Over on Steve Barnes's blog, there's a long-running discussion about racism. One of the things that Barnes points out is that, in Hollywood, this skews movies somewhat, consciously or not; in movies that are considered blockbusters -- making more than a hundred million dollars -- if there is a black guy or Asian guy in the lead, he never gets laid on-screen.
It is, unfortunately, true, and it probably says more about Americans than we want to admit.
That said, I wanted to razz Barnes a little about it, so I wrote a short song for him for Christmas.
Among all the other reasons I'm no doubt going to hell, add this one to the pile ...
3 comments:
Posted this on Steve Barns' Blog. Yeah, I know, I'm a wordy bastard.
Caught your tune, yup, your right, you ARE going to hell. At least all your friends will be there and it will be warm.
Dave
Couple of points I wanted to inject here if it's ok. First piece that came to mind when I caught Steve Perry's reference to this discussion was Clevon Little schtupped the socks off of Madline Kahn in Blazing Saddles and Mel Brooks made no bones about what he thought about racist pieces of shit. The second piece that jumped into mind was a pretty graphic scene with Richard Pryor and Margo Kidder in "Some Kind of Hero".
Be that as it may, I get your, and agree with your point. Here is a funny thing, I've been reading your stuff for years and had no, nor cared not a wit about your race or your gender or even if you were human. I buy your work, you got talent, and I buy more. Kind of works that way on the screen for me, too.
At least with MY wallet.
Side note, I remember Arsenio Hall when he was the hottest thing in late night, even boosted a president. When he started to get a little too racially focused and started alienating people his star nose dived pretty fast. I personally think that when you start to define yourself with something too strongly, you exclude others, and that just pisses them off. Does this excuse racist behavior, no, but I think that some of these feelings can be misconstrued when the real trigger is an individual’s overemphasis on self identity using race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, lodge affiliation..........which is always going to leave someone out.
Preaching to the Choir I know, but I'm not so sure things are not taking a slow turn for the better. The Pot melts slowly, maybe not as fast as we would like, but surely........
Dave
Steve, you are so going to Hell for that one.
Dave --
I think Barnes's points are multiple and, for the most part, all too valid. If you pound the drum too loud, you loose your audience -- save at a rock concert, and even then, some of them will stuff cotton in their ears. But if you can't use a drum at all, you might not be able to keep the beat.
Role models for black men in popular culture have historically been less than inspiring. Rarely, there is that book or movie in which the black guy is smart, honest, sexy, talented, and wins in the end. If you grow up with that, you might be excused for want to see a tad more of it now and again.
If all you see are images of Stepin Fetchit, pimps, drug dealers, ganstas, and rappers, you might find that somewhat offputting. I would.
That Ellen is gay didn't bother me. That her show began to pound that beat to the point that she forgot to be funny? That was the problem for me. Once she got past wanting shout it at the world and went back to being funny, that was the cure.
Post a Comment