Friday, December 2, 2011
THE HELP! by Kathryn Stockett
The time has come to share the holiday cheers and eat some of Minny Jackson's famous fried chicken, well-Charlton's chicken..lol. Either way, don't burn that chicken! READ THE BOOK!!!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Article on The Help
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/opinion/dangerous-white-stereotypes.html
This article may add an interesting ingredient to our discussion on The Help. For those who can't open the link, I posted it here:
ONE of the most noteworthy movies of the summer is “The Help.” Set in Jackson, Miss., in the early 1960s, it focuses on the relationships between white upper-middle-class women and the black domestics who took care of them and their children. Although many reviews of the film were quite positive, numerous critics, including some African-American commentators, have lashed out against it, arguing that the film does not deserve the accolades it has received.
To some extent, they have been angry that the movie is based on a novel by a white woman, Kathryn Stockett, and they question whether she is capable of telling that particular story. Some have also complained that the movie reinforces stereotypes about black Southern households. The black heroines speak with a dialect that disturbs some viewers; the audience never sees an intact black household, and a black man’s abuse of his wife is all the more chilling because we never see him, only the pots he hurls and the scars he leaves.
One maid’s close bond with the white toddler she cares for has been decried as a re-enactment of the misconception that maids nurtured their white charges while denigrating their own black offspring. Not all blacks are unmoved by “The Help.” Indeed, among my friends, relatives and colleagues a wide range of views have been shared, including comments that some of us might want to establish a support group for strong black women who liked “The Help.”
It is unfair to the filmmakers and cast to expect a work of fiction to adhere to the standards of authenticity we would want for a documentary. But we also recognize that precious few works of art tackle the Civil Rights era, and what people coming of age in the 21st century learn about this era often stems from fictive rather than nonfictive sources.
Forty-eight years after Martin Luther King Jr. was accompanied by tens of thousands of black domestic workers to the National Mall in Washington to demand economic justice, it is not all that difficult to render black fictional characters with appealing attributes and praiseworthy talents. What is more difficult to accomplish is a verisimilar rendering of the white characters.
This movie deploys the standard formula. With one possible exception, the white women are remarkably unlikable, and not just because of their racism. Like the housewives portrayed in reality television shows, the housewives of Jackson treat each other, their parents and their husbands with total callousness. In short, they are bad people, therefore they are racists.
There’s a problem, though, with that message. To suggest that bad people were racist implies that good people were not.
Jim Crow segregation survived long into the 20th century because it was kept alive by white Southerners with value systems and personalities we would applaud. It’s the fallacy of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a movie that never fails to move me but that advances a troubling falsehood: the notion that well-educated Christian whites were somehow victimized by white trash and forced to live within a social system that exploited and denigrated its black citizens, and that the privileged white upper class was somehow held hostage to these struggling individuals.
But that wasn’t the case. The White Citizens Councils, the thinking man’s Ku Klux Klan, were made up of white middle-class people, people whose company you would enjoy. An analogue can be seen in the way popular culture treats Germans up to and during World War II. Good people were never anti-Semites; only detestable people participated in Hitler’s cause.
Cultures function and persist by consensus. In Jackson and other bastions of the Jim Crow South, the pervasive notion, among poor whites and rich, that blacks were unworthy of full citizenship was as unquestioned as the sanctity of church on Sunday. “The Help” tells a compelling and gripping story, but it fails to tell that one.
I have dim recollections of watching Dr. King in 1963, with the black maid who raised me — my mother. If my father wasn’t in the room, he was working to make sure there would be opportunities in my future. I have benefited enormously from their hard work and from the shift that American culture has undergone as the scaffolding of discrimination was dismantled.
My parents, and the countless other black Americans who not only endured but thrived within the limited occupational sphere granted them, would have been proud of what has been accomplished since 1963, but they would not have wanted us to whitewash that earlier world.
Patricia A. Turner is a professor of African American studies and the vice provost for undergraduate studies at the University of California, Davis. Her most recent book is “Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters.”
This article may add an interesting ingredient to our discussion on The Help. For those who can't open the link, I posted it here:
ONE of the most noteworthy movies of the summer is “The Help.” Set in Jackson, Miss., in the early 1960s, it focuses on the relationships between white upper-middle-class women and the black domestics who took care of them and their children. Although many reviews of the film were quite positive, numerous critics, including some African-American commentators, have lashed out against it, arguing that the film does not deserve the accolades it has received.
To some extent, they have been angry that the movie is based on a novel by a white woman, Kathryn Stockett, and they question whether she is capable of telling that particular story. Some have also complained that the movie reinforces stereotypes about black Southern households. The black heroines speak with a dialect that disturbs some viewers; the audience never sees an intact black household, and a black man’s abuse of his wife is all the more chilling because we never see him, only the pots he hurls and the scars he leaves.
One maid’s close bond with the white toddler she cares for has been decried as a re-enactment of the misconception that maids nurtured their white charges while denigrating their own black offspring. Not all blacks are unmoved by “The Help.” Indeed, among my friends, relatives and colleagues a wide range of views have been shared, including comments that some of us might want to establish a support group for strong black women who liked “The Help.”
It is unfair to the filmmakers and cast to expect a work of fiction to adhere to the standards of authenticity we would want for a documentary. But we also recognize that precious few works of art tackle the Civil Rights era, and what people coming of age in the 21st century learn about this era often stems from fictive rather than nonfictive sources.
Forty-eight years after Martin Luther King Jr. was accompanied by tens of thousands of black domestic workers to the National Mall in Washington to demand economic justice, it is not all that difficult to render black fictional characters with appealing attributes and praiseworthy talents. What is more difficult to accomplish is a verisimilar rendering of the white characters.
This movie deploys the standard formula. With one possible exception, the white women are remarkably unlikable, and not just because of their racism. Like the housewives portrayed in reality television shows, the housewives of Jackson treat each other, their parents and their husbands with total callousness. In short, they are bad people, therefore they are racists.
There’s a problem, though, with that message. To suggest that bad people were racist implies that good people were not.
Jim Crow segregation survived long into the 20th century because it was kept alive by white Southerners with value systems and personalities we would applaud. It’s the fallacy of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a movie that never fails to move me but that advances a troubling falsehood: the notion that well-educated Christian whites were somehow victimized by white trash and forced to live within a social system that exploited and denigrated its black citizens, and that the privileged white upper class was somehow held hostage to these struggling individuals.
But that wasn’t the case. The White Citizens Councils, the thinking man’s Ku Klux Klan, were made up of white middle-class people, people whose company you would enjoy. An analogue can be seen in the way popular culture treats Germans up to and during World War II. Good people were never anti-Semites; only detestable people participated in Hitler’s cause.
Cultures function and persist by consensus. In Jackson and other bastions of the Jim Crow South, the pervasive notion, among poor whites and rich, that blacks were unworthy of full citizenship was as unquestioned as the sanctity of church on Sunday. “The Help” tells a compelling and gripping story, but it fails to tell that one.
I have dim recollections of watching Dr. King in 1963, with the black maid who raised me — my mother. If my father wasn’t in the room, he was working to make sure there would be opportunities in my future. I have benefited enormously from their hard work and from the shift that American culture has undergone as the scaffolding of discrimination was dismantled.
My parents, and the countless other black Americans who not only endured but thrived within the limited occupational sphere granted them, would have been proud of what has been accomplished since 1963, but they would not have wanted us to whitewash that earlier world.
Patricia A. Turner is a professor of African American studies and the vice provost for undergraduate studies at the University of California, Davis. Her most recent book is “Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters.”
Sunday, August 28, 2011
I Know What I Am and I Am Not What You Call Me!
This summer, I had the pleasure to read a recently published first novel by author Jonathan Spikes.
"I Know What I am and I am Not What you Call Me!
This is both a captivating and inspiring novel. This is a book about the triumph of the human spirit; it is a story about breaking the cycle. In this new novel, Jonathan takes the reader on the tumultuous journey of Damon, the protagonist, from childhood trauma, to adolescence, and into adulthood.
The story begins with a very vivid and disturbing account of abuse:
"No, No!" I scream. My body is drenched in sweat. I struggle to catch my breath as I yank off my shirt. I glance over my right shoulder. The alarm clock reads 3:00 a.m. Now I am wide awake. I keep tossing and turning, tossing and turning, trying hard to fall back asleep. But sleep is clearly impossible and has been for the past several years. Tonight is just like all the other nights. When I close my eyes, I re-live that terrifying moment when I cried: 'I want to go home, I want to go home!'
The memory of his small sterile bathroom still haunts me. I was five. I was cold and cramped as I sat on the toilet. The walls were stark and white. Light blue mouthwash, toothpaste, and some ragged toothbrushes lined the countertop above the sink, and the toilet paper holder needed a new roll. Just like the sky, the shower curtain was blue with a pattern of clouds on it. I stared at that curtain, praying he would let me go home. The foul odor of urine sickened me.
He began to speak. His deep baritone voice echoed in the tiny space. 'You better not tell anyone or I won't let you go home. Do you understand?'
I was scared, but I managed to nod my head...The metal pieces on his belt clinked as he unbuckled it. I stared at his fingers as he unbuttoned his pants and places his hands on his zipper...
This book is definitely a must read!
"I Know What I am and I am Not What you Call Me!
This is both a captivating and inspiring novel. This is a book about the triumph of the human spirit; it is a story about breaking the cycle. In this new novel, Jonathan takes the reader on the tumultuous journey of Damon, the protagonist, from childhood trauma, to adolescence, and into adulthood.
The story begins with a very vivid and disturbing account of abuse:
"No, No!" I scream. My body is drenched in sweat. I struggle to catch my breath as I yank off my shirt. I glance over my right shoulder. The alarm clock reads 3:00 a.m. Now I am wide awake. I keep tossing and turning, tossing and turning, trying hard to fall back asleep. But sleep is clearly impossible and has been for the past several years. Tonight is just like all the other nights. When I close my eyes, I re-live that terrifying moment when I cried: 'I want to go home, I want to go home!'
The memory of his small sterile bathroom still haunts me. I was five. I was cold and cramped as I sat on the toilet. The walls were stark and white. Light blue mouthwash, toothpaste, and some ragged toothbrushes lined the countertop above the sink, and the toilet paper holder needed a new roll. Just like the sky, the shower curtain was blue with a pattern of clouds on it. I stared at that curtain, praying he would let me go home. The foul odor of urine sickened me.
He began to speak. His deep baritone voice echoed in the tiny space. 'You better not tell anyone or I won't let you go home. Do you understand?'
I was scared, but I managed to nod my head...The metal pieces on his belt clinked as he unbuckled it. I stared at his fingers as he unbuttoned his pants and places his hands on his zipper...
This book is definitely a must read!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Finding Me: Truth
To add to Steadmond's post, there is actually a sequel to "Finding me". The dvd will be released this fall. I believe it's also premiering in select cities; I am actually surprised and disappointed that "Finding Me: Truth" has not made it's way to Miami. You can follow the blog @ http://findingmetruthblog.com/
And Here is a little bit of trivia for you: Did you know the director for "Finding Me", is Haitian American! "Finding me" was actually Roger Omeus, Jr.'s first production. Not bad for a first-timer. Kudos. I actually look forward to getting together with The Brotherhood Miami crew for "Finding Me: Truth".
And Here is a little bit of trivia for you: Did you know the director for "Finding Me", is Haitian American! "Finding me" was actually Roger Omeus, Jr.'s first production. Not bad for a first-timer. Kudos. I actually look forward to getting together with The Brotherhood Miami crew for "Finding Me: Truth".
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
For starters, I would like to say a word of thanks to our “Movie Night” host, Felix. His hospitality was impeccable. I have been part of the Brotherhood Miami (which I affectionately abbreviated “BM”) for six months now. In that time, the Brotherhood has incorporated film and theater to augment the literary experience. “Finding Me”, an indie GBM film selected at the June-July book club meeting, is a cute romcomdramedy featuring an underemployed Jersey City PYT who must juggle an intense new boyfriend (courtesy of the NJ Transit System), a grieving homophobic father, and a gaggle of outrageous friends smacking him around in the name of tough love. “Finding Me” is low budget with a predictable plot, but the film’s pace, endearing characters, and surprisingly tasteful love making scenes add up to a passing grade. However, the funniest moments of the film didn’t come from the script, but from the peanut gallery! It would be impossible for ten GBM lounging in a luxury apartment on Miami Beach to watch a movie about GBM and not talk to the screen. The comments weren’t the least bit distracting, but instead, provided flavor to the viewing experience. I am thankful for the intermittent commentary---it allowed me to hear from brothas I may not hear speak in the book discussions and the clucking was really quite funny. Overall, the “Movie Night” was a blast and hopefully it will become a fixed part of the Brotherhood’s social calendar.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Down For Whatever
I Recently finished Frederick Smith's first novel "Down for Whatever", published in 2005. What initially began as a train wreck that had me frowning halfway through the book, surprisingly revealed itself to be a very well orchestrated story. "Down For Whatever" is the story of four friends living in the Los Angeles area. The story which begins with all the common gay stereotypes of promiscuity, infidelity, oversexed, partying men, turns out to be a story about transcendence, healing, and moving forward. That book was a joy to read; I look forward to reading Smith's next book, "Right Side of The Wrong Bed".
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The Selection process
Initially, our book selection process was very democratic; a person would make a suggestion for a book, and we would vote as a group whether or not we would choose the book. We have, however; moved to more of a lottery system, to allow everyone the opportunity to select a book of their choosing. For the lottery process, those who have not yet selected a book, put their request in, and if the request is drawn out from the basket, that's the book we read for the following month. Once everyone has had the opportunity to choose a book, then the process begins all over again.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Don't Shoot I'm Coming Out!
So, the last book we read as a group was Benn Setfrey's "Don't Shoot! I'm Coming Out!". While it's been said one should not judge a book by its cover, I should admit I had my reservations about this particular reading. The garish picture and font that marred the cover of Setfrey's book, were uninviting at best! However, reluctantly, I managed to read "Don't Shoot! I'm Coming Out: How to Man up And set Heterosexuals straight".
The title which seemed to imply a tone of affirmation regarding homosexuality, turned out to be a total disappointment. Instead of espousing the "I'm here and I'm queer" mantra which one would come to expect from reading the title; Setfrey, by contrast, is highly critical of homosexual behavior and mannerism throughout his book. It's hard to say what this book is really about. In Don't Shoot!, Setfrey asserts himself as an expert motivational speaker, and at times relationship counselor, while at the same time castigating gay men for being too effeminate, and referring to them as "sissys".
From cover to finish, Don't Shoot! is a complete contradiction. One gets the sense that this is an extremely conflicting person who is attempting to make sense of it all; a task in which he's failed miserably. This is definitely not a book worth recommending to anyone, let alone have on a shelf.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
It All Starts Somewhere
It began with a casual conversation at a social gathering one evening. It began with two friends sharing their desire to create their own niche, their own social outlet within the community. The idea for a social book club in Miami was inspired largely by their experience with such a group while living in Chicago. So one Sunday afternoon, they organized an interest meeting, inviting a few friends and acquaintances....Aquaintances fostered friendships, fostered brotherhood...
Fastfoward :
Book Club Reflections Nearing Our First Anniversary-
“As I tried to record this history by looking back at Reggie's Evites, I noticed that we first met on May 22, 2010. It hardly seems that a year has passed since we first got together. I am tremendously excited about the community and friendships that this space is creating and strengthening. With that, I wanted to send this list both to memorialize what we have done, and to give us a sense of the areas that we've explored in case folks are interested in branching out into other areas/activities/etc. I also send this list so that we get a sense of the breadth of the book club's interests and openness…Whatever we decide to do, please know that this book club has meant a great deal to me this past year, and I want to thank each of you for bringing more laughter and community into my life in Miami.
– Charlton e-mail correspondence May 2011
The list to date:
July 2011—“Dont shoot! I'm coming out” (Benn Setfrey)
April 2011 -- The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts (Gary Chapman) (hosted by Colin)
March 2011 -- (Media Selection) -- "The DL Chronicles"
February 2011 -- Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa (Mark Mathabane)
January 2011 -- DisIntegration: The Splintering of Black America (Eugene Robinson)
December 2010 -- Getting to Happy (Terry McMillan)
October 2010 -- Breathe (Blair R. Poole)
August-- John Henry Days (Colson Whitehead)
June 2010 -- Breath, Eyes, Memory: A Memoir (Edwidge Dandicat)
May 2010 -- God Says No (James Hannaham)
April 2011 -- The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts (Gary Chapman) (hosted by Colin)
March 2011 -- (Media Selection) -- "The DL Chronicles"
February 2011 -- Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa (Mark Mathabane)
January 2011 -- DisIntegration: The Splintering of Black America (Eugene Robinson)
December 2010 -- Getting to Happy (Terry McMillan)
October 2010 -- Breathe (Blair R. Poole)
August-- John Henry Days (Colson Whitehead)
June 2010 -- Breath, Eyes, Memory: A Memoir (Edwidge Dandicat)
May 2010 -- God Says No (James Hannaham)
Black Enterprise July 2011 issue
While waiting in line at my local grocery store a few days ago, I was excited to pick up the July issue of Black Enterprise magazine. I was drawn to the bold purple letters that adorned the cover of this magazine I assumed to be conservative; "Black & Gay". Granted it should not have come as a surprise, considering my brother Charlton had mentioned the article a few days prior. Nonetheless, I was excited to witness such topic make the front cover of a black magazine. The front cover article "Black & Gay In Corporate America: Breaking Through Isolation & fear", is a signal of hope; it is perhaps an indication of a shift in attitude within the black community with regards to same sex issues. To borrow a quote from the article, “the tide is changing with the next generation. The experience of an LGBT baby boomer is very different from that of a Gen Xer or Millenial”….
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