(ThyBlackMan.com) (Personal note: Got pulled away from the blog on an art project (a painting). So much has transpired since my last blog that it’s difficult to know where to begin. I was going to start with some anniversaries until Matt Damon intervened:
Kudos to Matt Damon for his remarks on diversity. Damon interrupted Effie Brown , a black female Hollywood film producer, to lecture her on his perspective that diversity only counts in front of the camera, not behind it. This is the kind of arrogant ignorance that we usually associate with the Right. Matt Damon went on to cement his hubris with his “apology.” He did not apologize or what he said, but rather that some people were offended by what he said. He further went on to claim that his comments started a conversation on diversity! Matt Damon’s presumption that he knew more about diversity than this black woman, and his subsequent proof that he knew nothing, only served as well timed reminder that racism, white privilege and arrogance can always be found among liberals as well as conservatives! Thanks to Matt Damon for the reminder!
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Some anniversaries:
Emmet Till: August 28th marked the sixtieth anniversary of the brutal and senseless murder of this beautiful child. His death and the courage of his mother to insist on returning his body to Chicago, and then display his deformed and battered body shocked the nation and provided the spark that kicked off the Civil Rights Movement. His murder, for which his killers went free, is being presented as the original case for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The tie in with today’s movement is critical for a number of reasons, the most critical of which is that it will allow our young people to begin to understand that the struggle in which they find themselves today is the same struggle black folks have been in since we were kidnapped and enslaved. Now they can understand that our history is not something out of the ancient past that has nothing to do with them. This may be the first step in the comprehension that the history of black folks in America is not one of shame and the powerlessness of slavery, but a history of an extraordinarily brave, courageous and spiritual people who never stopped fighting to overcome unimaginable cruelty and savagery.
In the Good News Bad News department, there are as many as five films about the Till tragedy in pre-production. I’m glad this incident is finally getting the attention it deserves. But there are so many stories of black heroes whose stories really need to be told that it makes no sense to compete over this one. As a public service I am offering a tiny list (in no particular order) of folks whose stories should be told: (1) Ida B. Wells (2-3) Toussaint L’ouverture; Henry Christophe (Older folks may remember back in the seventies a film was considered with Anthony Quinn as Christophe. Black folks balked and said we’d make our own movie but never did). (4) Garret Morgan (5) Bass Reeves (6) Robert Smalls (7) Bessie Coleman (8) Queen N’zinga (9) Paul Robeson and (10) Frederic Douglass.
Hurricane Katrina & the 9/11 attack: Incompetent government at its worst, in both cases. Still, Jeb Bush has the NERVE to claim his brother George kept us safe. We were attacked during his watch and he slept for almost a week after Katrina as people literally died right in front of us on television. Still one third of Louisiana Republicans blame the slow response on Obama! I have never seen people work as hard as many of these Republicans at maintaining, developing and sharpening their ignorance! They truly are astonishing!
Staff Writer; William Griggs
One may connect with this talented writer over at; http://WilliamGriggs.Net. You can also pick up his “newly” released novel entitled: The Megalight Connection.