Why "Selma" Won't Win

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"Racism is dead in America." ~ Anne Coulter.

By now you should know how I feel about Awards shows in general. Admittedly, I'll watch the Oscars this year, just to see NPH (loved his lunacy on "American Horror Story" this season). Like most Americans, I have seen very few of the nominated movies. I've seen Boyhood (which I didn't care for enough to even bother reviewing) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (which I did review and honestly wanted to like more than I did). With the exception of Birdman, I honestly have no interested in seeing the other nominated films. Not that you shouldn't see them or that they shouldn't be seen. And while I guess if was a professional critic, I would have seen them all, but probably grumbled about seeing more than one. Oddly, the rest of the nominees are all biopics... American Sniper; The Imitation Game; The Theory of Everything; Whiplash and Selma are all real-life stories. Fictionalized, of course, for dramatic interest. 

But it is Selma in particular, which seems to have generated the most controversy. First, it was reported that the movie was historically inaccurate and portrays Lyndon Johnson as opposed Dr. King's march in Alabama and the Voting Rights Act. And then the Oscar nominations came out. And while Selma is nominated for Best Picture, not one of its cast were nominated. In fact, not a single person of color was nominated in any performance category. Not a single Black, Latino, Asian or multiracial person on the list! No Inuit; Pacific Islanders; Native Americans; Maori or Aboriginals, either. That's just... I mean, how does a film get nominated for Best Picture, without a single nomination for any actor that's in it or the director who made it? One might also ask how The Color Purple didn't win a single one of its 11 nominations. Or why Brokeback Mountain lost to Crash. Oh, wait, wasn't Crash about racism? Sure, but in a really awful, hit-you-over-the-head way that went way out it's way to prove a point. Plus, it didn't have any icky man-on-man kissing. 

Hollywood, that supposed bastion of liberal hedonism, is racist, sexist and homophobic. Now, I know I'm not saying anything new here. But the Oakland Tribune headline up on the right just put it so succinctly and hilariously, that I had to comment, especially when the country is about to enjoy a three-day weekend in celebration of Dr. King's birthday. It's like the Academy voters are saying "We like the idea of civil rights; we just don't like the people who are asking for them."

Selma doesn't have a chance of winning Best Picture on February 22nd. Because the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. 

For what it's worth, here are the trailers for this year's Best Picture nominees:

















So, I guess... Yay, White People!? Ugh! Oh, and by the way... F*ck You, Anne Coulter!

Uncle P used to participate in a charitable event every MLK weekend as my Day of Service, but they and I parted ways a while ago and I focused my volunteering on the JTMF. Of course, JTMF is all but dead (only our Facebook page remains), though a last gasp may be at hand with a project I'll be talking about (and directing again!) soon.

If you are lucky enough to be off, enjoy your holiday. Don't feel obligated to do a Day of Service because it's MLK Day. You should always fee obligated to do service whenever you can. But if you need a special day for it, so be it. 

More anon,
Prospero

Ann Coulter: See You Next Tuesday

Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri

"With their infernal racial set-asides, racial quotas, and race norming, liberals share many of the Klan's premises. The Klan sees the world in terms of race and ethnicity. So do liberals! Indeed, liberals and white supremacists are the only people left in America who are neurotically obsessed with race. Conservatives champion a color-blind society." ~ Ann Coulter

Is it really any wonder that Ann Coulter is probably the most despised woman in America? Not only does she belie her own racist views, she tries to blame liberals for the racism that is obviously not dead in America, despite her claims to the contrary. Case in point:

I have not watched the Miss America Pageant in at least 40 years. I find it sexist, misogynistic and exploitative. So much so, that I broke ties with a an old friend who raised her own daughter up in the pageant system over it's 19th Century ideology. Regardless of how you feel about America's obsession with beauty, Miss America is supposed to represent a decidedly American ideal. When Vanessa Williams was crowned the first African-American Miss America in 1984, the Internet barely existed. There was no Facebook or Twitter and the world was connected solely through the dominant media of the time (i.e. TV). The only controversy surrounding her crowning came later, when it was revealed that she had posde naked for photos with another woman and was eventually stripped of her crown, despite the protests of straight men who found the pictures wildly erotic. 

Flash-forward 29 years. Nina Davuluri is crowned the first Miss America of Indian descent. Her talent was a "Bollywood"-style dance in traditional Indian garb. Beautiful, smart and talented, the winner of Miss New York won based on the criteria set forth by the Miss America organization and was voted the winner by a panel of judges which included two openly gay men (Mario Cantone and Lance Bass); a professional basketball player (Amar'e Soudemire); a concert violinist (Joshua Bell) a millionaire investor (Barbara Corcoran) and a former Miss America winner (Dierdre Downs Gunn). That's about as diverse a panel as I can imagine. 

Still, almost as soon as Davuluri was announced the winner, a bunch of ignorant racists took to social media, spewing hateful and uninformed nonsense decrying the decidedly American winner a "Muslim" and a "terrorist." One Fox radio announcer went so far as to say Ms Davuluri didn't "embody American values." 

To which I can only respond by asking "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!"

I dare any single White American, in any part of the country, to claim they did not descend from immigrants. Uncle P is descended from Hungarian and German immigrants, none of whom were born on U.S. soil. My paternal grandmother spoke Hungarian, Russian, German, Romanian and English. If she didn't want you to know what she was saying, she'd speak a language she knew no one else around her spoke. Did that mean she was un-American? No. It meant she had something private to say, just as I do, speaking French or Hungarian when I don't want strangers to know what I am saying. Does that mean Uncle P is not an American? Hell, no! I was born here, to parents who were born here. Just as Ms Davuluri was born here.

The America we know today; the America in which we all have the same opportunities; the America I know and love, was built on the backs of late-19th and early-20th Century immigrants, just as the America of the future will continue to be built on the backs of both native and naturalized Americans of today. Truth be told, if you want to get nit-picky about it, the long-oppressed and unfairly displaced Native Americans are the only real Americans. And yet they still suffer from the kind of ignorant racism which is sadly and deeply ingrained in so many. 

I don't claim to have any answers, here. I have no idea how to fix this problem. I just know that it still it exists and only by exposing it, can we overcome it. I hope I live long enough to see the death of racism and the true globalization of society. Sadly, given the current state of affairs, that's a very long time away.

I realize I am hardly the only blogger to rant about this issue today. But I do hope that I am one voice among many who can collectively make difference and perhaps open the eyes of a few of the ignorant. America is known, among many other things, as "The Great Melting Pot" for a reason. Miss America 2014 both embodies that sentiment and reminds us all that few of us are actually indigenous, despite where or when we were born.

More, anon.
Prospero

PS - If you don't know what "See You Next Tuesday" means, ask a savvier friend... 

Let's Play "Foodie, A-hole, Racist or Jerk!"

Eat This, Y'all

Wow. The Food Network continues to prove that their talent bookers have issues with vetting their stars. Their first scandal involved British chef Robert Irvine and his claims that he cooked for the Queen. That turned out to be a lie and Irvine was fired (though hired back again after he proved to be a fan favorite). Then 'Barefoot Contessa' star Ina Garten refused to cook with a cancer-stricken child whose Make-A-Wish wish was to do just that. Soon after, douchebag extraordinaire, Guy Fieri, was outed as a sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic creep who can't look a woman in the eyes. And last week, photos of sexy British chef Nigella Lawson hit the web, being choked in public by her husband.

Today it was revealed that the network's most beloved star, butter-loving diabetic Paula Deen (pictured above) is a racist. Yup! During testimony in a civil trial, Deen admitted that she not only regularly uses the "N" word, but had actually hoped to plan a wedding using African-American wait staff pretending to be slaves! 

Holy crap! What the hell is wrong with the talent bookers at Food Network? They certainly don't seem to be doing a good job making sure their stars are worthy of stardom. If I were a Food Network exec, I'd be loosing my mind right about now. 

Can you imagine Julia Child embroiled in such a scandal? I know I can't. 

I have always had an issue with many of the people Americans venerate as "stars," especially in the age of so-called 'Reality TV.'  When chefs like Child; Friedman 'Chef Tell' Erhardt and Grahame Kerr made their marks on TV in the 70's, the world was a different place and any scandals in which they may have been involved (though I doubt there were any), weren't fodder for the Internet and anyone with a PC to see. They were about the food, and their quirky and delightful presentations.

Wanna be famous? Want adoring fans and tons of money for hosting a show or making public appearances? Then you better make sure you have nothing to hide. In the Information Age, everything is public and you'd better be prepared to face the consequences of your unsavory past. Or at least make sure that either your past isn't unsavory or be willing to embrace your unsavory past with grace and aplomb. 

Here's to your heart attack, y'all!

Let's not get into Deen's son Bobby and all the rumors about his sexuality (I'm no Perez Hilton) for now. I'm just asking that you be aware that the 'celebrity' you love, may not be the perfect person you might like to think he or she is.

More, anon.

Prospero

Why Do We Hate?

The Face of Hate

Dan Pearce writes the excellent blog Single Dad Laughing. He writes about how much he loves his son, Noah and their lives together. He had a few followers. 

Then, last November, Dan posted an amazing essay called "I'm Christian, unless you're gay." In it, he talked about hypocrisy and how true followers of Christ shouldn't hate anyone, particularly LGBTQ people.. The post went viral and Dan is still getting responses, more than three months later. It was a very well-thought-out and touching piece and it galvanized thousands of people into reexamining their own attitudes towards the LGBTQ community. The stories shared in the comments on the post are nothing short of amazing. Families who'd been torn apart by this issue for years were reunited; friends were found; people's eyes were opened. If you haven't read Dan's post, I strongly recommend that you do so and then share it with everyone you know (and maybe a few folks that you don't).

But there are still millions out there who just don't get it. And while the lunatic fringe haters like Fred Phelps (pictured above) and his Westboro Baptist Church family will never get it (that poison has run far too deep for far too long), I am amazed by the so-called educated people who spew hatred in the name of God and then complain when they are called bigots. Especially dangerous are those who are currently campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. You know who they are and I'm not going to waste my time typing their names. Do we really want people whose minds are so narrow; whose eyes are so blind and whose hearts are so cold, leading the Free World? Because they promise that under their 'leadership,' that world would be just just a little less free. I'm pretty sure that they haven't read Dan's essay (maybe we should all send them a link to it).

But none of that answers my initial question: Why do we hate? And of course, the answer is: Fear.

Fear is born of ignorance - we fear what we don't understand. As children, we fear the shadows on our bedroom walls because we don't understand what makes a jacket tossed onto a chair look like a werewolf waiting to pounce. In families who practice one of big three religions, we're taught to fear the Wrath of God, who will eternally punish us if we don't do what He says. We fear what's different: Skin color; religion; social behaviors; foods; places of origin; political views. And of course, the biggest fear of all: Death. 

While death may be the one common fear most of us share, the fear of differences is the only one that is taught to us. We learn this fear first from our parents, families & clergy and second from our peers, whose fears have been taught to them by their parents, families and clergy. It's kind of a vicious circle. But how do we break that circle? How do we rid ourselves of fear?

Over the years, my views on religion have changed drastically. My father came from a Roman Catholic family and my mother was raised Episcopalian (basically the same thing but with divorce and without celibacy). Until I was 6, we attended church regularly and my mother even taught Sunday School (though she later admitted that she didn't believe a word of what she was teaching). When Mom became bedridden while pregnant with my sister, we stopped going to church. Of course, whenever I spent the weekend at my Grandmother's, I was dragged to Sunday Mass at Saint Stephen's, Trenton's Hungarian Catholic church. 

Meanwhile, my father had begun to question what he had been taught and was delving into mysticism and the occult, which later led him to explore Zen Buddhism. By the time I was in my late teens and early 20's, I had had a taste of just of just about every dogma and philosophy out there. In college, I devoured religious texts. I have read the Bible; the Q'uran; the Bhagavad Gita; 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' and even 'The Satanic Bible' in my quest for enlightenment. For a very long time I considered myself an agnostic, and have even said so on this blog. These days, I'm not afraid to admit that I have become a full-on atheist, as well as firm believer that religion has been the cause of more war, hatred and murder than anything else in human history. Truth be told, we'd all be a lot better off without it. 

Sadly, we are a superstitious lot, and most of find comfort in believing - the whole 'Religion is the opiate of the masses' thing. Which leads me back to fear. Maybe, if we could let go of our fear for just a little bit, we might see that FDR was right: "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." 

My challenge to you today is to let go of your fear. Let go of all the things you've been taught to be afraid of - God; Hell; Death; Blacks; Hispanics; Jews; Asians; Gays... whatever. Just let go. Stop being afraid and start embracing what's different. Start celebrating the fact the what makes us all different, also makes us all the same. Stop hating the people you don't understand and start to learn about them, instead. I guarantee that you will find they aren't so different from you, afterall. We all want the same things - to live our lives without fear; to be happy and free to love who we love, without judgement or recrimination; to live a life in which love matters more than anything. If you look at as many religions and philosophies as I have, I think you'll find that love is the common denominator in all of them and that hate has no place at any of their tables.

Wow. That's more than I ever thought I'd have to say on any of those topics, despite how much they might relate to one another. And it's almost certainly not the last time I will address any and/or all of those topics. Listening to some of the speeches given today at CPAC certainly had something to do with it. As does the continuing suicide epidemic among young LGBTQ people in this country. I guess it just makes me crazy to see people hold onto values that no longer have relevance in what is supposed to be an 'enlightened' society. It's the 21st Century, people. wake up and smell reality.

Okay - I'm done (for now). I may very well need a ladder to get off this particularly high horse, but so be it. All I ask is that you take the challenge.

More, anon.
Prospero