OMG, WE DO EXIST!

youngbadmanbrown:

afrofuturistaffair:

Keith Josef Adkins’ The Abandon follows five African American men who go on a camping trip together, only to find out that aliens have invaded the planet.

Adkins, a former staff writer on The CW show Girlfriends, talks to Colorlines about pitching The Abandon for network television and being told that there was “no reliable demographic” for a science fiction show featuring non-white heroes. And he also talks about how his childhood prepared him to create this show.

because there aren’t millions of f*****g black people who watch TV?

Nope. We don’t watch tv while simultaneously managing to watch more tv than any other ethnic group in this country. Funny that…

whiteseducatingwhites:

Only recently did I learn of the longstanding feud between Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino. This was a result of internet research I did after seeing a preview for Tarantino’s new movie Django Unchained, and after a dear friend sent me a link to Lee’s refusal to see the movie because it…

Here’s part of the article:

“As Perrier and Faison continue this passionate back and forth love-and-war-dance throughout the evening, the quintessential black iconic TV couples immediately come to mind—George and Weezy, Cliff and Clair and even Dwayne and Whitley. They each oddly resemble a concept that’s quite rare in Hollywood—a normal, real relationship.

The obvious genuineness of their interaction is what draws these comparisons. As with the aforementioned couples, Perrier and Faison share an undeniable connection that transfers off-screen, cementing their fictional romance into a bona fide truth to viewers worldwide. What’s further impressive is that they’re able to achieve all of this through an intelligent, honest and positive portrayal of a functional relationship in the new millennium.

Fans made their support of The Couple’s modernized, old-fashioned love deafeningly clear in October when they funded the web series’ Kickstarter campaign, contributing $32,665 to the project and exceeding the original $25,000 goal. The money raised will go toward turning the series into a film.

“There’s a lot of folks out there that’s making content that’s more popular in pop culture than what we’re doing and many tell us ‘you gotta respect them because they’re making money.’ I’m like, no we don’t,” Faison says. “Our show is proof positive that we as black people don’t have to settle for the lowest hanging fruit because it’s the only fruit we can have.”

“We have proven in the past that we can make quality content and that we’re an intelligent enough demographic to gravitate toward quality content as opposed to grabbing the lowest hanging fruit that the man, Hollywood or even we as people give to each other,” Faison adds. “That’s why we try to make sure we stay above the fray so we don’t have to add in all of those other devices of being who Hollywood wants us to be. If I want to talk about Alanis Morissette in an episode, I’m going to sing ‘Ironic.’”

Without missing a single beat, Perrier and Faison break out into an interestingly harmonious rendition of Morissette’s ‘Ironic’ before breaking out into laughter.

The success of Ava DuVernay, the first African American woman to win Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival for her film “Middle of Nowhere,” Issa Rae’s “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl” as well as with the rising popularity of Dennis Dortch’s Black & Sexy TV web series, there’s no denying the growing support of black filmmakers not named Tyler Perry. Perrier, however, says she does not see this shift as a rebellion against the “Madea” star.

“I don’t think that these progressive content creators are looking at certain content and saying ‘this is so bad, I’m going to make something better,’” Perrier says. “I don’t really look at it as a revolt because then, that takes away from the creativity of what’s really going on. I think it’s really a separate movement.”

“There’s a lot of existential factors that are contributing to it also in that for the first time in history, the playing field is evening in the entertainment industry,” Faison adds. “For the first time, we’re able to go directly to people who look like us, believe like us and feel like us and give them an honest perspective into who we are as opposed to someone else’s caricature of who we are.”

Going forward, the stars of “The Couple” say that fans can expect even more of their honest perspective sometime in spring 2013.”

(Source: the-learning-process)

boydthewolf:

I was reminded by this post of something that was said to me when I commented on this exact situation of Johnny Depp playing the Native character Tonto. I’m of course just a white girl, I don’t speak for Native people. I’m in fact very undereducated when it comes to Native history and the issues Native communities face today. Again I don’t speak for anyone this is just an example of the kinds of stereotypes that Hollywood encourages and why characters that are specified as a certain race or ethnicity should be played by someone of that race or ethnicity as well as why characters across the board from action movies to rom-coms should be cast with more diversity.

So sometime last year I either read online or was told by my roommate that Johnny Depp would be playing Tonto in a Lone Ranger remake. My first knee jerk reaction was “But he’s a white guy” and I said so out loud. Her response of course was the usual “Well they probably couldn’t find anyone who’s an actual Native American to play the part” bs. I said that I highly highly doubted that and that they probably didn’t even bother to look. This is what she said next.

(this is not an exact quote in that she may have used slightly different words or phrased it a little differently but this is basically what she said) “Well you know it’s sad but most Native Americans never make it off the reservation. Most of them are poor alcoholics and that’s just the way it is.”

I f*****g s**t you not, this is what she said. I was so stunned I think I only managed a feeble “that’s really not true” and then probably blogged about it because a big confrontation could set off my anxiety.

This is what media teaches us about Native people. They are ‘mystical’ people who only live on reservations and are all poor and/or alcoholics. They might also run a casino, but they’re still poor obviously. This is why representation matters because my roommate’s statements are absolute unadulterated bullshit. I can’t give you statistics, I’m sure you could look them up though, but Native people live all over the country. Yes some live on reservations, but they also live everywhere else. They go to school, go to universities, have careers in any field because they are not some strange alien kind of person, and YES, THEY ARE ACTORS. This is why representation matters for all marginalized groups because a huge portion the country still believes this kind of bullshit and it furthers the marginalization of people. Belief in stereotypes like this is exactly why non white actors get sidelined, and also exactly why Hollywood’s whitewashing needs to stop. It’s a vicious circle that needs to be interrupted.