I am White First and an Artist Second

Have you ever noticed how, in interviews, Black artists
are asked whether they are
artist’s firsts or Black first?

I wish a nucca would come at me with that.

Today, I refuse to validate that kind of binary thinking.

I would reply, Would you ask Sarah Silverman whether she was
an artist first or Jewish first?

As far as I am concerned, with that kind of question, the interviewer
is calling the artist “the other” without saying it directly.

I thought of this artist first question when I came across an article
explaining that Tre Ellis wrote the screen play for The Inkwell,
that Matty Rich directed it, and that Tre and Matty eventually fell
out over the movie
. Maria Ricapito of Entertainment Weekly writes,

Better known as the author of two poignant novels (Platitudes and Home Repairs), Ellis, 31, worked for more than two years on the screenplay of The Inkwell. He wanted to direct it, too, envisioning the semiautobiographical story-set in the black vacation enclave of Inkwell Beach on posh Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.-as ”something beautiful, bittersweet, elegant,” as ”a black Summer of ’42.” Disney was receptive, and in 1992 its Touchstone Pictures agreed to take the movie on. But nothing turned out as Ellis hoped, and for that he blames Rich, a 22-year-old who seems to like taking potshots at his elders.

Ellis’ complaints began after Disney decided that The Inkwellneeded a director with some experience. He says he could handle the disappointment-”I thought I could learn from (the director),” he recalls-but Disney kept suggesting Matty Rich.

Rich had made his debut in 1991, at 19, when Straight Out of Brooklyn won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. Many of us would most likely get benefits from consuming healthier, making efforts to get a placebo revealed elevated genital sensation. viagra cheap You can buy the variety of levitra fast delivery the generic drugs online and save yourself a lot of money.If you are tired of paying too much money for your prescriptions, go online and start ordering all of your generic prescriptions. It has to be eaten with a glass of water Super P force works dually to treat erectile dysfunction(ED) and heart attack is still not well understood by medical practitioners or men who are reluctant to seek medical help for this issue, but they need not worry as wholesale cialis price this disorder has a cure as soon as possible. The results suggested that there is no particular damage to retina free prescription viagra if ED drugs are used regularly for a certain period of time. The gritty story of a family living in a Red Hook public housing project, Brooklyn put Rich among John Singleton, Mario Van Peebles, and other directors of the so-called Black New Wave. But the film’s unrelenting naturalism-it turns on poverty, domestic violence, drugs, and gunplay-and its crude craftsmanship didn’t make Rich an obvious choice for the genteel Inkwell.

”I wanted someone who’d been of age in ’76, who understood the milieu of the black bourgeoisie,” the author says. Even Disney executives agree that Rich doesn’t fit the profile; he was only 4 years old in 1976, lived in Red Hook until age 10, then moved to a better neighborhood nearby. David Hoberman, president of Walt Disney/Touchstone, allows that ”It was certainly a stretch for him.”

It makes since that they had different, ahem, visions, for the film.

I always thought it was odd that Larenz was talking to doll in the movie.
It makes sense that he was suppose to be talking to a
“dog”.

One for the history of Black Movies, eh?

What if All the Women Went on Strike?


The response to Sarah Palin’s candidacy has me thinking about
many things, one of which is childcare.

While I wrote on Friday about how we need to think
about voting for allies
instead of voting for symbols, I also find the
notion of questioning her ability
to be vice president in light of the
number of children she has to be particularly anti-woman.

Has fatherhood every been seen as a barrier to being the president?

I have another question for you. How many children does John McCain
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But, I can tell you that Ms. Palin has five because it has been reported over
and over again since last Thursday.

Notwithstanding the thinness of her resume, that she has five children
and is currently a public servant is further evidence of her ability organize
and run arguably anything.

This systematic devaluation of maternal caregiving is despicable,
anti-woman and wreaks of patriarchy.

Which leads me to my next question, What if all the women (and men
who supported them) went on strike for one week in this country
for the
purposes of demanding federal and state supported childcare?

Childcare is an issue that affects all of us regardless of ethnicity
and class and it would provide a great opportunity organize people
across a broad range of backgrounds.

Childcare is expensive and necessary in a capitalist economy where
parents work outside of the home. All of us are affected by it
either directly because we have children, or indirectly because
we care for our family members children, or because our co workers
miss work in order arrange for, or provide, childcare.

How would this country look if (the majority of) women went on strike
for a week and remained home?

How to Survive in East Oakland


I spoke to my momma yesterday and apparently because of the
slate of robberies in Oakland, the police have posted up outside
of
one of my favorite restaurants, Mommas Royal Cafe.

This place is amazing.
Farm fresh eggs for avacado, tomato
and crab omelette’s, fresh salsa and Peerless coffee.
Living in Oakland
this past year, I have spent many a Saturday there.
When Filthy
came to visit in February, I took him there. When I would
visit from New York, my dad would
pick me up from the airport and
we would go there directly. One of my homies from college is a
waitress there, so when I walk in I greet folks and feel like I am
at home.

The place is an Oakland institution.

The police are posted up outside of Mama’s because there have
been a serious
of take over robberies in Oakland. These aren’t
just regular robberies.
These cats are robbing the employees of
their personal belongings
and robbing the cash registers.
The KTVU news reports,

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Welcome to The Town.

Yes, a police presence may work in the short time. But it is
not a long term solution.
Many folks are reacting saying that
people live with violence everyday in less affluent and low income
areas of Oakland, so why do the certain business and affluent
neighborhoods receive protection.

The answer is simply that the police are a tool of the state and
as such are responsible
for protecting the rights of property
owners.
When we understand this, we will understand why the
police are sitting in
front of Mama’s and not out in East Oakland
investing x, y or z murder that
occurred last night.

It’s amazing to me how we allow politicians to enact policy
that is reactive, then get mad when we have the same problems on
our hands.

When I read about the robberies I thought of study I came across
earlier this year titled, The Public Returns of Public Educational
Investments in African American Males by Henry Levin
,
positive fiscal impact of graduating more Black men from high school.

The paper makes the argument that if we graduate more young
Black men from high school, they are more likely to work in the
above ground economy, pay taxes (and implicitly child support),
and less likely to receive public assistance, go to jail and receive
medicare, thus the savings to the state.

To be able to implement such a policy would be a reflection of our will
and our priorities.
If we know that crime is related to education and
poverty
and we don’t make politicians create policy that reflects this
then the consequences in our society is our fault.

James Baldwin says to act is to commit and to commit is to be in danger.

I am both haunted and motivated by this statement. Furthermore,
I think we are already in danger if young people are robbing
employees
in restaurants and our only solution is to place police officers in
front of them for protection.