By now, you've probably heard Eminem's cypher (freestyle rap devoid of music or even straight beats), but in case you haven't, here it is:
That was first released during the BET Awards, which have made a tradition of releasing some throughout the years. This was Eminem's third or fourth such cypher for the event in the past decade.
What I mostly came to post about was the amount of support Em received by doing so:
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Friday, June 9, 2017
Video Of The Week: Ice Cube
If you were to categorize the best rappers of all time, chances are Tupac Shakur's in your top-3; he's in mine as well. Eminem has taken himself out of contention because his most recent material doesn't match the quality of his previous output - say, anything until the 8 Mile soundtrack; it seems he's been trying to re-do Lose Yourself all the time since then, except perhaps for Berzerk. Ice Cube, the king of squared, 4/4 rap, also makes my cut, and the third spot is a toss-up between Busta Rhymes, Mos Def and a few members of the Wu-Tang Clan, particularly Raekwon and Ghostface Killah.
In terms of rap lyricists, my #1 pick would be Public Enemy's Chuck D, who's always stayed on point regardless of how long he's been in the game, his words always current, carrying the political weight of truth. I'd probably go with Everlast (House Of Pain, Warpon Industries) in second place and, again, Ice Cube in third. KRS-One misses by just a bit, as does Tupac.
My favourite current-day rapper just might be Donald Glover, though - a.k.a. Childish Gambino: smart, incisive, good flow, diverse subject mater, equally at ease rapping about toys from the 1980s as he is politics.
Which makes Cube the rapper I find to be most important. And, as I've mentioned here before, he's kept his output quality at a high level throughout the decades - ok, maybe his records aren't all killer and there are fillers, but his records' high points are always consistent.
For Good Cop Bad Cop, which will appear on the 25th Anniversary Edition of his seminal Death Certificate album, he tackles the subject of racism and police brutality in a post-Black Lives Mater world, and his conclusion is fairly simple: we are no better off today than in 1988 when his group N.W.A. sang "Fuck The Police".
Good Cop Bad Cop (Official Video, Explicit) by Ice Cube on VEVO.
The video was directed by Gabriel Hart.
In terms of rap lyricists, my #1 pick would be Public Enemy's Chuck D, who's always stayed on point regardless of how long he's been in the game, his words always current, carrying the political weight of truth. I'd probably go with Everlast (House Of Pain, Warpon Industries) in second place and, again, Ice Cube in third. KRS-One misses by just a bit, as does Tupac.
My favourite current-day rapper just might be Donald Glover, though - a.k.a. Childish Gambino: smart, incisive, good flow, diverse subject mater, equally at ease rapping about toys from the 1980s as he is politics.
Which makes Cube the rapper I find to be most important. And, as I've mentioned here before, he's kept his output quality at a high level throughout the decades - ok, maybe his records aren't all killer and there are fillers, but his records' high points are always consistent.
For Good Cop Bad Cop, which will appear on the 25th Anniversary Edition of his seminal Death Certificate album, he tackles the subject of racism and police brutality in a post-Black Lives Mater world, and his conclusion is fairly simple: we are no better off today than in 1988 when his group N.W.A. sang "Fuck The Police".
Good Cop Bad Cop (Official Video, Explicit) by Ice Cube on VEVO.
The video was directed by Gabriel Hart.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Video Of The Week: Joey Bada$$
Some young fellas get into rap dreaming of jewels, cars and being surrounded by promiscuous women, and those are usually the type who get airplay and have the bumping songs that play in clubs and cars with their windows open; once in a while, though, one of them has a message that needs to be heard, and early this year, that rapper is Joey Bada$$, a 22-year-old from Brooklyn.
He's still young and impulsive, still "reps his crew" Pro Era and claims to be signed to an independent label - which may have been true at the time of his signing, but in the present day fails to acknowledge that Cinematic Records is now distributed by Sony...
Still, his All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ record, which (finally) came out on Thursday after having been announced for last August, seems to be an impactful record, and the current single, Land Of The Free, packs a nice punch in the heart of one of the two issues currently affecting the United States, racial tension.
The video, co-directed by Nathan R. Smith and Bada$$ himself, keeps the focus on the message instead of the packaging, showing him teaching history to children and facing police extremism (we're way past "brutality" when murder's involved):
He still has to perfect his skills (the introductory pre-song statement says "You know" twice in less than ten words), but his mind is clear and delivery is extremely efficient.
He's still young and impulsive, still "reps his crew" Pro Era and claims to be signed to an independent label - which may have been true at the time of his signing, but in the present day fails to acknowledge that Cinematic Records is now distributed by Sony...
Still, his All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ record, which (finally) came out on Thursday after having been announced for last August, seems to be an impactful record, and the current single, Land Of The Free, packs a nice punch in the heart of one of the two issues currently affecting the United States, racial tension.
The video, co-directed by Nathan R. Smith and Bada$$ himself, keeps the focus on the message instead of the packaging, showing him teaching history to children and facing police extremism (we're way past "brutality" when murder's involved):
He still has to perfect his skills (the introductory pre-song statement says "You know" twice in less than ten words), but his mind is clear and delivery is extremely efficient.
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Silent Extinction
Don't get me wrong, I signed the petition, but it's still fucked up that because people don't care enough to look into other people's situations in the Western World, they care more to act for animal rights than human rights:
In case it isn't clear, the email's subject line is "Silent Extinction".
Need we remind people that unarmed Black men are still getting shot daily by police in the U.S.?
That the sub-language and dialect of Paw-Paw (or "Missouri French") is in its last decade of existence in front of our very eyes?
Oh, speaking of French, that 6.5 million people in Québec are another generation away from losing a language they had kept alive for over 400 years because so-called Federalists' cuts in the education system have rendered those under the age of 25 unable to fucking spell and write their own fucking language?
On the daily, we are watching governments or government employees decide or participate in the silent genocide of people who have one thing in common: they are members of a community that is decidedly poorer than the ruling class of white Anglo-Saxons.
But let's save giraffes, or send whatever means of help to Congo, or start wars with Middle-Eastern countries, or threaten China with economic sanctions, or lift those with Russia. And let's keep having the media depict Cuba as a power-hungry dictatorship instead of a complete systemic overhaul that overthrew racism and corruption and is one detail away (an embargo from the world's largest exporter of goods) from thriving.
Yep, makes sense. White, Anglo-Saxon, imperialistic sense.
Need we remind people that unarmed Black men are still getting shot daily by police in the U.S.?
That the sub-language and dialect of Paw-Paw (or "Missouri French") is in its last decade of existence in front of our very eyes?
Oh, speaking of French, that 6.5 million people in Québec are another generation away from losing a language they had kept alive for over 400 years because so-called Federalists' cuts in the education system have rendered those under the age of 25 unable to fucking spell and write their own fucking language?
On the daily, we are watching governments or government employees decide or participate in the silent genocide of people who have one thing in common: they are members of a community that is decidedly poorer than the ruling class of white Anglo-Saxons.
But let's save giraffes, or send whatever means of help to Congo, or start wars with Middle-Eastern countries, or threaten China with economic sanctions, or lift those with Russia. And let's keep having the media depict Cuba as a power-hungry dictatorship instead of a complete systemic overhaul that overthrew racism and corruption and is one detail away (an embargo from the world's largest exporter of goods) from thriving.
Yep, makes sense. White, Anglo-Saxon, imperialistic sense.
Monday, February 8, 2016
Video Of The Week: Beyoncé
So Beyoncé was given what amounts to a cameo appearance in a Super Bowl half-time show though she's a thousand times the artist and performer Coldplay and Bruno Mars are, and, well... America lost its fucking mind.
Her performance of Formation scared the living shit out of white people who somehow still don't understand the anger coming from the racial violence that comes with cops killing unarmed citizens of one skin tone and not even getting prosecuted for it.
Good.
Common sense and history have seemingly both failed at educating the American masses, and they need the culture shock to arrive in 2016 and either wake up and behave like their Constitution wants them to (We The People, All men are created equal, etc.) or blow the whole fucking thing up and start from scratch.
Black folks are no longer slaves in the U.S., but having started out poor and at the bottom of the pile, the fact that the system's rigged to prevent the poor from reaching a better life disproportionately affects those who got their"equality" later in the game; and these days, brown people have it worst yet, with threats of deporting Latinos and the illegal way Middle Easterners are targeted as poential terror threats - and that's saying nothing of the legal enslaving of whoever makes the technology we use, the clothes we wear, the coffee we drink, and the jewels we give each other, but since that happens overseas, many are turning a blind eye to it.
All while corporations poison our water, our food, bankrupt us to death, kill off our education system and profit from jails.
But Beyoncé's the problem, right? Wrong. She's the messenger of a quarter of the population who is standing up for itself; we had that here in Québec three years ago, but like sheep we went back to our pasture quietly after we almost changed our corrupt leaders' ways and instead got stuck with corruption at all levels of government. I hope the Black community in the U.S. doesn't fall for that shit as well. As Public Enemy said: United we stand, divided we fall, and love conquers all. The African-American community should try to bring all levels of the population back up in the same footing - as equals - and not just accept one piece of candy to shut up and go back to their lives. If the largest democracy can finally get its act together, perhaps it'll inspire others abroad.
After all, B's Super Bowl performance had allusions to the Black Panthers, a political movement that came about in the 1960s as a voice for the voiceless and primarily African-Americans, sure, but whose main message was always to be treated as humans, as equals, to not be subjected to useless, mindless police brutality (ring a bell?) and, though they weren't afraid to use force in defense of their ideals, ultimately, they had leftist ideals of equality and educating young people of all races and creeds.
Here is the video she dropped some 24 hours beforehand, which is "just as Black" but without the BP garb:
It was directed by Melina Matsoukas, a Beyoncé (Green Light, Kitty Kat, Sugar Mama, Upgrade U, Diva, Sweet Dreams, Put It In A Love Song, Why Don't You Love Me, Move Your Body, Pretty Hurts, RUN and a Target ad) and Rihanna (Rude Boy, Rockstar 101, S&M, We Found Love, and You Da One) regular.
Her performance of Formation scared the living shit out of white people who somehow still don't understand the anger coming from the racial violence that comes with cops killing unarmed citizens of one skin tone and not even getting prosecuted for it.
Good.
Common sense and history have seemingly both failed at educating the American masses, and they need the culture shock to arrive in 2016 and either wake up and behave like their Constitution wants them to (We The People, All men are created equal, etc.) or blow the whole fucking thing up and start from scratch.
Black folks are no longer slaves in the U.S., but having started out poor and at the bottom of the pile, the fact that the system's rigged to prevent the poor from reaching a better life disproportionately affects those who got their"equality" later in the game; and these days, brown people have it worst yet, with threats of deporting Latinos and the illegal way Middle Easterners are targeted as poential terror threats - and that's saying nothing of the legal enslaving of whoever makes the technology we use, the clothes we wear, the coffee we drink, and the jewels we give each other, but since that happens overseas, many are turning a blind eye to it.
All while corporations poison our water, our food, bankrupt us to death, kill off our education system and profit from jails.
But Beyoncé's the problem, right? Wrong. She's the messenger of a quarter of the population who is standing up for itself; we had that here in Québec three years ago, but like sheep we went back to our pasture quietly after we almost changed our corrupt leaders' ways and instead got stuck with corruption at all levels of government. I hope the Black community in the U.S. doesn't fall for that shit as well. As Public Enemy said: United we stand, divided we fall, and love conquers all. The African-American community should try to bring all levels of the population back up in the same footing - as equals - and not just accept one piece of candy to shut up and go back to their lives. If the largest democracy can finally get its act together, perhaps it'll inspire others abroad.
After all, B's Super Bowl performance had allusions to the Black Panthers, a political movement that came about in the 1960s as a voice for the voiceless and primarily African-Americans, sure, but whose main message was always to be treated as humans, as equals, to not be subjected to useless, mindless police brutality (ring a bell?) and, though they weren't afraid to use force in defense of their ideals, ultimately, they had leftist ideals of equality and educating young people of all races and creeds.
Here is the video she dropped some 24 hours beforehand, which is "just as Black" but without the BP garb:
It was directed by Melina Matsoukas, a Beyoncé (Green Light, Kitty Kat, Sugar Mama, Upgrade U, Diva, Sweet Dreams, Put It In A Love Song, Why Don't You Love Me, Move Your Body, Pretty Hurts, RUN and a Target ad) and Rihanna (Rude Boy, Rockstar 101, S&M, We Found Love, and You Da One) regular.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Video Of The Week: Kendrick Lamar
I understand those who don't like this song, Alright, by Kendrick Lamar. It's not full of catchy hooks and big, thumping radio beats. And some people aren't even into hip hop; that's fine. Musical taste can hardly be argued (though I argue it on here all the time).
But the black-and-white video by Colin Tilley is no doubt a work of art. Possibly the nest video of the past five years, or at least in that conversation if I'm forgetting some. Sure, it deals with gritty issues such as racism and police brutality (well, police murdering people, which is beyond just brutality) that seem like they belong more in a documentary than in something stylistic, but this video is in the same vein as Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List in terms of depicting awfulness beautifully. And, yes, this is the same Colin Tilley who directed Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video; he's fast becoming the go-to director for high-quality, high-profile cinematography in short clips.
But the black-and-white video by Colin Tilley is no doubt a work of art. Possibly the nest video of the past five years, or at least in that conversation if I'm forgetting some. Sure, it deals with gritty issues such as racism and police brutality (well, police murdering people, which is beyond just brutality) that seem like they belong more in a documentary than in something stylistic, but this video is in the same vein as Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List in terms of depicting awfulness beautifully. And, yes, this is the same Colin Tilley who directed Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video; he's fast becoming the go-to director for high-quality, high-profile cinematography in short clips.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Ice Cube Doesn't Care About Oscar Snub
My favourite quote from Ice Cube pertaining to the fact that Straight Outta Compton "only" got nominated for best screenplay at this year's Oscars is this one: "You can't boycott something you never went to". The rest of his pearls of wisdom are here, including descriptions on how fan and critical reaction was more important than a statuette.
In my mind, there isn't really a snub because it's not like it would have won Best Picture - it wasn't. It was the best biopic of the year, sure, by a long stretch, but biopics by their very definition usually sacrifice artistry and imagination in the name of telling the most accurate story or character personalization possible.
Was F. Gary Gray's (of Friday fame) work as a director worthy of being compared to that of Alejandro G. Innaritu (The Revenant), or even Ridley Scott (The Martian) or Steven Spielberg (Bridge Of Spies), who weren't even nominated themselves? No, absolutely not.
And though he was terrific as Eazy-E, Jason Mitchell's performance wasn't in the same league as that of Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), who, himself, was leagues ahead of Matt Damon (The Martian), Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl) this year. Or even of Johnny Depp, whose performance in Black Mass was ignored, probably exactly for the sake of not letting voters hesitate between that performance and DiCaprio's.
There weren't many female parts in the film, let alone any stand-outs that deserved to take on the likes of Cate Blanchett (Carol), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy) or Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) for Best Actress, nor to challenge Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rooney Mara (Carol), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), or Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs) in a supporting role.
Which leaves Ice Cube's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr. playing his father, who may have had a shot against Tom Hardy (The Revenant), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), and Sylvester Stallone (Creed). Hardy could also have been nominated for Best Actor and Supporting Actor for the same film - British picture Legend. So the younger Cube is the only one who can be deemed a snub - and his own father's like, "fuck it".
Which didn't stop the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to over-react and change its whole voting system to "increase diversity", which could very well prove to be a huge mistake later when less deserving films get awards just so that every shade of the colour and rainbow palette are represented.
Oh, wait, it's the fucking Oscars, the institution that gave Denzel Washington a trophy for the piece of shit that was Training Day instead of Malcolm X; the institution that gave Russell Crowe an award for wearing a skirt in Gladiator instead of his tour-de-force performance in The Insider; the institution that waited until Scent Of A Woman to give Al Pacino the recognition he derserved; the institution that thought Titanic was the best film of 1997 and that Forrest Gump was better in any way than Pulp Fiction in 1994. Oh, yeah, the fucking Oscars. Not rewarding the best piece of art is what they do (see: Birdman last year instead of Boyhood).
They were NEVER about rewarding the best of the indusry, but always about rewarding The Industry.
Cube knows. Cube speaks wisdom. Listen to Cube. Still, it'll be funny to hear Chris Rock tear the Academy a new one for 10 minutes.
In my mind, there isn't really a snub because it's not like it would have won Best Picture - it wasn't. It was the best biopic of the year, sure, by a long stretch, but biopics by their very definition usually sacrifice artistry and imagination in the name of telling the most accurate story or character personalization possible.
Was F. Gary Gray's (of Friday fame) work as a director worthy of being compared to that of Alejandro G. Innaritu (The Revenant), or even Ridley Scott (The Martian) or Steven Spielberg (Bridge Of Spies), who weren't even nominated themselves? No, absolutely not.
And though he was terrific as Eazy-E, Jason Mitchell's performance wasn't in the same league as that of Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), who, himself, was leagues ahead of Matt Damon (The Martian), Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl) this year. Or even of Johnny Depp, whose performance in Black Mass was ignored, probably exactly for the sake of not letting voters hesitate between that performance and DiCaprio's.
There weren't many female parts in the film, let alone any stand-outs that deserved to take on the likes of Cate Blanchett (Carol), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy) or Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) for Best Actress, nor to challenge Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rooney Mara (Carol), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), or Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs) in a supporting role.
Which leaves Ice Cube's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr. playing his father, who may have had a shot against Tom Hardy (The Revenant), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), and Sylvester Stallone (Creed). Hardy could also have been nominated for Best Actor and Supporting Actor for the same film - British picture Legend. So the younger Cube is the only one who can be deemed a snub - and his own father's like, "fuck it".
Which didn't stop the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to over-react and change its whole voting system to "increase diversity", which could very well prove to be a huge mistake later when less deserving films get awards just so that every shade of the colour and rainbow palette are represented.
Oh, wait, it's the fucking Oscars, the institution that gave Denzel Washington a trophy for the piece of shit that was Training Day instead of Malcolm X; the institution that gave Russell Crowe an award for wearing a skirt in Gladiator instead of his tour-de-force performance in The Insider; the institution that waited until Scent Of A Woman to give Al Pacino the recognition he derserved; the institution that thought Titanic was the best film of 1997 and that Forrest Gump was better in any way than Pulp Fiction in 1994. Oh, yeah, the fucking Oscars. Not rewarding the best piece of art is what they do (see: Birdman last year instead of Boyhood).
They were NEVER about rewarding the best of the indusry, but always about rewarding The Industry.
Cube knows. Cube speaks wisdom. Listen to Cube. Still, it'll be funny to hear Chris Rock tear the Academy a new one for 10 minutes.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
The New Colossus
The world is still a shitstorm of awful humans who have the means to fuck it up not just for the rest of us of the same race (the Human Race, by the way, the only not one decided by religion or skin colour or language), but for every other living organism on the planet.
On this side of the Pond, the Right and the Left argue about petty stuff and both sides use the weakest possible arguments to get their points across; the Left has the added bonus of never being able to forgive past mistakes regardless of context (Thomas Jefferson owned slaves when it was legal! Paul Reubens is a sex offender!) and any good from anyone who's done something bad previously is wiped off the table - which is one context where the Right's obsession with religion should come in handy: let he who has never committed a bad action cast the first stone, where no one over the age of 3 would be able to do so.
The Big Topic of the day is that of Refugees.
There needs to be a debate, and each country has to decide whether to take them in or not, and how many, and how. NOT ALL COUNTRIES NEED TO OPERATE THE SAME WAY. Honestly, we really need to start accepting other cultures' differences more, whether we agree with them or not, whether we think their practices are humane or not, whether they go against our values and/or common sense and/or our conception of rights or not.
This will be the subject of a much longer exposé eventually, one that encompasses a worldwide minimum wage, universal dual citizenship, a complete repeal of the death penalty, and the ability to exclude or deport citizens who do not conform to one place's chosen way of life. Not everyone wants the same life or lifestyle, and freedom includes letting others live their lives the way they want to.
But I digress.
Here is the text that lies at the bottom of the Statue Of Liberty:
I want to live in a place where people's differences are appreciated and encouraged. Where the only place religion has is as an equal to sports, meals or TV shows - as something you share with people close to you, people like you, that you can talk about in public but has no incidence on how the State operates. Three main rules: don't kill, don't steal, and don't fuck it up for everyone else. Where health and education are priorities and are NEVER cut in government spending. Where people don't get offended over the smallest fucking detail (or worse, WORDS!) because in this place, ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL, ALL THE TIME.
It's not about the past and all about the future, because this place hasn't existed yet.
Those who do not like it do not have to live there; they can go anywhere where their values are best reflected, because every place should have differences - we were not all meant to evolve at the same pace, nor should we force anyone to follow any rules they do not agree with when they can go to places where people think like they do, the same way we wouldn't like being forced to abide by shit that goes against the very fiber of our beings.
It's 2015, people. There are 8 billion of us. Either kill us all, or let's start tolerating our differences a little better, eh? And that includes intolerance as well, by the way. If, as a whole Russia seriously wants nothing to do with gay people, just make it clear to their President that jailing/killing suspected homosexuals before they become adults is wrong and punishable, and when those people turn 18 (or 21), help them to new lives in places where they'll be accepted better.
Intellectuals? Prague.
Speak French with a tendency to root for the underdog? Anywhere in Québec.
Big dreams? New York.
Same goes for people with all sorts of problems.
Which brings us back to refugees. And today's special, Syrians. Not every country can afford to take in huge masses of people - perhaps international aid would help, not just to pay for the refugees themselves, but also with a slight incentive, a bonus, to help the country itself and those already residing there who could use the pick-me-up (Greece, Spain, Québec) - that type of incentive would also invalidate any false sense of racism that refugees cost money, because they would actually bring in money.
We might also need to start planning long-term a little better: there are always a dozen wars raging, and there are always mass exoduses, and we need to start thinking about a permanent physical location where we can take care of their basic needs while they wait to be processed and sent to the best place for their needs, be it short or long term, depending on how badly they want to return home upon conflict resolution.
This is but mere reflection, possibly just the first step of a larger scale. But we do need to start thinking outside the box, because our old ways have always ended with the same old problems, and they have yet to adapt to this New World.
On this side of the Pond, the Right and the Left argue about petty stuff and both sides use the weakest possible arguments to get their points across; the Left has the added bonus of never being able to forgive past mistakes regardless of context (Thomas Jefferson owned slaves when it was legal! Paul Reubens is a sex offender!) and any good from anyone who's done something bad previously is wiped off the table - which is one context where the Right's obsession with religion should come in handy: let he who has never committed a bad action cast the first stone, where no one over the age of 3 would be able to do so.
The Big Topic of the day is that of Refugees.
There needs to be a debate, and each country has to decide whether to take them in or not, and how many, and how. NOT ALL COUNTRIES NEED TO OPERATE THE SAME WAY. Honestly, we really need to start accepting other cultures' differences more, whether we agree with them or not, whether we think their practices are humane or not, whether they go against our values and/or common sense and/or our conception of rights or not.
This will be the subject of a much longer exposé eventually, one that encompasses a worldwide minimum wage, universal dual citizenship, a complete repeal of the death penalty, and the ability to exclude or deport citizens who do not conform to one place's chosen way of life. Not everyone wants the same life or lifestyle, and freedom includes letting others live their lives the way they want to.
But I digress.
Here is the text that lies at the bottom of the Statue Of Liberty:
The New ColossusIdeally, these are values I would like to strive for. But it's hard. Even Americans can't do it all the time. And I live in a country that I, myself, do not feel a part of, among people who refuse to stand up for themselves and declare their independence, their Humanity, and choose their own paths, despite all the old ones having failed.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door
I want to live in a place where people's differences are appreciated and encouraged. Where the only place religion has is as an equal to sports, meals or TV shows - as something you share with people close to you, people like you, that you can talk about in public but has no incidence on how the State operates. Three main rules: don't kill, don't steal, and don't fuck it up for everyone else. Where health and education are priorities and are NEVER cut in government spending. Where people don't get offended over the smallest fucking detail (or worse, WORDS!) because in this place, ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL, ALL THE TIME.
It's not about the past and all about the future, because this place hasn't existed yet.
Those who do not like it do not have to live there; they can go anywhere where their values are best reflected, because every place should have differences - we were not all meant to evolve at the same pace, nor should we force anyone to follow any rules they do not agree with when they can go to places where people think like they do, the same way we wouldn't like being forced to abide by shit that goes against the very fiber of our beings.
It's 2015, people. There are 8 billion of us. Either kill us all, or let's start tolerating our differences a little better, eh? And that includes intolerance as well, by the way. If, as a whole Russia seriously wants nothing to do with gay people, just make it clear to their President that jailing/killing suspected homosexuals before they become adults is wrong and punishable, and when those people turn 18 (or 21), help them to new lives in places where they'll be accepted better.
Intellectuals? Prague.
Speak French with a tendency to root for the underdog? Anywhere in Québec.
Big dreams? New York.
Same goes for people with all sorts of problems.
Which brings us back to refugees. And today's special, Syrians. Not every country can afford to take in huge masses of people - perhaps international aid would help, not just to pay for the refugees themselves, but also with a slight incentive, a bonus, to help the country itself and those already residing there who could use the pick-me-up (Greece, Spain, Québec) - that type of incentive would also invalidate any false sense of racism that refugees cost money, because they would actually bring in money.
We might also need to start planning long-term a little better: there are always a dozen wars raging, and there are always mass exoduses, and we need to start thinking about a permanent physical location where we can take care of their basic needs while they wait to be processed and sent to the best place for their needs, be it short or long term, depending on how badly they want to return home upon conflict resolution.
This is but mere reflection, possibly just the first step of a larger scale. But we do need to start thinking outside the box, because our old ways have always ended with the same old problems, and they have yet to adapt to this New World.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
''Fuck Your Breath'' As Nominee For Worst Sentence Uttered This Week
This is how bad shit has gotten in terms of police violence in the U.S.: we're happy that when one deputy murders a man with overwhelming evidence, he's at least getting charged with manslaughter and will have to face the justice system.
And this is how bad it's gotten for me, personally: I'm more outraged at the cop who responds to Eric Courtney Harris' plea of ''I'm losing my breath'' with ''Fuck your breath'' - you can see it at the end of this one-minute clip:
That's the guy who should be facing the harshest punishment, in my opinion.
The deputy was a 73-year-old former cop who paid his way into basically tagging along on joyrides and made a fatal mistake. That's involuntary manslaughter. It's bad, for sure; on a ''humanity needs to improve'' scale, it probably ranks a 7/10, but as a scale of a bad person, it scores pretty low.
The other cop, however, is heard justifying the shooting by saying ''you ran'', excusing a fatal gunshot by means of placing blame on the victim, then adding insult to injury with the order to tie his hands behind his back when he's clearly already incapacitated. On a scale of police corruption, it scores at least an 8/10, and hides a character that could possibly be a 10. Adding the famous last words ranks a 10/10 on the asshole scale.
At the very least, this guy should have internal affairs on his ass for two years, making sure he stays in line. He is the symptom and the reason why all citizens now have a low opinion towards those who are supposed to serve and protect us. If they find anything, he should be stripped of his badge, fired and tried.
The only way to change the culture of the locker-room... is to change the culture of the locker-room. You get rid of the bad seeds, you promote the good guys, and you remember to Hold The Line, 'cause love isn't always on time.
And this is how bad it's gotten for me, personally: I'm more outraged at the cop who responds to Eric Courtney Harris' plea of ''I'm losing my breath'' with ''Fuck your breath'' - you can see it at the end of this one-minute clip:
That's the guy who should be facing the harshest punishment, in my opinion.
The deputy was a 73-year-old former cop who paid his way into basically tagging along on joyrides and made a fatal mistake. That's involuntary manslaughter. It's bad, for sure; on a ''humanity needs to improve'' scale, it probably ranks a 7/10, but as a scale of a bad person, it scores pretty low.
The other cop, however, is heard justifying the shooting by saying ''you ran'', excusing a fatal gunshot by means of placing blame on the victim, then adding insult to injury with the order to tie his hands behind his back when he's clearly already incapacitated. On a scale of police corruption, it scores at least an 8/10, and hides a character that could possibly be a 10. Adding the famous last words ranks a 10/10 on the asshole scale.
At the very least, this guy should have internal affairs on his ass for two years, making sure he stays in line. He is the symptom and the reason why all citizens now have a low opinion towards those who are supposed to serve and protect us. If they find anything, he should be stripped of his badge, fired and tried.
The only way to change the culture of the locker-room... is to change the culture of the locker-room. You get rid of the bad seeds, you promote the good guys, and you remember to Hold The Line, 'cause love isn't always on time.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Video Of The Week: Public Enemy
This week marks the 25th anniversary of one of my favourite rap albums of all time, Public Enemy's Fear Of A Black Planet. It was groundbreaking in its social commentary for kids of my generation (the funk movement had previously done the same for those 10 years older than myself) in regards to the racial tensions still prevalent in the U.S. of the late 1980s and early 1990s - and which are still present today, believe it or not less in the day-to-day activities and behaviours but still ingrained in a systemic bias against minorities and poor people in general, and by extension Black people in particular, who remain 10 times more likely to get arrested and then jailed for minor offenses than White people regardless of income bracket, and the statistic's way worse when wealth is factored in.
Of all the songs on Fear Of A Black Planet, few resonate more with inequality as 911 Is A Joke, a catchy, groovy, incredibly smart Flavor Flav number on how what passes as an emergency service pretty much does its best to avoid servicing inner cities and therefore directly puts Black lives at stake. It's 2015, and the slogan Black Lives Matter is still prevalent in American streets. There has been little progress in how the institutions (schools, police, justice system, hospitals) treat the human beings it is responsible for, this despite individuals' behaviours changing drastically in the past 25 years. People mingle, shop at the same stores at the same time, everyone under 35 has ''a Black friend'', which was a running gag as recently as in 1992, and yet the system is the same, even with an African-American in the White House - in his second term, no less - and another one in charge of the Justice system.
And the biggest problem with that is that American Culture is widely exported and prevalent in most of the Western World; yes, most people can make the difference between their own country's situation and the United States' (and few of them have a spotless race-related record themselves), but there's the inevitable mixing up of the common histories that makes their problem everyone's problem.
Sometimes I like to turn my brain off, but most times, I prefer my entertainment saddled up with a healthy dose of the truth, and this song just might be one of the main reasons why.
Of all the songs on Fear Of A Black Planet, few resonate more with inequality as 911 Is A Joke, a catchy, groovy, incredibly smart Flavor Flav number on how what passes as an emergency service pretty much does its best to avoid servicing inner cities and therefore directly puts Black lives at stake. It's 2015, and the slogan Black Lives Matter is still prevalent in American streets. There has been little progress in how the institutions (schools, police, justice system, hospitals) treat the human beings it is responsible for, this despite individuals' behaviours changing drastically in the past 25 years. People mingle, shop at the same stores at the same time, everyone under 35 has ''a Black friend'', which was a running gag as recently as in 1992, and yet the system is the same, even with an African-American in the White House - in his second term, no less - and another one in charge of the Justice system.
And the biggest problem with that is that American Culture is widely exported and prevalent in most of the Western World; yes, most people can make the difference between their own country's situation and the United States' (and few of them have a spotless race-related record themselves), but there's the inevitable mixing up of the common histories that makes their problem everyone's problem.
Sometimes I like to turn my brain off, but most times, I prefer my entertainment saddled up with a healthy dose of the truth, and this song just might be one of the main reasons why.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Obama In Selma
Here's an except of Barack Obama's speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the bloodbath in Selma, Alabama. If you're going to follow the embedded video to its original YouTube page, please, don't read the comments. Or do, and realize just how much 47% of the country he clearly still believes in isn't ready to step into the 20th Century, let alone the 21st.
Had I been in his position, I would have uttered the word ''motherfucking'' more times in those two minutes than Samuel L. Jackson in an entire Quentin Tarantino movie.
Had I been in his position, I would have uttered the word ''motherfucking'' more times in those two minutes than Samuel L. Jackson in an entire Quentin Tarantino movie.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Canadian Rednecks Exist
Before reaching the end, you'd think this picture would be from Ohio, Montana or Idaho...
What if the soldiers I want to thank speak French first and foremost?
Also, isn't the point of having a rear window to be able to see what's happening behind you? How do you do that when it's tainted black and full of text? Do Manitobans have x-ray vision?
What if the soldiers I want to thank speak French first and foremost?
Also, isn't the point of having a rear window to be able to see what's happening behind you? How do you do that when it's tainted black and full of text? Do Manitobans have x-ray vision?
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Video Of The Week: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
In the wake of the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin debacle, one can't help but think back to 1999 Amadou Diallo murder. If you don't remember, here's a quick Wikipedia quote:
The video was filmed during the E Street Band's 10-night run at Madison Square Garden by filmmaker Jonathan Demme (The Silence Of The Lambs), which also spawned a DVD.
Springsteen's intensity is best appreciated through live performances - you want to see his face struggling, his neck veins nearly exploding, his fist clenched when hearing the songs. You also get a better feel for his backing band, capable both of balls-out rock and incredible subtlety.
Amadou Bailo Diallo (September 2, 1975 – February 4, 1999) was a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea who was shot and killed in New York City on February 4, 1999 by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss, who fired a combined total of 41 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo, outside his apartment at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx. The four were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit. All four officers were acquitted at trial in Albany, New York.[1]
Diallo was unarmed at the time of the shooting, and a firestorm of controversy erupted subsequent to the event as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both within and outside New York City. Issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, and contagious shooting were central to the ensuing controversy.Outrage ensued, of course, and many artists spoke out, first against the shooting, then the verdict. Among the most vocal singers who recorded songs in response were Wyclef Jean (Diallo, featuring Youssou N'Dour), Le Tigre (Bang! Bang!) and Bruce Springsteen, who gets the honors this week.
The video was filmed during the E Street Band's 10-night run at Madison Square Garden by filmmaker Jonathan Demme (The Silence Of The Lambs), which also spawned a DVD.
Springsteen's intensity is best appreciated through live performances - you want to see his face struggling, his neck veins nearly exploding, his fist clenched when hearing the songs. You also get a better feel for his backing band, capable both of balls-out rock and incredible subtlety.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Killer Promotion
There is a huge difference between the American Justice system and the Canadian one, particularly in Québec, which has a large part of its law book inspired by the French. And there are tons of differences between the George Zimmerman killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Constable Jean-Loup Lapointe killing Fredy Villanueva in Montréal nearly five years ago (and whose case has yet to result in a ruling).
But there are also tons of similarities: both were unarmed teenagers from visible minorities, murdered by people who were under the impression that they were unpunishable representatives of The Law.
I don't know what the future holds for Zimmerman, though I'm fairly confident that if he is tried in a civil case, he will receive tons of donations from right-wing bigots, racists and Fox News viewers; I do know, however, that Lapointe will now be a member of Montréal's SWAT team, where he'll have more leeway into firing his weapon.
We're talking about a man who took all of 57 seconds to exit his vehicle, wrestle a kid (Dany Villanueva, Fredy's younger brother) to the ground to handcuff him, tell him to stop squirming, shoot three bullets into the deceased and two more in two other teens. All while his partner, Stéphanie Pilotte, never once felt the need to pull out her gun. Can you say ''trigger-happy''?
The article appeared in this morning's Montréal Gazette, and while it mostly goes into listing facts and does its best to not take sides, two passages struck me as journalist Sue Montgomery subtly denouncing the prevailing situation in these cases:
Then there's this:
But there are also tons of similarities: both were unarmed teenagers from visible minorities, murdered by people who were under the impression that they were unpunishable representatives of The Law.
I don't know what the future holds for Zimmerman, though I'm fairly confident that if he is tried in a civil case, he will receive tons of donations from right-wing bigots, racists and Fox News viewers; I do know, however, that Lapointe will now be a member of Montréal's SWAT team, where he'll have more leeway into firing his weapon.
We're talking about a man who took all of 57 seconds to exit his vehicle, wrestle a kid (Dany Villanueva, Fredy's younger brother) to the ground to handcuff him, tell him to stop squirming, shoot three bullets into the deceased and two more in two other teens. All while his partner, Stéphanie Pilotte, never once felt the need to pull out her gun. Can you say ''trigger-happy''?
The article appeared in this morning's Montréal Gazette, and while it mostly goes into listing facts and does its best to not take sides, two passages struck me as journalist Sue Montgomery subtly denouncing the prevailing situation in these cases:
“This squad is called on more often to use their guns because they’re involved in high-risk interventions,” said Alain Arsenault, whose client was injured by one of Lapointe’s bullets. “I think it was a bad decision on the part of police force management (to give Lapointe the job).”
Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafrenière said that Lapointe applied for the highly sought-after job, and got it after undergoing rigorous tests. (...)
“He has never been found guilty of anything, so it would be hard for us to keep him in an office or something like that,” he said. “And we’re not going to say don’t take that officer on the SWAT team because some people might think it doesn’t look good.”The spokesman's quote is particularly revealing in this first passage, because it brings light to the fact that cops get investigated by other cops who almost always clear them of any wrongdoing, and even in the rare cases where they are taken to court, they get off Scott free. And then they have the audacity to brag about their so-called ''clean'' records...
Then there's this:
SWAT, or technical response officers, intervene in special police operations such as hostage-takings, bomb defusings or disappearances under water, which require them to have diving skills. Montreal’s SWAT team was present during the student demonstrations last year.Reading between the lines, it comes down to this: if discontent people get together to mass-protest - like in the mass-strikes part of the student movement last Spring - there will be more (actual) killers present to stop you than last year, and now they've perfected their kettle technique, so there'll be no escape...
Saturday, July 13, 2013
''Not'' Guilty
I am just as angry as the next guy that the ''justice'' system has excused George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin. But unlike most of my friends, from what had transpired surrounding the case of late, I kind of knew that's where it was going to go.
But the shock is epic. Even The Huffington Post decided to get opinionated:
The Michael Moore quote up-top is quite true. Not just that, but Trayvon Martin's actions that night were scrutinized way beyond what normally transpires in ''normal'' murder cases. As a matter of fact, it was treated a little in the same way rape is, where they have more questions about the victim than they do the culprit (What was she wearing? Had she been drinking?), and the jury's fear of ''a Black man'' overshadowed the facts.
Because what this verdict means, pretty much, it's that since Black people appear more dangerous, it is excusable to kill them even if/when they're unarmed, teenagers, and coming home from the convenience store. Especially if they're wearing hoodies. A good lawyer could still get you off for killing one in a suit, but ''street'' wear is a no-brainer.
It has stopped being a ''Justice system'' and has become a ''criminal assessment system'' instead, where one type of victim is more complicit in their fate than others, and aggressors can be cleared of charges despite all evidence pointing to the contrary if they can arise enough suspicion on the victim.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for ''Innocent Until Proven Guilty'' - when the rules aren't rigged. This is exactly what I was referring to two weeks ago when I said:
with a legacy that lives on today in the disparity of the applications of the Law codes and how minorities are targeted most by the police and ''the system'' in general in the U.S.And you can't ''just'' blame Florida, either. Case in point: this black
There is a Mahatma Gandhi quote that goes along the lines of:
"There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts."But not only does it not apply to this situation, it doesn't even apply to this generation, because whenever shit like this happens, those in the wrong are convinced they're right. Say what you will about Barack Obama, he's always trying to choose between the lesser of two (or four) evils; Fox News, George W. Bush, John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Rick Perry, Stephen Harper: these people either deliberately force the choice to be between two evils, or just create one themselves.
And there are too many of them with too wide a platform to spread their stupidity around to masses who are unable of critical thinking (or too blinded by their stance on smaller issues to change sides for the larger ones). And that leads to this. And the system once again proves it's fucked.
The Perils Of Live TV
Bet you heard about the plane crash just outside San Francisco, from Asiana Flight 214...
Now watch this...
Wow. And she just read 'em as if everything was fine... someone's gonna lose their job over this, luckily for her, it won't be the anchor!
An intern at the NTSB will likely suffer the same fate, as this statement implies:
Now watch this...
Wow. And she just read 'em as if everything was fine... someone's gonna lose their job over this, luckily for her, it won't be the anchor!
An intern at the NTSB will likely suffer the same fate, as this statement implies:
The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6.
Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft.
The NTSB does not release or confirm the names of crewmembers or people involved in transportation accidents to the media. We work hard to ensure that only appropriate factual information regarding an investigation is released and deeply regret today's incident.
Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Word Of The Year: Racism
I guess the word of the year is ''Racism''. It's spit out left and right by - probably - well-meaning folks, whose good intentions are only matched by their ability to get offended by the most minute details.
Today's scandal comes courtesy of Disney's blockbuster The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto, with Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger) almost looking like a sidekick in the previews. Seems people are mad about Depp's ''redface'', others about his Pirates Of The Caribbean over-acting schtick taking over his career, while some gather from looking at production stills that having his character be in tune with the mystical takes away any and all of the existing peoples' achievements. Although Comanche Chairman (an elected official) Wallace Coffey disagrees with the latter point:
Where do I stand?
Absolutely nowhere on this side of the issue.
As a film graduate, I've admired Depp's 1990s output, preferred his dramatic roles (Blow, Public Enemies, Nick Of Time, Sleepy Hollow, From Hell, Ed Wood) to the comedic (the Pirates franchise, Edward Scissorhands), and feel he may have been at his best playing Hunter S. Thompson in Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas and The Rum Diaries. But this film looks like a complete piece of shit from start to finish, perhaps a tad higher on the quality scale than the 1999 Will Smith vehicle Wild Wild West, but probably not by much. I won't see it until I accidentally stumble upon it, or if I'm dragged to it by someone whose company I enjoy enough to risk wasting 2 hours of my life smelling.
And I want to reserve judgement until I see it, because I'm not an idiot or an asshole.
I also want to give Depp - who claims to have ''Cherokee or Creek'' ancestry - the benefit of the doubt because he has, in the past - most notably in Dead Man - played in films in which the Aboriginals played important, smart roles.
I also want to point out that if they had used a Native American to play the part, Disney probably would never have funded it, Gore Verbinski wouldn't have directed it, and it just wouldn't be a blockbuster if it had been made at all. And it's a slippery slope. I get that ''blackface in America'' is a no-no for obvious reasons, and that similar situations will likely make many uncomfortable; Depp, in this case, never takes off the war paint he's sporting, probably because he doesn't want to have to be justifying anything else. But if we always have to pick people based on their nationality, then Americans shouldn't play Brits (as Madonna seemed to do for a decade even in her public life), Irish (see Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own), Rohms (Pitt in Snatch), Africans (Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamonds), and Canadians shouldn't play Americans (Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Jay Baruschel). And it could be high time Germans stop playing Russians (I'm looking at you, Jürgen Prochnow).
While we're at it, we should be writing better parts for Black actors (more Spike Lee/Hughes Brothers, less Tyler Perry/first-to-die-in-scary-film parts), Asians (less kung-fu or nerdy types, more regular people) and Arabic (they're not all terrorists or the twist at the end where they end up not being the terrorist - they can also play normal people). As a matter of fact, so many Arabs are refusing to take on terrorist roles that Hollywood has resorted to using actors of Mexican heritage to play those parts... is that ''brownface''?
Saturday Night Live had two instances fairly recently... one was Fred Armisen playing Barrack Obama - he's already of an ambiguous tone that he can play any race and is also great at stereotyping accents, for better or worse - and could easily pass as mulatto, so I guess they just tanned his face with some make-up; then there was Bill Hader, playing Al Pacino playing Conrad Murray on trial, even going as far as asking the sitting judge if ''it's ok'' (he nods 'yes'). I never thought I'd see the day, but there it was. Twice.
And on the other hand, you have comedians whose whole fucking routine is playing the race card - I don't mean Chris Rock talking about the Black experience, but more the likes of Russell Peters and Sugar Sammy who, because they are of Indian (you know, from India) descent, they think they're allowed to bash/make fun of/poorly imitate every race on the planet, as long as they kind of make fun of themselves as well on the way. And Sugar Sammy adds the double-whammy of living in Québec, so he can call French-speaking Quebecers racists for trying to protect their culture, because as an Indian/English minority in a French province of 7 million people, he doesn't see the need to protect it from its immediate neighbours - the 30-million-strong English Canadians and 350-million-strong Americans - and overlords, the British.
But that's a whole other debate.
So... uh... Johnny Depp as Tonto. How a bad idea from the start can only get worse...
Today's scandal comes courtesy of Disney's blockbuster The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto, with Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger) almost looking like a sidekick in the previews. Seems people are mad about Depp's ''redface'', others about his Pirates Of The Caribbean over-acting schtick taking over his career, while some gather from looking at production stills that having his character be in tune with the mystical takes away any and all of the existing peoples' achievements. Although Comanche Chairman (an elected official) Wallace Coffey disagrees with the latter point:
“I think it was a very realistic portrayal of a Native American. It’s got drama and it’s got a lot of comedy; it fits right in with Comanche culture because we are well known as a humorous people,” he says. “In some instances [at screenings], it was only the Comanches that laughed, because we could relate to it.” Coffey adds that he was pleased by the spiritual elements of the Tonto character, as an accurate enough nod to the relationship between a Native American of that time period and the environment in which he lived.But since when have White people considered Indians' opinions?
Where do I stand?
Absolutely nowhere on this side of the issue.
As a film graduate, I've admired Depp's 1990s output, preferred his dramatic roles (Blow, Public Enemies, Nick Of Time, Sleepy Hollow, From Hell, Ed Wood) to the comedic (the Pirates franchise, Edward Scissorhands), and feel he may have been at his best playing Hunter S. Thompson in Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas and The Rum Diaries. But this film looks like a complete piece of shit from start to finish, perhaps a tad higher on the quality scale than the 1999 Will Smith vehicle Wild Wild West, but probably not by much. I won't see it until I accidentally stumble upon it, or if I'm dragged to it by someone whose company I enjoy enough to risk wasting 2 hours of my life smelling.
And I want to reserve judgement until I see it, because I'm not an idiot or an asshole.
I also want to give Depp - who claims to have ''Cherokee or Creek'' ancestry - the benefit of the doubt because he has, in the past - most notably in Dead Man - played in films in which the Aboriginals played important, smart roles.
I also want to point out that if they had used a Native American to play the part, Disney probably would never have funded it, Gore Verbinski wouldn't have directed it, and it just wouldn't be a blockbuster if it had been made at all. And it's a slippery slope. I get that ''blackface in America'' is a no-no for obvious reasons, and that similar situations will likely make many uncomfortable; Depp, in this case, never takes off the war paint he's sporting, probably because he doesn't want to have to be justifying anything else. But if we always have to pick people based on their nationality, then Americans shouldn't play Brits (as Madonna seemed to do for a decade even in her public life), Irish (see Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own), Rohms (Pitt in Snatch), Africans (Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamonds), and Canadians shouldn't play Americans (Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Jay Baruschel). And it could be high time Germans stop playing Russians (I'm looking at you, Jürgen Prochnow).
While we're at it, we should be writing better parts for Black actors (more Spike Lee/Hughes Brothers, less Tyler Perry/first-to-die-in-scary-film parts), Asians (less kung-fu or nerdy types, more regular people) and Arabic (they're not all terrorists or the twist at the end where they end up not being the terrorist - they can also play normal people). As a matter of fact, so many Arabs are refusing to take on terrorist roles that Hollywood has resorted to using actors of Mexican heritage to play those parts... is that ''brownface''?
Saturday Night Live had two instances fairly recently... one was Fred Armisen playing Barrack Obama - he's already of an ambiguous tone that he can play any race and is also great at stereotyping accents, for better or worse - and could easily pass as mulatto, so I guess they just tanned his face with some make-up; then there was Bill Hader, playing Al Pacino playing Conrad Murray on trial, even going as far as asking the sitting judge if ''it's ok'' (he nods 'yes'). I never thought I'd see the day, but there it was. Twice.
And on the other hand, you have comedians whose whole fucking routine is playing the race card - I don't mean Chris Rock talking about the Black experience, but more the likes of Russell Peters and Sugar Sammy who, because they are of Indian (you know, from India) descent, they think they're allowed to bash/make fun of/poorly imitate every race on the planet, as long as they kind of make fun of themselves as well on the way. And Sugar Sammy adds the double-whammy of living in Québec, so he can call French-speaking Quebecers racists for trying to protect their culture, because as an Indian/English minority in a French province of 7 million people, he doesn't see the need to protect it from its immediate neighbours - the 30-million-strong English Canadians and 350-million-strong Americans - and overlords, the British.
But that's a whole other debate.
So... uh... Johnny Depp as Tonto. How a bad idea from the start can only get worse...
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Dear CNN
If you can't spell out ''the N word'' on screen, you have pretty much answered your own question prior to the ''debate''...
We're not talking about the difference between ''dipshit'' and ''asshole'', here. The only thing that comes close to ''nigger'' (yes, I wrote it, because ''the N word'' is the worst euphemism in modern history, because we all know what the fuck is being said, yet the person using it wants to use it without having the balls to actually say it and instead forces you to think it, which makes the listener/reader the asshole...) is the modern use of ''sand nigger'' for anyone from the Middle East, which oddly enough seems more acceptable despite the fact that not only is it a direct attack on people from some 15-20 countries, it incorporates the previous ''nigger'' to imply one (sand) is worse than the other (regular).
I think now is an ok time for a debate on the use of words, on self-censorship and respect, and on the statute of limitations of the transgressions of the past in a time where education is at an all-time low. What I mean by that is the music selling the most units in the United States is rap, and the vast majority of the rappers are black, and even the smartest ones (like the cerebral Mos Def) use the word 'nigger' repeatedly. For adults in their 70s or older - not the target audience - the word conjures up images of the Civil Rights movement; for folks in their 40s and 50s, the images are still vivid, but instead of being from their own recollection, it's from education and their parents explaining how it went down; for folks like me, in our 30s, it's a struggle we haven't seen happen except in documentary footage, but with a legacy that lives on today in the disparity of the applications of the Law codes and how minorities are targeted most by the police and ''the system'' in general in the U.S.
But for suburban white kids, aged 10 to 25, rap is pretty much all they've known in terms of ''culture'', their education is a joke (schools teach Creationism as 'history' for fuck's sake!), not only do they not know about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, they barely understand the concept of slavery except maybe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves (although they probably think slaves were freed from the British), and the richest people they've ever seen are the gold-wearing rappers in YouTube videos. They have no idea of the struggle, Rosa Parks, the C.I.A. using the actual Ricky Ross to sell crack to ghettos, they don't understand half of what Public Enemy are saying. What they do know is that Black folks call themselves 'nigger' all the time, and that the ultimate acceptance from a Black friend is when he deems the white kid worthy of being called 'my nigger'.
None of which makes for a healthy society, by the way.
But it's where we're at. We need to address that. In a much smarter way than what CNN did. Because it's not about which word is worse (nigger ''wins'', hands down), it's about how widespread it is and how its meaning and implications may be lost on an entire generation and more to come as the young replace the old - which may or may not be a good thing (on the plus side it renders an offensive word weak and takes power away from the fuckers who abused and owned other people, on the other, we should never forget any part of History lest we be condemned to repeat it, though we often repeat it without having forgotten).
We're not talking about the difference between ''dipshit'' and ''asshole'', here. The only thing that comes close to ''nigger'' (yes, I wrote it, because ''the N word'' is the worst euphemism in modern history, because we all know what the fuck is being said, yet the person using it wants to use it without having the balls to actually say it and instead forces you to think it, which makes the listener/reader the asshole...) is the modern use of ''sand nigger'' for anyone from the Middle East, which oddly enough seems more acceptable despite the fact that not only is it a direct attack on people from some 15-20 countries, it incorporates the previous ''nigger'' to imply one (sand) is worse than the other (regular).
I think now is an ok time for a debate on the use of words, on self-censorship and respect, and on the statute of limitations of the transgressions of the past in a time where education is at an all-time low. What I mean by that is the music selling the most units in the United States is rap, and the vast majority of the rappers are black, and even the smartest ones (like the cerebral Mos Def) use the word 'nigger' repeatedly. For adults in their 70s or older - not the target audience - the word conjures up images of the Civil Rights movement; for folks in their 40s and 50s, the images are still vivid, but instead of being from their own recollection, it's from education and their parents explaining how it went down; for folks like me, in our 30s, it's a struggle we haven't seen happen except in documentary footage, but with a legacy that lives on today in the disparity of the applications of the Law codes and how minorities are targeted most by the police and ''the system'' in general in the U.S.
But for suburban white kids, aged 10 to 25, rap is pretty much all they've known in terms of ''culture'', their education is a joke (schools teach Creationism as 'history' for fuck's sake!), not only do they not know about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, they barely understand the concept of slavery except maybe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves (although they probably think slaves were freed from the British), and the richest people they've ever seen are the gold-wearing rappers in YouTube videos. They have no idea of the struggle, Rosa Parks, the C.I.A. using the actual Ricky Ross to sell crack to ghettos, they don't understand half of what Public Enemy are saying. What they do know is that Black folks call themselves 'nigger' all the time, and that the ultimate acceptance from a Black friend is when he deems the white kid worthy of being called 'my nigger'.
None of which makes for a healthy society, by the way.
But it's where we're at. We need to address that. In a much smarter way than what CNN did. Because it's not about which word is worse (nigger ''wins'', hands down), it's about how widespread it is and how its meaning and implications may be lost on an entire generation and more to come as the young replace the old - which may or may not be a good thing (on the plus side it renders an offensive word weak and takes power away from the fuckers who abused and owned other people, on the other, we should never forget any part of History lest we be condemned to repeat it, though we often repeat it without having forgotten).
Friday, April 19, 2013
Politics As Usual
Her hair makes it seem like she's stuck in the 1980s; her mind-set is more 1780. Her name is Dayleen Van Ryswyk and she was just dropped by the British Columbia NDP party for being
Some of Van Ryswyk's comments took aim at First Nations:
"It’s not the status cards, it’s the fact that we have been paying out of the nose for generations for something that isn't our doing," reads one post on Castanet, an Okanagan area website. "If their ancestors sold out too cheap it’s not my fault and I shouldn’t have to be paying for any mistake or whatever you want to call it from my hard-earned money."
The posts also took aim at the French-Canadian community:
"Seems the only group of people universally hated around the world other than the Americans are the French and French-Canadians. The bigots are the French and not us," the blog reads.
"I’m getting so sick of having French stuffed down my throat. This isn’t Québec. It’s western Canada. We speak English here. Why are we forced to have it at our western Canadian-hosted Olympics?"Well, because at the heart of Canada's language policy is that the country has TWO official languages, and one of them - French - was the language that pretty much populated Canada in the first place, as most people in then-Lower Canada were of French descent, and that's how things rolled. Over time, Canada's population did go from 65% French-Canadian to the present-day 25-30%, but as long as the Constitution isn't changed (wait, Québec isn't even in it, is it? Ha!), both languages have to be represented in international events - particularly in regards to the Olympics, as the IOC's official language itself is French.
If that's how she feels about minorities, it kind of makes you wonder why she even applied to run under the NDP - a party resolutely on the Left - banner, rather than the Conservative one...
And about ''paying through the nose'' for aboriginals for ''something that isn't your doing'', well, lady, the fact that you have a roof over your head and a Canadian passport, and you're enjoying the perks of running for office, means you are taking advantage of the British invading the continent and slaughtering the people who were already there, well, common decency - as well as International Law - dictates you take care of survivors of the attempted genocide. It's, literally, the least you can fucking do.
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