There’s no way to feel good about “The Help”
I have previously stated that I would not see the movie The Help, and I made this claim on two grounds: 1) Ablene Cooper who sued Kathryn Stockett for a mere $75,000 because Stockett stole her story had her lawsuit dismissed due to an elapsed statute of limitations. 2) Not only did the movie earn [...]
The X-Men franchise draws deliberate parallels between the oppression of mutants and that of other marginalized groups. What does it have to teach us about our own culture’s racial history and prejudices?
Continue reading …David L. Wolper died last week at age 82. Many of you will wonder what the connection is between Wolper and Indian country. Wolper will go down in media history as the film producer who brought you the epic story of slavery with his award winning “Roots” which aired in eight parts on ABC in [...]
Continue reading …I know the Oscars happened a week ago, but I’m still nagged by some of the larger implications of the event. The general controversy has been covered here and elsewhere. What I would like to do is highlight the limited scope of people of color throughout the history of the Academy Awards. My intent is [...]
Continue reading …Children ages eight to 18 spend more than seven hours a day with entertainment media, according to national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation released last month. The consumption of entertainment media includes listening to music, playing video games, watching TV and social networking on sites like Facebook. Adults of course likely spend far less [...]
Continue reading …The ways in which Hollywood amalgamates – albeit uncritically and not always consciously – entertainment and pedagogy is necessary for any discussion around race on the big screen. When it comes to animation, this becomes an even larger issue. Walt Disney has long lent itself to a tradition of assuming aesthetic pleasure over critical [...]
Continue reading …Avatar’s racial politics are more complex than its critics claim. But the film has some noteworthy sociopolitical flaws, and these flaws also deserve some attention.
Continue reading …Originally posted on Between The Lines in Psychology Today. Avatar is so visually stunning it seems almost a shame to break it down and analyze the micro components. I saw it in 3-D, and a day later, I still recall the sensation of being surrounded by grasses and ferns in the jungle and ducking my [...]
Continue reading …It was déjà vu all over again for me. It was Christmas, my two young bi-racial nieces were in town for Christmas and we decided to all go see Disney’s new “ Princess & the Frog” movie. To be candid, I thought it was the worst fairy tale I have ever seen in my life. [...]
Continue reading …Originally posted on Stopbigmedia.com What do Disney’s debut film, The Princess and the Frog, Mattel’s new Black Barbie line, and the American tour of the historic Ethiopian fossil, “Lucy,” have in common? Their stories present an opportunity for honest and successful discussions about race in the media. But what they really do is point to [...]
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