Search results for: “quotemedia/c”
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Barack’s Funny, After All
Does anyone remember the moaning and gnashing of teeth when Barack Obama was elected president? Not from defeated Republicans but from professional comedians, saddened when George W. Bush—and the comedic gold mine that was his presidency—took that last helicopter ride out of D.C. They worried that it would be difficult to make fun of the…
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Best Actor in Blackface
I would classify myself as an intensely proud black man. And I feel completely comfortable saying that Robert Downey Jr. deserves his Oscar nod. Denying Tropic Thunder’s smart satire simply because the artists involved are white is simplistic and short-sighted. Frankly, I find Tyler Perry’s use of trite black American archetypes equally as problematic as blackface.…
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And the Blackface Oscar Goes To…
The week that Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation’s first black president, the talented Robert Downey Jr. received an Oscar nomination for his role in the late-summer flick Tropic Thunder. The honored performance involved a character in blackface and an Afro wig; the role, a brilliant showcase for the actor’s “Ebonics vocal training.”…
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How Homeschooling Made Our Home
Excerpted from One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love by Rebecca Walker. Courtesy of Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Group (USA). ***** Let’s start at the beginning. My husband, C (his name is Charles, but so is our…
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A Meaningful Obama Book
We are now two weeks into the presidency of Barack Obama, and for many of us, the new reality is still what one blogger described as a “fragmentation bomb,” which keeps exploding in unexpected moments. It’s Obama’s smiling face being printed everywhere like currency. Malia’s twists. Visions of Grandma Robinson getting pampered by White House…
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Flipping the Script
A funny thing happened to the movie New in Town on the way to your local multiplex: Angela Bassett morphed into Gabrielle Union, who then became Renée Zellweger. This is not entirely shocking. “Colorblind” casting has been around for a while. Remember that the drill sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman was slated to…
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Obama's Special Guests
“Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions—who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.” —President Barack…
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The New Black-Catholic Alliance
One of the fascinating demographic tidbits of the 2008 presidential election results shows that President-elect Barack Obama won a startling 54 percent of the Catholic vote—more Catholic votes than any other Democratic presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy (who garnered around 80 percent). To understand how a pro-choice, African-American candidate generated more support from American…
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The Untimely Death of Oscar Grant III
As Washington prepares for the inauguration of Barack Obama, security is certainly a concern. But there is confidence that he and his family will be well-protected. Elsewhere in the country, and far from the lead of the evening news, investigations continue into the shootings of black men by police. You can see Oscar Grant III’s death…
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Blago’s Blues
A few weeks ago I received a phone call from two semi-drunken friends who were at a bar on the East Coast. They demanded I write about the idiot formerly known as Gov. Rod Blagojevich. I promised to do so, but deep down I probably wanted the whole shameful situation to go away. As an…