Tagged: colorblindness
“For the kind of people who create hashtags like #BoycottStarWarsVII, race is something that exists in other people, not in themselves. Whiteness is normal, blackness is an add-on, like racially diverse emoji. That whiteness has been treated for so long as a race-neutral default and not as its own cultural construction is what makes it possible for white performers like Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill to embody characters that stand in for larger ideas and ideals, without limitations imposed because of their race.”
Source: Teo Bugbee. “When Casting Racists Attack: From Idris Elba to ‘Star Wars,’ Why Idiots Prefer the Status Quo.” The Daily Beast. October 22, 2015. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/22/the-battle-for-star-wars-why-racist-nerds-are-turning-on-hollywood.html.
at 4:45 am, i’m still printing the appendices to my petition and i’m about to run out of ink again!!! 😏 nobody can say i didn’t give 1,000% to this case!!!
“Racism and sexism in Hollywood remain so pervasive not because of men like Damon, who benefit from the system whether they like it or not, but from the gatekeepers responsible for clinging to a faulty system of judging talent. There are fewer women and persons of color involved in searches like this because their opportunities are reduced. It’s the same principle that necessitated the adoption of affirmative action, an attempt to even the playing field that is inherently unbalanced. The burden shouldn’t be placed on marginalized individuals to try and overcome the broken system, but on gatekeepers to prioritize hearing and supporting marginalized individuals. The problem, then, with Damon’s words is that on “Project Greenlight” he is not just an actor, he’s a gatekeeper. And that by trying to silence Effie Brown, he dismisses the voice of someone worth listening to, not only for her experience, but because she was saying, in essence, ‘There is value to seeking out the voices of those different from us.'”
I got the same dismissive reaction from WME’s all-white senior management when I suggested that the company’s lack of diversity [zero African American Agents in the NY office and I was the ONLY black Agent Trainee when I started] played a significant role in my inability to advance and be promoted to Agent. We are tired of having these conversations about diversity and any company in the United States of America that maintains an all-white workforce in 2015 is clearly violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 INTENTIONALLY.
Source: Libby Hill. “Commentary: Matt Damon Isn’t Racist, The System Is; ‘Project Greenlight’ Proves It.” Los Angeles Times. September 15, 2015. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-matt-damon-project-greenlight-diversity-20150914-story.html.
“But meritocracy is a myth. The United States was not built on a system of meritocracy. It was built on a system of denied access. Let us not forget that a whole race of people was legal barred from learning to read in this country until 1865. Now we are dismantling public education through a combination of high stakes testing mandates and continual defunding of public schools, such that illiteracy rates in some urban areas remain abysmally high. This is not about merit, this is not about the ability or capacity of these students to read or to be good students. It is about their access to good schools and good teachers. The same is true in the film industry. For the last five weekends, two African American films – “Straight Outta Compton” and “The Perfect Guy”—have commanded first place ticket sales at the box office. Anytime African American movies perform well at the box office, studio executives express their surprise at how well these films do. There is a perennial forgetting of the fact that Black people go to the movies, too. Yet, many Black directors struggle to have their projects greenlit, because of these persistently false ideas about Black audiences. Notions of merit get tossed around, when really the question is about both access, and an investment in diversity.”
Yas!!!!!!!!
Source: Brittney Cooper. Salon. “Matt Damon’s Staggering Meritocracy Lie: What His “Project Greenlight” Blow-Up With Effie Brown Really Shows.” September 16, 2015. http://www.salon.com/2015/09/16/matt_damons_staggering_meritocracy_lie_what_his_project_greenlight_blow_up_with_effie_brown_really_shows/.
“Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten. A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness — justice.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Source: Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? pg. 109. 1967.
“[Chief Justice John] Roberts’s ‘colorblindness’ bears only a superficial resemblance to the concept as understood by past champions of equal rights, since as applied by the conservative majority on the court the approach has had dire consequences for racial minorities. Since Roberts became chief justice, the high court has struck down school desegregation plans, narrowed affirmative action, crippled the Voting Rights Act, limited the circumstances under which Americans can sue for racial discrimination, and enabled the denial of health insurance to millions of financially struggling people of color. Though the opportunity has not yet presented itself, the conservative movement from which Roberts sprung would see the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 destroyed as well.”
With regards to civil rights related cases, especially those involving the rights of African Americans, it is clear that our judicial system is completely rigged and set up in a way that would ensure that many of the gains made during the civil rights movement, would be eviscerated over time while racism continues to thrive. Smdh.
Source: Adam Serwer. “Sonia Sotomayor: Court’s Right Wing ‘Out Of Touch With Reality.’” msnbc. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sonia-sotomayor-slams-supreme-court-right-wing-race-matters.
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination. As members of the judiciary tasked with intervening to carry out the guarantee of equal protection, we ought not sit back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society. It is this view that works harm, by perpetuating the facile notion that what makes race matter is acknowledging the simple truth that race does matter.” — Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Justice Sotomayor stated this in her dissent to the case Bill Schuette v. Coalition To Defend Affirmative Action. Of course, the majority conservative and Republican appoinetd Justices concluded that it was constitutional for the state of Michigan to ban affirmative action in college admissions. It pisses me off that over the last 38 years, it is mostly the Justice of color who has been willing to acknowledge the realities of racism in the 21st century and write a judicial opinion with statements like this. But what good is it if her views on race will always be part of the minority?
Source: Adam Serwer. “Sonia Sotomayor: Court’s Right Wing ‘Out Of Touch With Reality.'” msnbc. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sonia-sotomayor-slams-supreme-court-right-wing-race-matters.
“It’s not unreasonable for the justices to want to spend their time on arguments made by the best advocates. Nor is there anything wrong with the country’s top lawyers demanding top dollar for their skill and hard work. And corporations surely may spend what they wish to litigate on behalf of their interests. But when these forces are combined, the biggest cost of all may fall on regular Americans, for whom justice at the highest court in the land becomes less accessible every day.”
Source: The Editorial Board. “The Best Lawyers Money Can Buy.” New York Times. December 25, 2014. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/opinion/the-best-lawyers-money-can-buy.html?_r=0.
Me Against Iniquity: Understanding the Complexities of Global White Supremacy (Racism) Through The Eyes of an Unapologetically BLACK Intellectual 