“Meet Renato: a pasta-loving, Dean Martin-worshipping Italian-American living la dolce vita and working at his papa’s Little Italy deli. Until his African-American birth parents show up, claiming he’s their long-lost son Leroy. Now that he’s suddenly black, “Leroy” tries his best to shoot hoops and dig hip-hop, but all he really wants is for everyone to just get along.”

I thought this phase in Hollywood was done. Are you that desperate for the gimmick? I have some readable/enjoyable scripts available for purchase if so. You won’t even need wet wipes after reading them.

…and I kick shit. Ha. I’ve always wanted to validly quote a Lil Kim line…

I get Adrianne (Adri-oblivious) Curry’s claims now that I have read the story below. Racism doesn’t exist for some white people who say it doesn’t exist because it now has a new renaming. It’s called “just getting out of hand.” Well, now that I know that the verbiage has changed, I can probably communicate more effectively with those who are in denial. So the next time some cops shoot somebody plus 40 times without a weapon, we can now say they “are just getting out of hand” and folk will get it. Homegirl’s excuse is that they racist - I mean “just getting out of hand” and drinking and carrying on by the river. But were you drunk uploading to Facebook too? Doesn’t that get you a ticket or something?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1002071jena1.html

OCTOBER 2–A group of white Louisiana college students dressed in blackface and reenacted the “Jena 6″ assault while a friend snapped photos and videotaped the staged attack, images that were later posted to a participant’s Facebook page. The photos, which you’ll find on the following pages, were taken late last month on the bank of the Red River, where students from the University of Louisiana at Monroe giddily acted out the racial attack. The photos (and the short video clip at right) were posted to the Facebook page of Kristy Smith, a freshman nursing student. The album of images was entitled “The Jena 6 on the River.” In the video, three students with mud smeared across their bodies stomp on a fourth student, while two of the participants are heard to say, “Jena 6.” One man can also be heard saying, “Niggers put the noose on.” After the video and photos on Smith’s page were discovered by fellow students, she removed the material and made her Facebook page private. Smith, who did not respond to a TSG e-mail sent to her school address, apologized for the images in several recent Facebook postings. “We were just playin n the mud and it got out of hand. I promise i’m not racist. i have just as many black friends as i do white. And i love them to death,” she wrote. She added in a later message that her friends “were drinking” and things “got a lil out of hand.” When faced with heated online criticism from fellow students, Smith yanked the photos and video from Facebook, but not before one student downloaded the photos and another videotaped the video directly from her computer screen (and then posted the clip on YouTube). The Monroe campus is about 65 miles north of Jena, where thousands of marchers gathered on September 21 to protest what they claimed was unfair legal treatment given to six young black men arrested in the beating of a white high school classmate.

So this morning I was very tired because I hung out until about 1am with the Voyage crew (Maritri, Corey, Yvie, Budda Fly, Luqman, LaRonda, V. Jeffrey, Jerome - damn we got a big Monday crew!) after some good music and some lovely truffled scallops and a nice glass of tempernillo. This morning, throat hurting because I laughed too hard on the way home, I barely woke up after pressin snooze four million times. No way I’m hitting the gym this morning. I woke up with a ‘tude. I know when I wake up with a ‘tude because birds don’t fly on the window and sing to me, I don’t float towards coffee, etc. I have a lot on my mind right now and no real way to lighten the load except to just acknowledge that I have a lot on my mind. I thought about a lot of the injustice in the world. About Britney’s kids and how they’re going to turn out, about the shrinking middle class, about the environment and how we talk big game but play the game like wussies, about people being upset with the New York family who’s daughter is critically ill and has decided to have another kid in order to save her (the ultimate act in love, if you ask me, for both kids. Too many “oops” babies out there to begin with…see Britney), about the possibility of me growing old and being a crank dog lady, wearing too big sweatshirts, heating up my coffee, surrounded by books, talking to myself (wait…that’s me now).

Anyways, the point is, this morning, the world felt particularly unjust. I felt a wave of feeling for mothers and families who are suffering because of the war. I couldn’t really make sense in my mind why there are people running the country who aren’t listening. Who think they know better because of their status. I know a woman who was raised to never go against the President. I can’t understand how she makes peace with that in her heart. I also felt an overwhelming feeling of helplessness against people who think racisim is dead when there’s always news to contradict this. And I wonder if they think black people are supposed to solve our own racist problems by pretending that attacks aren’t racially motivated so we can just go ahead and be equally dumb. Or do they feel such a divide from their own white brethern that they think racism just doesn’t exist…in their world? I know some great vanilla brothers and sisters who totally think that racism is alive and and in effect and that it’s stupid. Just look at some of the marchers for Jena 6. There was even one girl from San Diego who I SWEAR could be on that show “The Hills.” But there she was talking about how obvious it was that there was prejudice. I just felt helpless. What could I possibly do to make a change? I am just me. I am good with words and quick on the comeback. But I also like being at home and going shopping. What kind of revolutionary could I be? Am I shallow to ask if Assata Shakur likes to get manicures and pedicures because I do?

Yes, I thought all of these things before work and felt dispair. And fatigue. And then it happened:

A very young girl who works with me actually answered my “How are you this morning?” with a real answer. She was miserable. Something happened where she expressed her true feelings and her whole family just dropped bows on her and had turned against her. She was VERY upset! I tried to impart any words of wisdom I could (including my favorite: “shared blood does NOT make your family sane!” - part of the weight on my mind, by the way). She looked mildly better (or beaten…those two looks sometimes look the same) and we parted. Then I read my horoscope from the DailyOM and it SAID:

What You Have
Capricorn Daily Horoscope
Seeing the inequality your brothers and sisters in humanity deal with today can inspire you to open your heart to people in need. Because you are likely in a generous mood, you may want nothing more than to share all you have with others. Dismay can strike suddenly, however, if you examine your existence and cannot think of a single way to ease people’s suffering because you believe you have nothing to give. Creative thought can help you overcome this temporary roadblock today by showing you how much you have that may be useful to another. Whether you give of your time or your wisdom, your contributions will no doubt be appreciated.

As much as we may consider our lives lacking when we look around ourselves, we are rich in that we have so much to give those whose lives have been less fortunate than our own. If we have little in the way of excess resources, we nonetheless have all of the wisdom and experiences we have acquired over time at our disposal. The people who have chosen to follow a path similar to our own can benefit greatly from knowing more about what awaits them as they move forward. Those whose goals do not mirror our own can still find comfort in the fact that we overcome many roadblocks to get where we are in the present, as it means that there is hope for those still struggling to prevail over adversity. You may have little other than hope to give today, yet you can still make a difference in someone’s life.
http://www.dailyom.com/

Stop playing!