By Steve Kearse Racism’s greatest power is its ability to drastically simplify the world. Through racism, literally all things – clothing, behaviors, desires, needs, potentials, friendships – become ordered and recognizable, “obvious” and apparent. Racism provides answers by making the world unquestionable. Given this alarming power, the fundamental task of all anti-racist work is to deny this contrived simplicity and undermine it, exposing the unrelenting complexity of the world and refusing to accept anything less, anything simple. There are many ways …
Author: Tracy Jones
Two years before D.W. Griffith’s abominable masterpiece Birth Of Nation pulled a Clockwork Orange on white folks, portraying black people as monstrous savage animals, the silent 1913 film Bert Williams: Lime Kiln Field Day (a working title) was portraying blacks quite differently. They weren’t super heroes, intellectuals or persevering under dogs. It’s a romantic comedy starring Bert Williams, a famous black entertainer who performed on Broadway and in black face. He performs in black face in the film as well. Museum of Modern Art curator Ron …
Democracy Now headlines 10-24-2014. [Democracy Now] “If we run and they kill us so be it but we have to run now.” Six months ago, 276 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram. The handful who escaped that night have never told the full story of their ordeal — until now. [Matter] The Worth of Black Men, From Slavery to Ferguson [NY Times] Ferguson, Asian America, & Performative Solidarity: Showing Up, Staying Shown – By PaKou Her. Cross-posted from 18 Million Rising. [Angry Asian Man] HuffPost Live …
“Murder House,” the first season of American Horror Story took all the familiar horror tropes and made them their own, turning scary clichés into compelling beats in the story. By midseason, creator and producer Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk turned the show into a funny game of “name that horror reference.” Murphy and Falchuk had ghosts having sex and killing the living. It was amusingly ridiculous. Jessica Lange as Constance, the masterful conniving next-door neighbor, dominated every frame she stepped in. …
This is a half hour documentary about a young Afghan women named Soheila. To settle a conflict, she was bartered by her father, Rahimullah, to another family when she was five-years-old. When she turned 16 she was suppose to marry a 67-year-old man, becoming just one of his several wives. The trading of female babies to become wives is described in a New York Times article that featured the film: The practice is known as baad, in which young girls …