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Monday, November 25, 2019

The slave revolts, and the history of them, that Kanye West apparently doesn't know about or care to know about

A significantly important portion of the history of Black people in America is being rewritten, piece by piece, before my eyes every week. Yes. Nearly every  week some apologist "historian" "discovers" that Black people were NOT held captive in servitude without any end in sight for hundreds of years. And that we were "unpiad, imported workers.."  Oh, yes. Yet another opportunistic soul, much like that MK-ultra'd, bewitched dunce Kanye West. The one who makes scads of the non-Black population (specifically White evangelicals) feel not a hair guilty about their holy ancestors' muderous part in the past. Yeah. I said it.

Mr.-Slavery-was-a-choice.

Lord, help him.

Just a few days ago, he warmed White supremacists' hearts even more. He appeared wearing a jacket sporting a sizeable Confederate flag patch. Anything for attention. Kanye, didn't your mom hug you enough? Isn't Kim hugging you enough?

But I digress.

                                                 Denmark Vesey




This whole revisionist ' revisionist history thing got my research antennae whipping around. I stopped to ponder and seek out if there were more than the one slave rebellion that have been documented. The one I've always heard about is the raid on Harper's Ferry led by abolitonist  John Brown and crew. But two others i was not as familiar with. One was "the rising"planned and executed by a freedman named Denmark Vesey. He organized it in Charleston, SC. His revolt was famous because it damned near worked! But "the rising" like all daring actions, was betrayed by cowardly insiders - Joe LaRoche and George Wilson. When it got too real, they bolted and ran to tell master all the details.So yeah, it failed. But it happened. There is even an excellent book, "Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It" " by David Robertson for those interested.

The other one I researched is the German Coast Slave Uprising of 1811. Yo, Kanye! Have you read up on this? No lazy Negroes there either! Anyhoo, the revolt was surprsingly documented by the U. S. It took place on January 8, 1811 in LaPlace, Louisiana, an area settled by German immigrants. The revolt was led by slave overseer, Charles Deslondes, who was a mixed race slave himself.. He managed to gather about 500 of the enslaved there and they cut through the town lighting fires at plantations and fighting adversaries. The group fought fearlessly but was conquered by a better-armed militia. Two Whites, ninety-five Blacks and countless more were killed without benefit of the process of law.

                                                   Charles Delondes








Needless to say, with these revolts came the out and out horrific torture and murder of their leaders along with a number of fellow rebels.  These 2 uprisings are but a smattering of the pushback the enslaved waged against their oppressors. The victor writes history and we know the victor NEVER writes himself in an unbecoming light.

So, pick up a book, or two, Kanye. Put down the MAGA hat. It's obscuring your view and restricting what gray matter you possess.

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/charles-deslondes-the-haitian-slave-overseer-who-led-a-failed-1811-uprising-in-new-orleans

Friday, November 8, 2019

And in this week's false inclusivity sweepstakes...

Why do I harp on these things?

Because they matter and I do not like being pissed on and told it's raining. What I touch on here still holds true for the lie of inclusivity in the romance writing industry. In fact, for all fields where Black creatives dare to "intrude" and where they dare to demand a voice. Personally, I still believe in us building our own and not looking to the dominant culture to showcase us. I am no longer shocked when they don't or barely do. It's not their job. I just point out the  hypocrisy of those walking a tightrope on which they where forced to balance

Anyhoo.

Ho-hum. The coming holiday season, and next summer, have Black main characters in a couple animated films. Thing is they only appear for a sliver of screen time.

I saw the major bullshyte when Disney announced it was realeasing an animated 1st. A Black Disney princess. Black folk squeed and hollered and jumped for joy 'cuz the Mouse House was gonna give them their 1st Black princess, Tiana.

Image result for the princess and the frog

Poor Tiana. Poor suckered Black movie-goers. In every one of Disney's previous "princess" films, the specific Disney princess was seen throughout her movie.

But not Tiana. Nope.

In Disney's highly-touted film, devoted to its 1st Black princess, Tiana (The Princess and the Frog), girlfriend was an effin FROG throughout HALF the film. And don't get me started on the fact that her prince was not a Black guy. And that the only other Black men in the thing died or were villains.

A freakin' FROG! OY!

Now, come the next few months, there will be animated films boasting that they have Black main characters." Come one, come all, Black folk. Naw. Don't fall for the okey-doke.

Image result for soul animated disney film

Pixar is delivering SOUL. Or more like, NOT delivering soul. The main character is voiced by Jamie Foxx. We get his character as a Black man. Yes, we see him in the film BUT mid-story his character dies! And then we see and hear Jamie's previously living, breathing Black man as an apparition. WHAT THE HELL! First, he can't be seen throughout the entire film as a BLACK MAN and then secondly, when he passes, he comes back as a WHITE GHOST! OY. He can't even be his Black self when he kicks! Talk about whitewashing.

Moving on.

Lastly, in the deceptively-inclusive Olympics, we have Spies in Disguise made by Blue Sky Studios. it's an animated 007-type flick with Will Smith in the lead role. He's a man of mystery. A master of disguise. A spy.. Hence, the film name. And the ready excuse as to WHY his clearly Black character won't be BLACK throughout a major portion of the film. The only thing I can say is at least Blue Sky was sly in their bias. Or is that the audience's bias? Big movies like this one get audience-tested before release. The studio gauges what needs to be tinkered with to get a positive response, and to bring in the big bucks. OY again. I am certain, Will Smith's character, Lance Sterling,  will be in disguise for over half the film. Can't have no black man being large and in charge. Even if he's an animated one

News flash: he's a PIGEON in a large part of the film. OY.

Image result for spies in disguise


Image result for spies in disguise



Apparently, films like these that tout inclusivity are analyzed out the wazoo for "receptivity."  Studoes toss their hats into the "inclusion fray" to expand their coffers. Not 'cuz they are being kumbayah-ish.  Only color they see is GREEN. So, they will pander to non-Whitticket buyers every once in a blue moon for the bank, while carefully walking a line that will not disturb their White ticket buyers


This holiday movie season, Summer 2020 movie time. I'm gonna take a hard pass on all the "inclusion." I'm tired of Black characters being everything but their human selves in animation. I think I'll pop some corn, sit back and watch classic, and/or campy, horror movies on my computer. At least they don't sugarcoat ish. They kill off the Black character right after the opening credits