April Joyner

From an eight-year-old boy’s letter to Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator, who died earlier today

dglsplsblg:

effmydatinglife:

Got a resume for a job posting from a guy who started his cover letter with “I don’t know if you remember me, but we met on match.com.”

No sir. You are not in the running.

-B

Hahahaha!! Only a guy would think this is a good idea on ANY level haha.

I know experts say to work your personal connections, but I don’t think this is what they had in mind.

So Skittles are getting a boost in sales for a not-so-happy reason: the Trayvon Martin case. That’s a tough position for a brand to be in. (Piggybacking on Marshawn Lynch is much more fun, I’m sure.) Certainly Wrigley doesn’t want to be seen as capitalizing on a kid’s death, but I’m not sure the company has a clear imperative to jump into activism regarding this case, at least not until the investigation is settled.

(Source: thesmithian)

Spotted in Fulton Park, Brooklyn.

dumbesttweets:

After news of the head honcho of #KONY2012 being caught masturbating in public, #HORNY2012 is now the #1 worldwide trending topic on Twitter.

Twitter: The place of collective Aint Shitness since 2006. LOLLL I am amused.

I won’t even start with “Chris Brown is A Winner.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson, on the rationale for supporting NASA

Funnily enough, I hear the last line of this quote a lot in relation to encouraging startups. There might be some lessons here for the entrepreneurial community. For more on this topic, check out this Q&A I did with Eugene Fitzgerald of MIT on innovation, back in December 2010.

(Source: The Atlantic)

I was hesitant to comment upon The Help, which received a fresh wave of criticism leading up to the Oscars. But then yet another post on the film, authored by Kimberly Foster of For Harriet, happened to appear in my Tumblr dashboard:

kimberlynfoster:

Last year, Davis’ lauded work in the film adaptation of The Help propelled her back into the spotlight. The magnificence of her portrayal of Aibileen is unquestionable though the film itself has been poked, prodded, and picked apart particularly by concerned black audiences and academics.

Pushback against the film forced Viola to take the defense.  In an interview, she told Tavis Smiley all the way off saying his disdain for the film was a mindset that’s “killing the black artist.” Davis was nothing if not beautifully eloquent in her assertion that “the black artist cannot live in a revisionist place.” You couldn’t help but nod along as this brilliant Black woman argued her case.

Davis, of course, fails to take into account that Aibileen occupies the most loathsome of revisionist locales. Historians have noted that the tale of Minnie and Aibleen are not even close to accurate depictions of life in the Jim Crow south.

The most intelligent criticism of the film is based not on the fact that the women play maids but that they play mammies. Maids, you see, are real women whose stories deserve to be told with dignity and without shame. Mammies are fictive martyrs whose love for their white employers eclipses the economic and often sexual exploitation domestic workers endure(d). The Black women of The Help are the latter.

I only went to see The Help after my mother (whose mother—my grandmother—once worked as a maid in the Jim Crow South) urged me to go see it. Having seen the film, I have to disagree with the assertion that the characters of Aibileen and Minny are “mammies,” rather than maids. First of all, the very premise of the film refutes that notion: if mammies, as the Association of Black Women Historians defines them, are so contented and loyal to whites, why on earth would this film’s so-called mammies co-author a book that defames their employers, even anonymously? Personally, I found the characters to be refreshingly three-dimensional and un-stereotypical. And contrary to Foster’s argument, the film did address economic exploitation: one of the subplots involves a maid striving to earn enough money to send her son to college—and the unjust consequences of that effort.

In her post, Foster mentions Tulane professor and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, who has been one of The Help’s most vocal critics. Though I am generally a fan of Prof. Harris-Perry, I think her criticisms of the film miss the mark. One of her grievances, for instance, was that Skeeter’s date got as much screen time as Medgar Evers’ assassination. Well, Medger Evers is not the focus of this film; there has already been a film devoted to his assassination and his widow Myrlie Evers-Williams’ subsequent pursuit of justice. But the film is devoted to the economic and racially exploitative dynamic between black and white women in the South, so of course Skeeter gets more screen time. And Skeeter’s date has significance, in that her suitor embodies the ultimately harmful ambivalence of many Southern whites during that period: he doesn’t have anything against black folks, but to him, any acknowledgment of his peers’ exploitation and maltreatment of their domestic workers is simply causing trouble.

That’s just one point, but I think it’s emblematic of much of the criticism of The Help. Here’s Foster, again, distinguishing “maids” from “mammies”:

Mammies are fictive martyrs whose love for their white employers eclipses the economic and often sexual exploitation domestic workers endure(d).

I’ve already pointed out how the film addresses economic exploitation. But this excerpt illuminates the unfair burden I feel is often placed upon films that address some aspect of black history: they’re expected to be an all-comprehensive guide to that period. No, The Help doesn’t touch upon sexual exploitation of domestic workers. But should it have attempted to catalog every bad thing that happened to black maids in the Jim Crow South? That would have made for a very convoluted film. The Help is ostensibly about relations between black women and white women in the South, and I think it did well in addressing that scope.

It also strikes me that few, if any, of the high-profile critics of The Help actually lived through Jim Crow. I didn’t, either, which is why I was open to reactions from people I knew who did live through that era. The general consensus I’ve gotten from them is that it rang true. I also must note that Myrlie Evers-Williams wrote in support of the film. I think many black filmgoers have become so accustomed (justifiably) to negative, stereotypical portrayals that often we immediately look for flaws and fail to appreciate nuance.

All that said, I am glad that Foster’s criticism is directed toward the film itself. I’ve seen a lot of vitriol and schadenfreude directed toward Viola Davis, including in one of the comments on her post at For Harriet. But in the end, I must push back against the notion that a black actress is required to represent black women in some prescribed way, based on a few people’s notions of history and stereotypes.

(Source: kimberlynfoster)

NO. #TeamViola!

newyorker:

The Art of the Meryl Streep Acceptance Speech

But the real reason I’m in the tank for Streep is simple: I want to see her acceptance speech. The Meryl Streep acceptance speech is an art unto itself: elegant, loopy, cunningly self-aware, and impeccably delivered—in short, everything you expect from a Meryl Streep performance, condensed to three minutes. Where else can you see fake humility, fake gratitude, and fake spontaneity delivered with such aplomb? Take her 2004 Emmy win, for “Angels in America”:

From her trademark breathy sigh (translation: “Gee, they just keep giving me these things”) and her droll opening line—”There are some days when I myself think I’m overrated … but not today”—this speech is a gem: funny, faux-scatterbrained, and self-consciously grand. When the orchestra tries to play her off, not only does she sing along to the music, she uses it as inspirational underscoring as she thanks Tony Kushner.

- Michael Schulman on the history of Meryl Streep acceptance speeches, and why she should win the Oscar for “Iron Lady”: http://nyr.kr/xEteYM 

“Why can’t white people say nigger?”: the remix. For further reference, please see my post on Huck Finn, racial terms, and context.

Also, how is Jeremy Lin an “Asian troll”? I don’t believe he ever called for anyone to be fired. False outrage much?

caterpillarcowboy:

texnessa:

producermatthew:

Just wanted to be clear, since, you know, we’re firing ESPN headline writers for being insensitive and criticizing ESPN anchors for using the word during play-by-play.

At what point do we draw the line between “acceptable use” and “unacceptable use?” Do we further divide people by saying it’s okay for some people to use the word, while barring others?

Or can we all agree that nobody should use these sorts of words, in any context?

Jeremy Lin= Asian Troll for the Win.

The day it stops hurting people is the day you can start using it. As someone born of an Asian mother, that word is hurtful… it’s never said in a positive context. Or even a joking context. It just serves to separate “us” and “them”.

Oof. This appears to be a not-so-good corporate attempt to celebrate Black History Month. I won’t get into whether this is racist, because many people continue to equate the term “racist” with “belonging to the KKK.” I’m sure no one at Kroger harbors a secret desire to shoot Medgar Evers.* In fact, the company has a record of other, more meaningful Black History celebrations. However, this particular “observance” of Black History Month relies on a shallow understanding of black customers’ tastes. (Aunt Jemima alone is a problematic character.) If Kroger wanted to highlight Black History Month in its coupon booklet, perhaps it could have included profiles of black-owned and black-founded suppliers, such as Reggio’s Pizza, and offered coupons for those companies’ products. Interestingly enough, Kroger has a list of such profiles on its Black History Month site! It’s a shame that most of its customers will only see coupons for ribs, chicken, and hot sauce instead of a more informative Black History celebration.

*A reference to Chris Rock’s famous quip on Real Time with Bill Maher, regarding Michael Richards’ “n*gger”-laced tirade: “What do you have to do to be a racist? Shoot Medgar Evers?”

yoisthisracist:

Autumn Reinhardt Simpson asked: This is just one photo from a Kroger coupon booklet that claims it is celebrating Black History Month. I have other shots of coupons for hot sauce, chicken, ribs, etc. I am personally looking forward to the International Day of the Woman when I can find bargains on vacuum bags and Midol.

INT. KROGER CONFERENCE ROOM. A meeting of senior executives is underway.

MARKETING EXEC
Oh yes, I nearly forgot, February is Black History Month, so we’ll be running these products on sale to help, uh, celebrate.

* an assistant passes mock-ups of the coupon book out to everyone in the room *

PRESIDENT OF KROGER
Aunt Jemima, huh? Isn’t that… kind of a racist caricature?

* silence in the room *

MARKETING EXEC
Well, sir, I mean…

PRESIDENT OF KROGER
Actually, aren’t all of these sale items kind of racist?

MARKETING EXEC
I just didn’t think… I mean, I’ll get these cha-.

PRESIDENT OF KROGER
I’m just kidding, of course I don’t give a shit, great work!

* the room explodes in convulsive laughter *