democracy to be hijack by business interests, or by prevalent racial , gender, zenophobic, and anti-religious attitudes (to name a few) but it’s amazing what a moment of catharsis can do for a Nation look at Civil Right ?

Finally

I think one of the major issues writing this has made apparent to me has been that we do not have an accessible language or a way to talk about racism. We cannot have discussions about something we don’t have words for. When one use the term like “White People” or “Black people” is a huge generalization. How many distinct linguistic, cultural, political, ethnic, religious groups exist under the umbrella of white people or black people – too many to make gross generalizations about. Roman Catholic Italian Americans are very different from Protestant German-Americans.  I am Haitian American I speak 3 languages and conceptualize American and my place differently than a Nigerian American than a southern black who has been here for a few generations though we are all “black”.

I think its too easy to generalize “Blacks vote for Obama because he is black”,  ”Whites vote for Mitt Romney because he is white” , or that If there was a serious female contender for the Oval Office, that all women would vote for her because she was a woman. All these grand over sweeping statement ignore the complex issue of self identity and the rich history of conflict, class struggle and a few centuries worth for domestic and foreign policy. I think that people who  advocate these sensationalist, lowest common denominator, mass media fodder are really those not interested in a dialogue. Education dialogue is essential to the democratic process.

Of course I have more to say on things. I think we can break some concepts down further but I don’t like to write such pieces on here

Till Next time

MrMary

Related articles

• Romney Campaign Chair: Colin Powell Endorsed Obama Because He Is Black (thinkprogress.org)
• Romney aide gaffe: Colin Powell backing Obama because of race (theweek.co.uk)
• Romney Surrogate John Sununu: Colin Powell Endorsed Obama Because He’s Black (businessinsider.com)
• Mitt Romney Campaign Thinks Blacks Just All Stick Together (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• Romney Campaign Plays The Race Card With Powell Endorsement (thedailybanter.com)
• Romney surrogate Sununu: Powell endorsed Obama because of race (tv.msnbc.com)
• Romney campaign so desperate to change subject from Mourdock that they accuse Colin Powell of racism (dailykos.com)
• Sununu: Powell Endorsed Obama Because He’s Black — TYT (politics.videosift.com)
• Romney Campaign Chair John Sununu Thinks Colin Powell Endorsed Obama Because He’s Black (gawker.com)
• Top Romney aide Sununu suggests Powell endorsed Obama because he’s black (washingtonpost.com)

Taking the Negative: The Monster’s Ball Syndrome

From Wikipedia

Monster’s Ball is a 2001 American romantic drama film directed by Marc Forster and written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. The film stars Billy Bob Thornton as a widowed prison-guard, Halle Berry as a woman whose husband is on death row, and Heath Ledger as Thornton’s son. Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

Misleading words and what I would like to call the:

Monsters Ball Syndrome

Misleading Words

Black and white are interesting words when use to describe race. While I have seen those terms quite often over the years, I have never with the same frequency seen the term yellow-people, red-people etc. We tend at least in America from my observation like things in two clear distinct choices: things like people are either black or white. In the polarizing ambiance of the election season, in the media  people are either rich or poor and everyone in the middle has disappeared, I would like to say figuratively but it’s hard to tell from where I am sitting.

It has always been my opinion at least for racial discourse that language or the lack of a sophisticated one to recognize all the nuances of race, is a great indicator of where we are a nation stand on the issue. Case and point our current president Barack Obama.  It is a widely known fact that  he is a man of mixed ancestry yet he is labeled black. There is no popular terms to describe what he is; mixed is too general a term. Anatole Broyard a Louisiana creole of mixed race, is a poster-boy for the racial self identity. He didn’t acknowledge is African and used his being able to pass for white to promote his career and social acceptance.

Interracial Sexual Relationships

The question of identity is an important one because it brings up rather interesting relationships, one of which I would like to talk about. From my own research I have noticed two things in terms of movies

1. On-screen, interracial relationships between white women and African American, Latino, or Asian men occur so infrequently that it can be argued that there is an implicit censorship of these unions that demonstrates how certain subjects are rendered outside the realm of what is speak able. Even films that do pair a white woman with a man of color tend to keep the relationship platonic or avoid showing any intimacy in their relationship. Prominent black actors such as Cuba Gooding, Jr., Will Smith, and Denzel Washington have commented on Hollywood’s tendency to avoid the issue of interracial intimacy and the hesitancy of white executives to place a black male lead opposite a white female lead for a romantic story line. [taken from here]
2. From Slavery there is a fear of black men having sex with white women. The black brute caricature is a stereotype originating around the time of the Reconstruction Era of the United States, which depicts African American men as inherently violent. While before the American Civil War, black slaves had been depicted as childlike and inferior beings, happy in their captivity, white supremacists now insisted that freedom would drive blacks towards crimes of theft, murder, and the rape of white women. To support these claims, newspapers would publish articles bolstering the image of black brutality to frighten and reinforce racist assumptions in white Southerners. [from wiki: Black Brute]

Images of the Black Brute Stereotype

I create this collage do you see any common themes?

Taking the Negative: The Monster’s Ball Syndrome

We live in new an interesting times. Gone are the days of Jim Crow, and the ban on inter-racial marriage in America was removed in 1967 though occassional we have some pastors who refuse to marry an inter-racial couple.

In 2009 an Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License By Louisiana Justice Of The Peace 

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. ”I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday.

In 2012 Jim Crow Style: White Mississippi Church Refuses To Marry Black Couple

Charles Wilson and his now wife Te’Andrea had programs printed with their wedding date of July 21. The couple had already sent out invitations when they were told that they couldn’t be married in the church.

But what is clear is that there hasn’t been a Hollywood movie (to my knowledge) that will show the opposite of what we see in Monster Ball a black man having simulated sex with a white women well unless you are willing to look at porn where interracial sex is supposedly a popular. (I must add that Hally Berry is mixed, and that according to some [some here does not mean MrMary] is the reason she has been so popular  or able to advance further in her career than other black women.)  Don Cheadle isn’t going to be dogging Charlize Theron out any time soon because she just wants to feel good for once.

But let us take it a bit further. I did a Google search looking for some interracial porn site names and here are the results. Do you see a common theme? I see the same Brute stereotype here  but maybe that is just me. I have included brief site description in case the titles aren’t enough

• BLACKS ON BLONDES  - Think of it like a sexual chess board with the black pieces filling up all the white boxes. You can see white honeys swallowing
• MILFs Like It Black  - What these MILFs want, these MILFs always end up getting. What they want is big, black ——-
• Watching My Mom Go Black - Black guys screw hot white women while their sons watch or their daughters join in on the action.
• Lethal Interracial - Sexy white babes spread their soft white legs for big black —–
• Blacks On Cougars - Hungry cougars dine on black meat
• Black Cocks White Sluts - Horny white hotties having fun with multiple black
• Abominable Black Man - This isn’t some creature roaming the mountains of Nepal and Tibet, but rather a big-dicked black guy roaming the streets of America.
• My Daughters Fucking A Black Dude - Sexy coed chicks – usually white -

Earlier in the week I wrote a piece where i used a quote by on of my favorite writers Andre Malraux, which goes as such

Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.

You may be surprised but we hide a lot about ourselves as a Nation and thus there is much disparity between the image we project and what we really are. Often really a joke is all that is needed to deconstruct many images and situations we take for granted as being common and exposing some twisted or dare I say antediluvian thinking.  Check this out from the VideoBox Blog:

Porn being something of an alternate universe, “interracial” does not simply mean persons of different racial backgrounds having sex. It refers to black men with white women about 95% of the time. Only about 40% of white girls will do a scene with a black man if the talent agency websites are to be believed. Even if you count the girls who are listed incorrectly in the non-interracial category, it’s probably still fewer than 50%. There are a few theories floating around about why some stars won’t do IR:

1. They’re afraid of negatively impacting their career by upsetting their fan base.
2. They’re afraid of upsetting their families
3. They don’t find black men attractive

I’m sure they’re all true to one degree or another. Sarah Jane Hamilton is a poster on Adult DVD Talk and told this story in a thread about girls who don’t do IR:

Long time ago when I had an active fan club. I had a guy write to me just completely disgusted and irate with me. He said that he had been a big fan for years, but now he was completely appalled and turned off … because I did a scene with Sean Michaels. I laughed my ass off!!! And I kept the letter for years after. Imagine, he wasn’t offended when I was gang banged by 8 guys on a bridge, but his delicate sensibilities were rocked because I did Sean in a bedroom scene.

Conclusions

All this time I have not talked about how black women are portrayed in film  and their many stereotypes.  There is much more to be said. But I am still surprised that something a simple as “taking the negative” can uncover so much. But let me share with you a funny story.

I personally do not discriminate when it comes to dating women. I will date any women that regardless of religious creed, race, nationality, ability to speak English, financial status. At the end of the day I just want someone who, to quote the immortal Bizmarkie,  ”got what I need” but has a cool personality, has some depth to her, who’s fun to spend time with. [You have to applaud me for making no innuendo or double entendre types jokes] Funny story, I dated this chic once from one of the new England states , a place in terms if population with about 1.1% ” black”  When I bumped into her later she told me that when we were dating she felt like she was doing something taboo and exotic, as she had never dated a black guy before all her friends were jealous. I guess the fact that I was from Brooklyn and worked out like  I might have served a prison sentence added to the whole mystique.

What do you think

Related articles

• Taking the Negative: Islam and terrorism
• Taking the Negative: The Movie Hero
• Introducing a new Series: Taking the Negative dedicated to Chinua Achebe
• Where Are Politics’ Interracial Couples?

Taking the Negative: The Movie Hero

“It’s funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen.”
― Anthony Burgess

As a child I loved the movies. For four dollars one could watch an amazing story. Nowadays this may not be significant, but as I kid I only read stories. Through reading I was co-creator of worlds of conflict, of resolution. The movies were like my seventh day of creation. I could take it easy someone else was responsible for the small details of reality.  I did not notice certain recurring themes.

Whether it is ridding the world of an ancient unspeakable evil, or saving the world from an impossibly belligerent army, or even a galaxy of evil doing aliens humanity’s future is always assured in the hands of a Caucasian leader/Hero/Messiah. No where is this so clear as Conrad‘s The Heart of Darkness.

The Heart of Darkness

I should pause to mention that this whose series is inspired by and dedicated to in many ways Chinua Achebe so it is with great pleasure that comment on the heart of Darkness and his essay: “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness.” In his lecture/essay Achebe advances the idea that  Conrad purposefully depicts Africa “the other world” in order to look at Europe in a different light. To Achebe:

Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world,” the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality. The book opens on the River Thames, tranquil, resting, peacefully “at the decline of day after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks.” But the actual story will take place on the River Congo, the very antithesis of the Thames. The River Congo is quite decidedly not a River Emeritus. It has rendered no service and enjoys no old-age pension. We are told that “Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world.“

Of course, getting back, the Heart of Darkness, it was written after the time of the  1884 Berlin Conference. It appeared in 1899 as a three part series in a newspaper. Eight and a half years before writing the book, Conrad had been appointed by a Belgian trading company to serve as the captain of a steamer on the Congo River. It is assumed that thought his stay brief due to sickness was he saw provided the backdrop for the story.  A word about the Berlin Conference:

The Berlin Conference of 1884–85 regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany’s sudden emergence as an imperial power. ….. its outcome, the General Act of the Berlin Conference, can be seen as the formalization of the Scramble for Africa. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, while simultaneously eliminating most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.

I want to be Clear

My intention isn’t to rehash a lot of debate that Achebe raised when he criticized Conrad’s canonical book.  I wan’t to say that there is a precedent in movies , well movies that I have seen of course in America being an American, where the savior of mankind is always of a certain type of look.

There are many famous Westerners who follow Buddhism but there are not many movies where Asians are saving the world.  This is interesting because Buddha is referred to as “The Savior of the World.” In the Green Hornet Bruce Lee is the valet of the main character. He is under the beck and call of his employer. He is told who and when to attack like a vicious pit bull.  Yet in one of my favorite films  Enter the Dragon, a Hong Kong action film Bruce Lee is  totally depicted differently he is a hero, a bad ass  he isn’t under anyone beck and call.

There are not many movies where many Hispanics are saving the world same can be said for Middle Easterners.  Even Jesus himself who was born in Palestine could not get a tan for centuries if one were to look at all the old Christian art depicting him as anything but a Middle Easterner.

Questions

Can you imagine any of these heros with any other ethnicity

As a kid I love Christopher Reeves portrayal as the man of steel. I couldn’t see a black guy as wearing blue and red tights called Superman. He couldn’t save people in the neighborhoods were superman frequents. He could only work in Harlem and in the ethnic ghettos I’d imagine. Plus a muscular black dude in tights sound pornographic. While you may think I am joking please refer to the movie Mandingo or if that is too below your station read Sir Richards Burton First translation of the 1001 Nights which was published in 1850 (I’ve read it a good3-4 times in my life)

Then they all paired off, each with each: but the Queen, who was left alone, presently cried out in a loud voice, “Here to me, O my lord Saeed!” and then sprang with a drop leap from one of the trees a big slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites, a truly hideous sight.He walked boldly up to her and threw his arms round her neck while she embraced him as warmly; then he bussed her and winding his legs round hers, as a button loop clasps a button, he threw her and enjoyed her. On like wise did the other slaves with the girls till all had satisfied their passions, and they ceased not from kissing and clipping, coupling and carousing till day began to wane; when the Mamelukes rose from the damsels’ bosoms and the blackamoor slave dismounted from the Queen’s breast; the men resumed their disguises and all, except the negro who swarmed up the tree, entered the palace and closed the postern door as before.

Please compare that to Joseph Conrad’s memory of meeting his first black person:

“A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards.”

Centuries of this kind of thinking  doesn’t go away over night. It lingers for a while  sometimes in seemingly innocuous places. I’m not trying to say things are as bad, or that things aren’t better than they were in the past. I’m saying that just taking the negative  switching the colors of movie heroes and saviors often times can be a bridge back to the certain cultural practices and biases that still linger onwards to this day.

This was discussed in a sole  superman comic issue

Muhammad X is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. Real name unrevealed, his first (and so far sole) appearance was in Superman v2, #179 (August 2002). Muhammad X is the self-proclaimed protector of Harlem NY, using his ability to alter density and gravity to protect the community. When Superman runs into him, Muhammad browbeats him, accusing him of ignoring Harlem and, in essence, the black community. This causes the Man of Steel to question his understanding of race relations and leads to his seeking advice from his supporting cast/colleagues such as Lois Lane and Natasha Irons.

What a name how predictable but anyways still interesting. I’m not the  only one thinking about this it seems.

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

Taking the Negative: Islam and terrorism

When people think of Muslims many things come to mind: there are fanatical Muslims, Jihadist, Islamist, fundamentalist. We are lost in the  many shades of grey that each term applies. Muslims are often depicted as warlike barbaric, anti-democratic and socially backward. The image above will generally evoke negative  reactions. It will bring up terrorism and cowardly acts that hurt a nation and peaceful loving people around the world. But is that really the case

Edward Said and the 1980′s

Edward Said wrote an incredible book in the 80′s called Orientalism. While much work has done since its publication it still has many interesting messages.  But before I get into that I would like to  mention a quote from Said:

Despite the variety and the differences, and however much we proclaim the contrary, what the media produce is neither spontaneous nor completely “free:” “news” does not just happen, pictures and ideas do not merely spring from reality into our eyes and minds, truth is not directly available, we do not have unrestrained variety at our disposal. 

For like all modes of communication, television, radio, and newspapers observe certain rules and conventions to get things across intelligibly, and it is these, often more than the reality being conveyed, that shape the material delivered by the media. ”

Taking the Negative

So far as the United States seems to be concerned, it is only a slight overstatement to say that Moslems and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists. Very little of the detail, the human density, the passion of Arab-Moslem life has entered the awareness of even those people whose profession it is to report the Arab world. What we have instead is a series of crude, essentialized caricatures of the Islamic world presented in such a way as to make that world vulnerable to military aggression.

-Edward Said

What Would happened if the News media used these pictures to depict muslims:

American Muslim Soldier

YouTube Co-Foudner Jawed Karim

A Misconception: All Muslims are Arabs

The common image of a Muslim is a turbaned dark Arab man with a long beard. However this image is part of the minority of Muslims. Arabs make only 15% of the world’s Muslim population. As a matter of fact the Middle East comes in third with East Asia coming in at first (69%) and Africa (27%) coming in at second. Another common misconception is that all Arabs are Muslims. While the vast majority of Arabs are Muslims (75%), there are many other religions that Arabs practice including Christianity and Judaism.

This is not a terrorist Rally

Pictured above is a conference of Muslims against Terrorism.

My question is to what extent is the media responsible for domestic crimes against minority group when they are a significant source of  the stereotypical image many Americans receive? Look at these words from the son of a Sikh murdered by the supremacist gun a few weeks back:

My 65-year-old father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was shot five times, knife in hand, as he wrestled with a domestic terrorist in the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. The coward fled, leaving my father to pass away in a murmur of meditation. My father lived the American dream. Starting with only a couple bucks in his pocket, he worked hard and long to make a life for his family and his community, helping to build the Sikh temple where he was attacked.

….

On Aug. 5, the American dream was attacked. Immigrants, whether naturalized — like my father — or not, have been treated as a second class for far too long. Mexican-American and Muslim immigrants shoulder the brunt of this sentiment. Yet all people who are not Caucasian and Christian most likely have felt this disregard, including African-Americans, brought to this country against their own free will. Conservatives who are anti-immigration add to the poison by denigrating foreigners more and more often.

It is a sad and backward situation because immigrants are the lifeblood of this country, as John F. Kennedy wrote so eloquently in his book, “A Nation of Immigrants.”

One thing that was heart breaking for me about this tragedy was that to say it plainly:

Sikhs are not Muslims but apparently have been targeted because the men wear turbans.

That’s like shooting a kid wearing a hoodie and eating skittles because thugs who had committed crime before wore similar …… oh excuse me.  I think it is easy to incite a people towards violence and bigotry with irresponsible sensationalistic  reporting that does really give a a complete story. There are many decent American Muslims and peace loving Muslims around the world. But we are not shown them, instead we meditate on the violent ones on that percentage of radicals who  many a time American foreign policy and European Imperialistic propensities helped create.

Anyways just some thoughts leave your own thoughts and comments below

Related articles

• Poll: GOP really dislikes Muslims
• 57% of Republicans Don’t Like Muslims
• With Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes on the Rise, Where Is National Outrage?
• Arabs fight for equality in America often against their own
• My Take: Sikh temple shooting is act of terrorism
• Jihad At the DNC
• Poll: Republicans Strongly Dislike Muslims
• US conducts an experiment on survival on Muslim world

Introducing a new Series: Taking the Negative dedicated to Chinua Achebe

This series is an Homage to Chinua Achebe, reading his works has always been special treat to me 

My History of Taking the Negative

This has nothing to do with negativity or cynicism. It’s a simple exercise really. I always wanted to be a photographer and eventually when I get enough time out of work and a good camera I will  take the road. But before that my dears, I would like to share with you all a simple parlor trick.

I remember having 35 mm camera it let me know that I was off mentally. After I would take my roll of film that I spent 3 hours turning in the camera to roll up, to the pharmacy I would wait in anticipation to get back not so much the picture but the negatives. The negatives of those photos destroyed my world conceptually. They were to me like an alcoholics first few sips, or a virgin first time. The negative perplexed me.  You see the negatives exposed subtle nuances to the world i was a part of but could see. How did I not see the play of light and shadows on the kitchen table. Why does my uncles face show a slight irritation that I could see in real life but I could in the negatives. I used to think that most people threw away the negatives and kept the pictures because they were too afraid of what they would find if they look at the world with another pair of eyes. I was a precocious child and quite odd at least that’s what the older kids said when they threw rocks at me.

The Negative

I wanted to do that same thing with reality, can I change something and expose something that was there but we take for granted. I think i found a way. Let me show you

____________________________

The point behind this exercises is that things are just black and white there are many shades of grey, many subtle meanings. Take for example Caucasian Celebrities who adopt African babies. No harm in adopting. It saves lives, it gives someone a future supposedly. There are many reasons for someone to adopt, especially if one looks at the LIVESTRONG webpage entitled:

REASONS YOU SHOULD ADOPT A CHILD

1. Many people find that adoption is a good option when faced with infertility
2. Some couples desire children but have serious genetic or medical complications that could make natural pregnancy very challenging, which makes adoption a good alternative.
3. The idea of rescuing a child who would otherwise grow up without the benefits of having a supportive and loving family is also a good reason to adopt. Religious, ethical and even emotional feelings coupled with the desire to make the world a better place are good reasons to adopt children, particularly from developing countries or those born to single teenage mothers domestically.
4. Another reason you should adopt a child is if you lack an appropriate heterosexual partner to have children with. If you are either single or homosexual and desire children, it is a good idea to adopt rather than have to deal with all the complications of using a surrogate mother or sperm donor to create a natural child.

So I said to myself

I said what would the negative of that look, what if Samuel L. Jackson or Don Cheedle or  Djimon Gaston Hounsou and other famous black stars and also couples started adopting blonde hair blue eyed babies and/or red headed gingers ?  Would that image, would the negative  be as lauded and as acceptable as the pictures we are presented. What if after adoption on of these black couples read the first stanza of a famous Rudyard Kipling poem , written as a response to the American take over of the Phillipines after the Spanish-American War.

Take up the White Man’s burden–
Send forth the best ye breed–
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild–
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

What I am not saying

I’m not judging the image or saying its right on wrong. I’m just taking ‘the negative’.Nothing good or bad just painting an image and looking as always for responses not so much a flame war. This is a novel way of deconstruction of social commentary. Like Imagine when the news media talked about women wearing veils being oppressed we should an image of Mary Mother of Christ depicted with a veil. Or imagine  if instead of DMX rapping and saying “What this Bitches Want from a Nigga!”, it was Newt Gingrich saying that, as he contemplates a fourth marriage. I’m not again targeting any one, just switching some things around , taking the negative and seeing if I can learn something about our culture , about our culture. I quote some lines from Hafiz because his lines speak volumes, and because this is about an exploration together with you the reader, and there is something cool bout that

This is not a courtroom anymore!

The time of judging
who’s drunk or sober,
        who’s right or wrong,
                 who’s closer to God or farther away,

all that’s over.

This caravan is led instead
by a great Delight, the simple
joy that sits with us now,

                 that is the grace.

 

Why this is dedicated to Chinua Achebe

I don’t Know Mr. Achebe, but i remember I was an avid readers and bibliophile. I remember one summer I read many books even for me before I stumbled upon Achebe: Moliere, Shakespeare, Camus, Sartre, Dylan Thomas, James Joyce,  Hemingway, T.S.Eliot. Then I read  Achebe. I picked up the seminal Things Fall Apart, I didn’t even noticed the authors name but it was the first time I read a story where the narrator was clearly African, African African not J.M Coetzee African. it was my first experience with taking a negative and deconstruction of what passes for social norm. I talked about this with my Caucasian friend Mike and we had a great talk about it, it deepened both our appreciations and understandings of literature and the role that the identity of the narrators plays in conflict creation and resolution in the novel, in both the Canon and in  Post colonial literature .

And there you have it!!!!