“Torturing Democracy” when it slipped onto public television this month? If not, PLEASE go to the site and watch it, and you’ll see why the PBS folks are not that thrilled. Of course, this level of cowardice from PBS isn’t exactly new.
Category Archives: world history
Brief Book Review: Post-HipHoppers
This brand-new book occupies the intellectual space between Kevin Powell’s essay collections and Bakari Kitwana’s seminal work.
M.K. Asante, Jr., a filmmaker, poet and college professor, adds his name to the list of young (under 45 🙂 ) Blacks who’ve written works that seek to combine journalism, personal essays and contemporary history, using hiphop of the point of departure. He is an optimistic self-described “artivist,” a 26-year-old writing to inspire younger people who will pick up this book because of its title. It’ll be their text for Black Contemporary Socio-Political Development 101, and believe me, they need it.
Get this book for the teenager (or college-aged young adult) in your life and make him or her read it. Then make him or her look up all of the authors he mentions.
If A Conservative Is A Liberal Who Got Mugged……
…..and a Black Nationalist is an integrationist who got called “Nigger” one too many times, does that mean, somewhat conversely, that the staff of “On The Media” are, at heart, Pacifica folks who wanted to pay their mortgages? 😉 Or do the folks at WNYC have the luxury of holding onto that old-school idea that practicing true journalism means calling bullshit bullshit (albeit indirectly) when that’s what it is? LOL!
I Thought The Second Hip Hop Green Party Candidate……..
….did a great job on her Green Party Vice Presidential nomination acceptance speech. I look forward to voting for her in future elections.
Congrats To Pacifica And WPFW……….
……for the single greatest radio broadcast I’ve heard yet.
The Fourth of July as “Freedom Of Speech Day!” What a concept!
I couldn’t believe the careful balance of time, place, geography, race, and gender that was attempted for those nine hours of radio—From Paul Robeson to George Carlin to Maurice Bishop to Coretta Scott King to Sam Cooke.
Again, Congrats! I can now officially say I celebrate the Fourth!
P.S. To ‘PFW: If you can, use that day’s broadcast as the main pledge offering from now on!
Let's Take A Poll!
Was this hour of NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show” really as scary as it sounded? Let me know.
More proof that it’s not a conspiracy if a) it’s out in the open, and b) the targets don’t have the same level of power as the “conspirators.”
The King's Tome
The new biography of Jack Kirby really isn’t that; it’s an authorized, more-polite-than-it-should-be version of his life used as an excuse to showcase his great art. And thank God for it.
Jack Kirby is responsible for two-thirds of every childhood smile I ever made. Period. The Fantastic Four. The Silver Surfer. The Incredible Hulk. The Mighty Thor. The Black Panther. The Uncanny X-Men. ‘Nuff said.
Thanks to Mark Evanier for putting it together. He told the story of a man who created hundreds of universes in order to take care of his most important one: his wife and children. Jack Kirby, the immortal hero whose superpower was unlimited imagination.
Spike, Clint And The Rights Of Writers
Okay, look, I don’t have a horse in this race (pun intended 🙂 ), but I’ll just say this:
As a writer and a historian, I think people have the right to tell any story any way they want. And other people have the equal right to publicly criticize that telling, and tell their own stories in defense/offense. And then those stories get criticized. And on and on. And that human beings will have to be smart enough to figure the(ir) truth(s) out for themselves.
So, now that I’ve said that, here’s my opinion of the dust-up:
Spike should kick Eastwood’s old ass for saying he should “shut his face.” Then Spike should shut his face. 🙂
Spike, didn’t Eastwood do a whole World War II film from the point of view of the Japanese? Why should every (white) filmmaker be duty-bound to show Black World War II soldiers in the (white) stories they tell?
If I’m making a historical film, I wouldn’t distort history, but I’d want to focus on the story I’m telling. And if I’m telling a story about Blacks in World War II, I’m not going to worry about showing white people. At all. Unless it’s to show the vicious white racism of the period.
If anything, the lack of Blacks in Hollywood World War II films should emphasize the strict segregation of the U.S. armed forces—and in homefont America!—during that time. In the future, I hope Black people will produce more “Tuskegee Airmens” that will tell those painful stories as white people laud “The Greatest Generation.”
Did You Hear…………
……. “South Africa At A Crossroads,” Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s NPR series on the current problems of South Africa?
Or that “All Things Considered” story on Cuba’s newspapers?
Or that ATC report a couple of Saturday’s ago on Obama’s impact on a D.C. middle school?
Or that GREAT edition of “On The Media” from a couple of weekends ago?
Wow, clearly NPR is trying to do more with more. 🙂 I wish other mainstream media institutions could be so lucky in 2008.
Drums in the Global Village 
