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Vote For Pedro

So, it’s a saturday afternoon and I’m MAJORLY avoiding work. I’m watching ”Napoleon Dynamite.” I had to see what the hell all the fuss was about. Shall I go into another one of my rants about the entertainment world?? Hmmm...let’s!!!

I guess there are no interesting stories about young black boys growing up. I remember seeing ”The Learning Tree” by Gordon Parks. This movie was GREAT to me because it was a simple story of a boy growing up in rural Kansas. Why aren’t there more stories like this?? If they DO make a movie like that, it’s about a boy who ends up in a gang or some other criminal activity. Hollywood would have you believe that little black kids in the city don’t do anything but sell and/or do drugs and gang bang. I’m tired of seeing the black sidekick character. Even the great Morgan Freeman plays side roles to white actors. Am I to believe there aren’t any good stories involving blacks in primary roles?? I’m not even asking for a movie with an all-black cast. I’d like to see a little diversity in story ideas and casting!!! I can see a Neil Simon movie with a story about a Jewish family (no Blacks) or something like ”Joy Luck Club” (great movie) with an all-Asian cast or a ”Godfather” with an all-Italian cast. But, when there’s an all-Black cast, we are reduced to buffoonery or extremely obtuse plots. Back in the 80’s, we were inundated with breakdancing movies. Geez, how many community centers did we need to save? Then there were all the shoot-em-up movies of the 90’s (see New Jack City, Boyz In Tha Hood, Menace To Society, etc). Again, we are either singing and dancing or killing ourselves. What happened to Spike Lee? Contrary to popular belief, his movies were not all about race, racism or race politics. ”Crooklyn” was a really good movie. ”Girl 6” was very different. I loved ”She’s Gotta Have It” and we won’t even talk about ”Malcolm X.”

This discussion (monologue) is moot I suppose. I live in America. Blacks are the minority and will be treated accordingly. We are invisible even if we are 100’s of thousands STRONG in a city ravaged by nature. We are invisible even if genocide is taking over our country and put out on tv like dinner entertainment. We are invisible in hospitals as we save lives. We are invisible when our titles are Manager, VP, Engineer, Writer, Director, Teacher, Nurse, and OWNER.

Gotta stop watching TV...