By Fallon
Friday, February 5, 2010 at 9:13 am
“Mirror . . . mirror on the wall who the fairest of them all?” In most fairytales, the mirror would reply, “Snow white is the fairest of them all.” However, in the case of Vanity Fair’s March cover, the names are Abbie Cornish, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, and Anna Kendrick . . . all up incoming young white Hollywood actresses. According to Shine’s writer, Joanna Douglass,
Vanity Fair writer Evgenia Peretz calls out the young cover stars by their best attributes: “downy-soft cheeks,” “button nose,” “patrician looks and celebrated pedigree,” “dewy, wide-eyed loveliness,” “Ivory-soap-girl features.”
Clearly, Evgenia Peretz has over-dosed on the proverbial white supremacist poisoned apple. I know what you’re thinking. Do such apples exist? Yes, they do just ask Pat Robertson what he thinks about Haiti or ask the producer and director of Couples Retreat about taking the black comedian, Faizon Love, off the European posters.
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By Jonathan
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:15 am
30.1 Million dollar is how much it cost.
This past Monday I woke up at 7 am in the morning to participate in the University of Chicago’s annual day of service. To be honest, when the clock went off for me to wake up, I had my doubts if I was going to be able to overcome my slumber on one of the very few days that we get out of school. With the encouragement of knowing that had I made a commitment, I broke from my three hours of sleep and walked the block and a half to sign up for my service project. Usually they have you clean out of tool shed or paint a nursery, but on this day (Martin Luther King Jr Holiday) I got lucky. I was signed up to go tutor students at the Gary Comer Youth Center. Read more »
By Summer M.
Monday, January 11, 2010 at 8:00 am
There are 3 things my Grandma Charlotte used to tell me all the time: 1. That books are my friends; 2. That she is always right–even when she’s wrong (she’s right); and 3. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. I remembered that last point when I heard about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comments about then-candidate Obama. If the extent of Reid’s comments were what I read in the HuffPo article about the book, Game Change, the interview appears in, then I’m really not all that mad at Senator Reid. In fact, I agree with him. He’s only in hot water because we need a dose of (racial) honesty.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid apologized on Saturday for saying the race of Barack Obama – whom he described as a “light skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one” – would help rather than hurt his eventual presidential bid.
Um, this is racist? Let’s take it point by point. Read more »
By Jonathan
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 1:57 am
They said it would make my life better. They said I would find my “purpose.” It was my 8th grade school year. My pastor said I should read this book that would change my life. The name of the book was A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. It’s always interesting to reflect back to my pre-teen life and think about the different things I was involved in. Some of my childhood experiences were amazing and shaped who I am today, other experiences—like buying Rick Warren’s book—are just embarrassing. I was reading a book by one of the most divisive and homophobic/anti-gay men in America, at 13.
The author of the very same book, seven years later is now in the limelight being accused of supporting the Uganda Anti-Homosexual Legislation Bill. Proposed on the 13th of October 2009 by Member of Parliament David Bahati, the Bill would criminalize key aspects of comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention education and imprison health-care workers who refuse to report sexually active gay patients to the police. 
If enacted, it would also broaden the criminalization of homosexuality in Uganda, including introducing the death penalty for HIV positive people who have previous convictions, instituting extradition for those engaging in same-sex sexual relations outside Uganda, and penalizing individuals, companies, or media organizations who support LGBT rights.
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By Supernerd
Thursday, December 24, 2009 at 6:19 am
I read the New York Times article titled “Food Stamps Usage Soars, Stigma Fades.” The article is about the lessening of stigma regarding the use of food stamps. What comes to mind when you think of the U.S. welfare system, specifically food stamps or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)?
For me, I remember seeing black single mothers with multiple children (read: more than 3) in the grocery store handing multi-colored slips of paper across the counter to the cashier. Others, like President Ronald Reagan, associate with this program certain women, like Linda Taylor, Barbara Williams, Arlens Otis, and Dorothy Woods. As defrauders of government sponsored welfare programs, these women’s public “transgressions” aided Ronald Reagan to stir the public imagination and create the “welfare queen. ” In his most famous of quotes regarding the welfare queen, He said:
“She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards and is collecting veteran’s benefits on four non-existing deceased husband. She’s got Medicaid, getting food-stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names.”
By Summer M.
Monday, December 14, 2009 at 9:18 am
I had a bit of a family emergency last week that resulted in me spending several hours in New York Presbyterian Hospital instead of checking out that tree in Rockefeller Center, seeing Shrek before it leaves Broadway next month, and visiting my favorite sneaker boutiques. (To the folks who commented on last week’s blog, my apologies. Life happens and I didn’t have much time to engage.) As a result, I kind of have no idea what’s going on in the world. I do know, however, that Victor and Nikki got back together (AGAIN!) after his heart transplant. Thanks, Grandma Charlotte.
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By Summer M.
Monday, November 30, 2009 at 9:00 am
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Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I swear I saw commercials for the movie The Blind Side more times than I caught the ads of those cats singing the free credit report jingle. (F-R-E-E that spells free/credit report dot com, baby…) Environmentalists could learn a lot from Hollywood; that place recycles scenarios more often than a tree hugger sneers at Hummer drivers.
The trailers for the movie indicate that The Blind Side is yet another addition to that long list of white savior movies. I haven’t seen it and don’t plan to (In grad school, we call this not being bound by the text.), but it seems that Sandra “I’m doing this movie to make up for playing a racist in Crash” Bullock saves a big black kid from the perils of blackness. (Crabs in a barrel. You know the deal.) I guess the Based on a true story tagline wants to goad me into not being critical of the movie, the genre. Whatever. The movie has provided an occasion to address the white savior film. Since I’ve seen every episode of Webster and Diff’rent Strokes and Dangerous Minds (twice), I’m going to provide a primer for Negro saving for any and all white folks with plenty of money and love in their hearts to adopt a hapless black kid. And for you black youth out there, pay attention. You might find something useful here to make yourself more marketable. Read more »
By Jonathan
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 2:37 am
I am starting a three-week series based on the lies that I was told in grade school. It recently occurred to me that a lot of the history that I was taught was not only wrong, but the truth was skewed for very specific purposes. I can remember learning about the Black Panthers in elementary school and how I was given a negative and demonizing view of Fred Hampton, or how I was made to think the Civil War was a black and white issue about abolishing slavery. I realized that these lies changed my outlook on important figures in history and seemed to always paint America as the hero/peace maker, when many times the leaders of this country were the main perpetrators.
Since I can remember, Thanksgiving has marked the start of the holiday season for me. A time of year that was usually pretty happy in my childhood mind. The idea of being grateful for where I was in life and the things God has given me always made sense. My family never really had much, but we always knew it could have been worse.
In this age of technology, globalization, and the continuous sharing of information, how do we continue to get history wrong? Is deception more comfortable?
Thousands of years before Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed the ‘official’ Thanksgiving Day in 1637, North American Indigenous people across the continent had celebrated seasons of Thanksgiving. ’Thanksgiving’ is a very ancient concept to American Indian nations. The big problem with the American Thanksgiving holiday is its false association with Native Americans, the infamous ‘Indians and pilgrims’ myth.
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Sex makes me nervous! I get nervous both before and after sex. I am nervous because in my head I picture this spinning chart of numbers and statistics that makes me realize that sex is the ultimate Russian roulette. You pull the trigger you get a risk-free nut; you pull the trigger again and you get a parting gift. 