I need to get this off my chest before I go on to write about your new movie, The Wolfman. Yes I liked the movie and highly recommend it; but I still want to smack you upside the head.

I love you baby, but who the fuck do you think you are?

You are playing a 19th Century, British-born but upper-class New York City raised SHAKESPEARIAN ACTOR and when you open your mouth you gave us Pennsylvania? Hay que tener cojones to pull such an arrogant stunt. And no, I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF LON CHANEY DID THE ORIGINAL IN AN AMERICAN ACCENT. He still sounded mildly waspy, which is what you failed to at least nail.

I can't even ...

How in the hell do you go into a role like that without asking yourself WWRJD? If the answer to "What Would Raul Julia Do?" is that he wouldn't be caught dead playing a 19th century Shakespearian actor with nary a Britishy accent, then ¡cojones! that's exactly what you have to do.

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Sorry to do this, but this bears repeating, even though I posted this a few moments ago at A hungry man is an angry man; a hungry mob is an angry mob | culturekitchen:

we need more black and brown people in medicine, in nursing, in media, in relief and advocacy work. We need more French and Creole and Spanish speaking people in positions of power in the United States. We need to look at how bad immigration laws have cheated this country of the best and brightest of African Diaspora from it's universities, its businesses, it's technology, it's science.

We need to look at the fear-mongering in Haiti coupled with the average demograpics of the relief workers hitting it's ground as a prime example of the systemic racism that is so entrenched and yet so subtle in the United States culture that cannot but help seeing in starving black man or woman with hand out but machete in hand as a big black monster waiting to attack them. We could do better as a country. We could be better as people. We could be building a better multiracial, multiethnic and multilanguage future today if only, if just only, we'd be more weary and aware of the prejudices that holds us back.

Having more blacks and latinos in college cannot just be about upward mobility. Honestly, we have not had upward mobility in years what with wages being stagnant in the US for what some believe has been specific to the last 25 years. We need to see more black and brown faces who are multi-ethnic and polyglot because we need a cultural revolution. Not just in the United States, mind you, but in all of The Americas.

Education doesn't cure people of bigotry but it does minimize it; especially when your teachers, one of the most primary positions of authority in our culture, are black and brown and multilingual. We don't just need them in urban or inner city school, by the way. We need them in suburb and and rural schools. And we most certainly need them in more university departments; especially in more technology and science and research centers.

This doesn't mean though that I propose this as the only answer. Honestly, I believe it is ultimately the wrong one.


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[ED NOTE: You can find the background to Willie Colon's essay over at This is what racists call a Merry Christmas: "Illegals in my yard".]

STOP HATE SPEECH AGAINST LATINOS
by Willie Colón

STOP HATE SPEECH AGAINST LATINOS
23 December 2009

Feliz Navidad!

The days of subtle discrimination are over. At least for Latinos it is.

The dehumanization of our community is not a laughing matter. This is wholesale discrimination against all Latinos and an affront to any anyone who understands that bias, racism, and xenophobia have no place in our society. The use of a famous Puerto Rican artist’s song is no mistake. The intention is to smear all Latinos is clear. There are “undocumented individuals“ from all countries around the world in the U.S. but with a stroke of the pen they have found a way to make the term Hispanic or Latino equate to ILLEGAL.

Using an internationally popular Spanish language Christmas song as a vehicle, racism has reared its ugly head again.

I take deep umbrage to having songs depicting Latinos as disease carrying sub-humans seeking free human organ transplants. If this song was about any other ethnic group: Italians, Irish, Jewish, African American there would be protests in the streets.

We must demand respect and am asking that the FCC take measures against the use of this musical hate speech. We Latinos should take sanctions against broadcasters that allow this filth to be presented as should we boycott their sponsors.

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There. I said it.

Next!

While doing a quick research on the term "post-racist", I stumbled upon this video clip of a talk by Michael Eric Dyson on the subject. The clip is illuminating and has me chewing on how I would like to use the word.

I haven't decided whether if I agree with Dyson's definition of "post-racist" or not but I find it refreshingly provocative. It has me thinking of the probable parallels with the possible re-application of the term "post-colonial" as in: "post-racial" is to "post-colonial" what "post-racist" is to "post-colonialist".

What do you think? Are we indeed in a post-racial society? Are we indeed in need to strive for being "post-racist" instead?

From Beware Post-Dated Resignations? :: TPM:

Palin did this totally out of the blue. But given the thundering derision that has greeted her decision and exposure as a quitter of gargantuan proportions, is it possible she'll reconsider? After all, if she's resigning, why doesn't she just resign? Why wait until the end of July?

Again, I don't think it's likely. And I can't fathom a scenario in which it was planned all along. But remember we're dealing with a deeply erratic and probably mentally unstable person who does lots of completely whacked things at the drop of a hat.

Even though I concur with Josh about the possibility of Palin retracting her intentions to resign, I have a serious problem with anybody, with the kind of media influence he has, writing about her alleged mental health issues.

It's not like he's not said about other politicians. He's said the same thing about Mark Sanford. I just honestly, don't feel comfortable when people in big media (or wanna big media people) start speculating about the mental health of their subjects.

Just. Not. Cool.