Sunday, June 27, 2010

Pulling stuff out of the air, and Airbending.


Most black men are endowed with a large organ in a certain part of their body.

Now that statement has no basis in fact. It's a myth; a stereotype that has taken on a life of its own. But folks spread it, and others buy into it. Someone pulled it out of the air a long time ago and (thanks to guys like me :) it just kind of stuck.

We can understand when some folks buy into stereotypes. They don't know any better, and they don't take the time to try and find the truth. (Although, trying to get to the bottom of the first part of my post might take some work.) Regular folks. But not someone who was elected Governor to lead a very large Southwestern state. I am talking, of course, about one Jan Brewer. Jan just pulled a statement out of her ass for all the world to hear and expects the rest of us in this country who actually use our brains to believe it.

"PHOENIX (AP) - Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday that most illegal immigrants entering Arizona are being used to transport drugs across the border...Brewer said the motivation of "a lot" of the illegal immigrants is to enter the United States to look for work, but that drug rings press them into duty as drug 'mules.' 'I believe today, under the circumstances that we're facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in,' Brewer said. 'There's strong information to us that they come as illegal people wanting to come to work. Then they are accosted and they become subjects of the drug cartel,' she said." [Article]

"There's strong information". Yeah right. You have to love a country where people can just make up s&*t to fit neatly into their ideological box. There is no such information and Jan knows it. Sure, someone in law enforcement might have told her that there have been instances where illegals are being used to transport drugs into the country, but I am quite sure that they did not say "MOST."

Most wingnuts are assholes. See, that's me just throwing something out there that I cannot back up factually. (Although it might be true) But I can do that. I am not the Governor of of one of states in these divided states of A-merry-ca. I don't have that kind of standard to live up to. Jan Brewer does.

And before I go, I have to rip my homeboy, M. Knight Shyamalan. His latest flick, "The Last Airbender", might or might not be a good movie. But I will never know, because I will never watch it. Look M. Knight, I know you want to appeal to a certain demographic. (Hey, they buy the tickets) but you have to make a better effort to give your project some form of historical accuracy and credibility. If you don't even that certain demographic you are trying to reach will say no thanks.

"Gwen Florio
writes the Native American
news blog, BuffaloPost.net
M. Night Shyamalan's sixth sense seems to have failed him. Because when it came to casting for his most recent movie, The Last Airbender, due in theaters Thursday, he saw white people. Just one problem. The characters in the Nickelodeon anime series on which Airbender is based are, you know, not. Much rightly has been made over the fact that even though the original series mostly features Asian themes, the lead roles in the movie went to three white actors and an Indian, Dev Patel. Who plays the bad guy."

M. Knight, this is not good. And they even have a website dedicated to calling you out:

"The website Racebending.com airs its outrage over the situation, and it urges a boycott of the movie. But Racebending's focus - like that of most of the accounts of the controversy surrounding the casting of Airbender - has to do with the Asian-white divide." [Article]

Of course M. Knight has an answer for why he his film was cast this way:

"..Here’s the thing. The great thing about anime is that it’s ambiguous. The features of the characters are an intentional mix of all features. It’s intended to be ambiguous. That is completely its point. So when we watch Katara, my oldest daughter is literally a photo double of Katara in the cartoon. So that means that Katara is Indian, correct? No that’s just in our house. And her friends who watch it, they see themselves in it. And that’s what’s so beautiful about anime..." [Article]

Alright M. Knight, whatever you say. "Ambiguous", huh?

Well, you can call it whatever. But you need a hit. It's been awhile. I wasn't feeling "Signs", or "The Happening," or" Lady In The Water", or "The Village"... you get the picture. (Pun intended.) You needed a hit, and this wasn't the way to get it.





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