It's these subtle ways the larger society Blacks of bits of self-esteem that they have all around them. It's why I still support Black-focused media. I get sick of people asking me the age-old question, "Why do y'all have to have Ebony and Essence, Miss Black America, or HBCU's? White people don't have organizations that have 'White' in the title". Stuff like this continually points out the word "white" doesn't have to be added because it's just assumed. It be like me saying, "The Sun is pretty bright today". You gonna turn around and ask me which sun I'm talking about? Sirius? Betelguese? Proxima Centauri?? No, you know I mean "Sol" and when most whites hear "hero", "love interest", "genius", "leader", etc., they just slap a white face on it.
That being said, why do you think the movie's a bad idea overall? I think it's a good idea to remember the tragedy through a well-done film. I don't think it's too soon--frankly, it'll never be long enough for some. I know the documentaries are good, but dramas can focus on things in different ways. It's like movies dealing with race riots or police brutality against Blacks: hard as they are to watch, I want to experience them. -------------- Original message -------------- From: Daryle Lockhart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Two things about this film: One, and probably most importantly, it simply did not need to be made. It's in bad taste, and there's no way to put it out without pissing SOMEBODY off. There are documentaries already. That's enough. It was just five years ago. Anyone who doesn't remember what happens should be GLAD. Secondly, this "error" should not surprise ANYone. How many ways do we need to be told that Hollywood does not see us as human beings? If we're not Will Smith, or some hypersexual or socially obsolete caricature, we serve no purpose in Hollywood. THIS is why we need to be telling our own stories, and, I hate to say it, folks, but we need to be telling them outside of the Hollywood system. This is a system that couldn't keep Star Trek going after Gene died, does Transformer movies without Soundwave, and KEEPS giving Mickey Roarke work. WE are the LAST if its concerns. Hollywood applauds our weaknesses and tells us that "nobody wants to go see" our strengths. Unless, of course, our strength is us taking our shirt off. This WTC movie is a bad idea and should serve as a lesson to "how far we've come". On Aug 20, 2006, at 9:13 AM, Keith Johnson wrote: I respect Mr. Thomas' graciousness, but this is a big deal. I find it hard to believe this was a simple mistake. When researching roles, don't the producers look up peoples' records, verify their address, name, and other statistics? Don't they talk to friends and associates? Don't they try to get pictures of them? How do you cast a role based on a living person and not in in shape form or fashion realize he's Black? I think this does need to be talked about loudly. Doing so doesn't diminish from the heroism around 9-11, but not doing so simply creates more victims of another type of terrorist act: that of white America to continually diminish Blacks in this country. _____ From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor) Sent: Thursday, 17 August, 2006 23:58 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com; GIRLFRIEND; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [scifinoir2] Black hero has race changed in 911 movie] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [AFAMHED] Black hero has race changed in 911 movie Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:16:34 -0400 From: Boyce Watkins - Syracuse Finance <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:bwatkins%40TWCNY.RR.COM> RR.COM> Reply-To: Boyce Watkins - Syracuse Finance <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:bwatkins%40TWCNY.RR.COM> RR.COM> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:AFAMHED%40LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU> MUOHIO.EDU 'WTC' casting error draws flak from African-Americans Wednesday, August 16, 2006 By L.A. Johnson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette http://www.post- <http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06228/713723-254.stm> gazette.com/pg/06228/713723-254.stm A hero of another color in Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" has some people again balking at the whitewashing of a black character in a Hollywood film. <http://www.post- <http://www.post-gazette.com/popup.asp?img=http://www.post- gazette.com/image s4/20060815ap_wtchero_450.jpg> gazette.com/popup.asp?img=http://www.post-gazette.com/ images4/20060815ap_wtc hero_450.jpg> Bebeto Matthews/The Associated Press *Jason Thomas of Columbus, Ohio, helped rescue Port Authority police officers John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno on 9/11. In Oliver Stone's movie, "World Trade Center," a white actor was cast to portray Thomas. ** Click photo for larger image.* This time it's the character of Marine Sgt. Thomas, one of two former Marines who help rescue New York Port Authority Officers Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin from beneath 20 feet of twisted metal, broken concrete and sparking debris in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. In the film, white actor William Mapother -- who's Tom Cruise's cousin and who played Ethan Rom in the first season of "Lost" and Quecreek miner John "Flathead" Phillippi in ABC's "The Pennsylvania Miners' Story" -- plays Sgt. Thomas. Last week, the real Sgt. Thomas -- a black, former Marine named Jason Thomas of Columbus, Ohio -- came forward and told his story. "Someone needed help. It didn't matter who," Thomas told the Associated Press. "I didn't even have a plan. But I have all this training as a Marine, and all I could think was, 'My city is in need.' " So, instead of heading to class at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at City University of New York that fateful morning, he headed toward the devastation. At ground zero, he ran into another ex-Marine and Connecticut accountant, Staff Sgt. David Karnes, and the two decided to search for survivors. Eventually they found Jimeno and McLoughlin. Karnes, who couldn't reach Manhattan's 911 from his cell phone at ground zero, called his sister in Munhall, Joy Karnes. She helped relay information to New York emergency services that helped them pinpoint the trapped men's location. Film producer Michael Shamberg apologized to Thomas for the racial inaccuracy in the film, saying they realized the mistake only after production had already begun, the Associated Press reported. That apology comes a bit late for Paradise Gray, 42, of Wilkinsburg who sent out e-mails to hundreds of thousands via African-American list serves and Internet groups, such as the Luv4Self Network yesterday calling for a boycott of the film. "You want to apologize to me?" Mr. Gray says. "Stop it." Black men so rarely are portrayed or presented as heroes in popular culture and the media that when the opportunity to do so arises, they should be, he says. "It's so natural for Hollywood to assume that every hero is a white man," Mr. Gray wrote in his e-mail. "Hollywood has always changed facts and edited history. From Charlton Heston as Moses and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra. They are only continuing their tradition of whitewashing our history." He also criticized the black community for not speaking out more. The Jewish community's mantra is "never forget" while the black community's mantra is "forgive and forget," he said. The black community should speak up every time this happens. Six years ago, there was a similar controversy surrounding color-blind casting in the film "Pay It Forward." Kevin Spacey's white burn victim in the movie actually was a black Vietnam veteran in the book. Though disappointed his character in the "World Trade Center" movie wasn't black, Thomas, who lived on Long Island during the attacks and now works as an officer in Ohio's Supreme Court, told the Associated Press he's not upset. "I don't want to shed any negativity on what they were trying to show," he said. The movie is much bigger than him, Thomas told the New Pittsburgh Courier, and it's the people who lost their lives who need to remembered. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
