Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Fast and the Furious: The changing dynamic of Bad Asses in Film

This article is adapted from Hollywood in Blackface, which comes out Friday.The chapter it comes from is an in-depth discussion of the late 90s - early 2000 action films that worked to de-legitimize the concept of the "white bad ass" hero. In its place is the lovable Angry Black Man (ABM), perfected by Samuel L. Jackson and pathetically imitated by LL Cool J and Ice Cube among others.


Can you spot the "Token White" from Fast Five?
In a review of the poorly received XXX: State of the Union, starring one-time rebel rapper turned family-friendly movie star Ice Cube (isn’t it strange how many gangsta rappers start off as anti-establishment, radical Black Nationalist figures and through metamorphosis become family-friendly actors?: Think Queen Latifah, Ice T, LL Cool J, Mos Def, Ludacris, etc.) Roger Ebert wrote something that confirms what we write about the power of Hollywood to provide and craft positive examples of Black people when society fails to produce them: 
Did I enjoy this movie? Only in a dumb mindless way. It has whatever made the original "XXX" entertaining, but a little less of it. Does it make the slightest sense? Of course not. Its significance has nothing to do with current politics and politicians, the threat of terrorism, and the efficiency of bullet trains. It has everything to do with a seismic shift in popular culture.

Once all action heroes were white. Then they got a black chief of police, who had a big scene where he fired them. Then they got a black partner. Then they were black and had a white partner. Now they are the heroes and don't even need a white guy around, although there is one nerdy white guy in "XXX" who steps in when the plot requires the ineffectual delivery of a wimpy speech. So drastically have things changed that when Ice Cube offers to grab the president and jump off a train and grab a helicopter, all the president can do is look grateful. Oh, and later, in his new State of the Union speech, our nation's leader quotes Tupac, although he doesn't know he does. Well, you can't expect him to know everything.
Ebert beautifully captures what Hollywood has accomplished over the past thirty years, creating Black Fictional Images through film and turning the accepted paradigm of masculinity from actors like Kurt Russell, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger to actors like Vin Diesel, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Will Smith, and Samuel L. Jackson (who seems to appear in every action film as a mentor of some sorts from XXX, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Star Wars Episodes I-III and finally to Jumpers).
 
One can never forget that Predator 2 had the eponymous alien hunter being defeated by Roger Murtaugh himself, Danny Glover. Going from Predator, where an elite search and rescue team is decimated by the alien hunter before Arnold puts it down to Danny Glover performing the same act in Los Angeles is a bit of a stretch.
 
Patrick Swayze was originally attached to the role Glover ended up with in Predator 2, but he filmed Point Break instead. Smart move, since that film is one of the last action movies made devoid of any Black Fictionalization: not one Black person has a speaking part in the film.
 
The agenda of movies over the past 25 years has been the gradual demasculization of the white male to the point where 2010s The Other Guys spoofed this concept by having The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson play alpha male cops to Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s white-bread nerds:
This buddy cop spoof begins with the triumphant exploits of the NYPD’s coolest cops. In cameos played by Samuel L. Jackson, as the same character he’s done since Pulp Fiction, and Dwayne Johnson, the genial half-Samoan, half-black ex-pro wrestler formerly known as The Rock, the two supercops wreak $12 million in property damage to Manhattan while arresting a smalltime weed dealer. Then Jackson and Johnson take a victory lap around the police station, tossing their unfilled-out paperwork to “The Other Guys,” the precinct’s most pathetic desk jockeys, played by Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, who become the movie’s main characters.

The Other Guys could have been more memorably entitled The White Guys. Much of comedy these days, especially funny TV commercials about doofus dads, gingerly deals with the paradox of a culture in which white guys have seemingly been dethroned from the top of the masculinity pyramid. Yet, the people who have the really good jobs making the movies, TV shows, and ads poking fun at white guys remain, overwhelmingly, white guys like McKay and Ferrell.
Films like Bad Boys, Bad Boys 2 and any Samuel L. Jackson film where he plays his angry Black man stereotype (think Shaft) that somehow now equates to the ultimate manifestation of machismo, have been integral in creating this new dynamic. Perhaps this is why The Expendables was so uninspiring, with the sight of nearly septuagenarian white dudes trying to save the world a reminder of just how powerful the new paradigm of Black masculinity and white pusillanimity in film has become.
 
It is our opinion that this is the reason 2004’s The Punisher starring Thomas Jane performed so mediocre at box office.  Movie fans have been conditioned to only accept Black guys as bad asses (unless they have fantastical super powers, such as Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine or they are superheroes in spandex).
 
Can white guys play the bad ass hero anymore?
The character of The Punisher is just a normal dude out of for revenge; that it did so well in DVD sales, as another vigilante film The Boondock Saints performed, is a sign that a huge market exists for people clamoring for a different type of film. This group has been incredibly marginalized and the only type of actors representing them in film are either foreigners or goofy white dudes like Paul Rudd or Michael Cera. If Shia LaBeouf is the best that Hollywood can give us to replace a guy like Willis, Russell or even Michael Biehn (underrated actor), then fire up that DVD player and prepare to just watch Commando, Escape from New York and Aliens.
 
It’s interesting that Vin Diesel turned down the starring role in XXX: State of the Union, after his role in the first film (XXX) successfully eviscerated the concept of the James Bond-style white superspy as an anachronism in a world where white privilege is fading fast.
 
Diesel, just multiracial to qualify as a token minority to the likes of Racialicious.com, yet white enough to be cast as a World War II era soldier in Saving Private Ryan (remember, the military was still segregated then) knows how to exploit his protean racial identity, as one can see by the phenomenally popular Fast and Furious franchise.
 
Based on a 1998 article glamorizing street racing in the magazine Vibe, the Fast and Furious brand has produced five films that have grossed a cumulative of well over a billion dollars. Sporting a multiracial and exotic cast – as well as Token white bread Paul WalkerFast and Furious offers an intimate look at the anti-establishment world of car racing.
 
It should be noted that Walker is perfecting the role of white boy sidekick and making a career of it having recently starred in 2010s Takers as a white boy sidekick to Idris Elba’s Alpha male character.
The fine folks over at Thegrio.com praised the latest Fast and Furious (Fast Five), not for its artistic merits, but for its diverse casting:
"I didn't think anybody would ever write a role for me. I didn't fit the bill. I was too multicultural. There was no place for me," was how Vin Diesel explained his early Hollywood reality on an Atlanta set for the Fast Five in October 2010.

Hollywood's "whites only" attitude, especially for leading man roles, is what prompted Diesel to write, produce, direct and star in his 1994 life-as-art frustration short, Multi-Facial about not being black enough or white enough to make the cinematic cut. The short, which landed in the Cannes Film Festival, got Steven Spielberg's attention and the legendary director cast Diesel in a small role in the Oscar-winning Saving Private Ryan. Then, in 2001, Diesel's career got a major jolt with the blockbuster The Fast and the Furious.

A novel approach to the salt-and-pepper buddy flick concept that had successfully paired the likes of Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte, The Fast and the Furious, coincidentally built around an article from VIBE magazine about street racing, proved to be no laughing matter. Diesel, who was coming off successful runs in Pitch Black and Boiler Room, was the star power that jump-started the film, with the blue-eyed, blonde Hollywood poster boy Paul Walker following his lead. Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez rounded out the main cast but Asian actor Rick Yune and then hip-hop star Ja Rule did have significant input, not to mention the cars themselves. Actually, The Fast and the Furious was a major wake-up call that Detroit no longer dominated the world auto industry.

When Entertainment Weekly listed its five reasons why, a decade later, this franchise is still viable, they put "The Melting Pot" vibe at the top of the list. "Quick, what do Harry Potter, Spider-Man, Twilight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, and Christopher Nolan's Batman series have in common?" they asked. And the answer was "White people, white people everywhere!" That's certainly not anything the Fast Five is guilty of.
Set in Brazil, whose economy has been deemed the second fastest growing one next to China, Fast Five's cast is comprised of original stars Diesel, Walker and Brewster as well as Tyrese, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Sung Kang, who have been pulled from the other franchises, is more diverse than ever. For added value, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Diesel's multiracial comrade, has been drafted to play the badass cop vowing to catch the robber by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Reggaeton players Tego Calderón and Don Omar help broaden the base even further in supporting roles.
Reviews of Fast Five largely center around the cars as well as the franchise's transitioning from racing to heist genre but that's not the real story. Fast Five, which has already topped the box office in Australia, the UK, New Zealand and South Korea, should be Hollywood's final initiation into the new multicultural, multiracial, global reality. Since people of color have long dominated the population stats, the world has been a rainbow of flavors for a minute now. The difference is that sunburst reality has become increasingly too powerful to ignore yet Hollywood and other Americans are still just peeking at the memo.

While birthers are wasting their time challenging President Obama's citizenship, the world is literally passing them by. Holding on to the crumbling notion of white supremacy and white privilege is definitely a recipe for destruction. To play in this new world arena, it's essential to realize that not living in the "real" world is just no longer an option.
Movies will continue marginalizing white male actors, while creating manufactured positive images of Black actors that become the new archetype of “cool” for everyone to emulate. Movies with all-white casts aren’t allowed anymore, for as the Thegrio.com alluded to above that would be tantamount to creating a “white privileged” view of the world that is increasingly one of color.

The white action star is a thing of the past; the multiracial action star is the present and the future. It just took marginalizing whites and the manufacturing of positive images of Black people through  film to achieve this result. 









40 comments:

Stephen said...

Wow, great post and I'll have to get the book. As a result of the emaciation of the White male in film and television, White males feel it in real life. No matter how much Hollyweird wants us to look up to Will Smith and Denzel, we will always relate more to the likes of Aragorn and Mel Gibson's William Wallace.

Back before I could see I would always favored the White action stars like Jason Statham and the ones you mentioned. I never considered race to be a reason why (that'd be rayciss) this was. It was on a subconscious level but now I can see and it is the conscious.

Vin Diesel is a racial chameleon. He can be black enough for roles like in XXX but is White enough to have someone like Jordanna Brewster casted as his sister in Fast and Furious movies.

Iron Zeppelin said...

Your analysis is somewhat true but really flawed. TV Shows are what counts nowadays and scriptwriters are using some nice tools in order not to show too many black people. Their best argument is historical consistency : not that many blacks during the height of the Roman Empire (Rome, Spartacus, etc) or the catholic empire (Borgias) and certainely not in old America (Mad Men, boardwalk empire) or in "rural" America (Justified, Breaking Bad, Weeds, Two and a half men.) Some tried but quickly dropped the character. Even Friends, South Park or Family Guy do not have black actors or just a token one. Oh, and don't forget fantasy shows like the latest HBO hit : Game of Thrones.

You sound really pessimistic but when I watch TV I'm glad I don't see that many people, which is really different from my parisian environment.

Anonymous said...

Paul,

Movies like "The Fast and the Furious" are designed to appeal to the dumbest members of US society and the world. Mestizos and blacks will enjoy this and think it's brilliant film-making.

If you have ever seen the programming on BET, UPN, or Univision you get a good insight into what entertains our "vibrant" population. I think movie studios are just playing to the lowest common denominator and that entails black main characters and explosions, followed by a catch phrase.

I think there is a half-black character in Point Break named Warchild. He fights Keanu and Swayze at the beach and is later killed in a raid on his house. "Two Utah, get me two!".

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

Television is a completely different story, Iron Zeppelin.

Read the entry I did on the cancellation of "Undercovers" a few months ago.

http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2010/11/and-you-thought-mantis-was-bad.html

The most popular shows on cable tend to be those on Discovery (Deadliest Catch, Man vs. Wild, etc.) or other reality shows that show decidedly non-SWPL white people engaging in real-work.

You are correct to point out the popularity of AMC shows (only The Walking Dead had a regular Black character), which skews overwhelmingly white.

Even the TNT dramas were driven by primarily white casts.

FX is a white channel. Justified, Knockout, Always Sunny, etc., are shows that white people love.

Comedy Central is primarily a channel geared toward college students (white) and Tosh.0 and South Park are both shows that push the envelope when it comes to acceptable discourse on racial matters.

NBC has long been a channel that caters to SWPL white people tastes. 30 Rock, The Office, Seinfeld, Friends, ER, Community (hilarious show) are all shows that have an audience that has to be 90- 95 percent white.

As to epics, John Milius' Rome was spectacular and I love Spartacus. Heck, I loved HBO's Deadwood.

The great thing about television is you can develop characters and story lines over a large number of episodes (think Arrested Development)and reward loyal viewers with better stories and greater payoffs.

What would a historical epic with Black people look like? "Roots?"

Anonymous said...

White people are dwindling and will soon be extinct.

Florida resident said...

I recently watched "Death wish #1" through "Death wish #5" on TV channel AMC, with Charles Bronson as the main character.

Surprisingly many criminals are "minority". Surprisingly, I mean, in comparison with "Law and Order" of various types (SVU; CI, etc.).
Respectfully, F.r.

Don said...

Anonymous said...
"White people are dwindling and will soon be extinct."
May 3, 2011 12:41 PM

Yeah right!..From A.D 1347-1351 the white race endured the abject horror of the "black death". Almost half of Europes population perished in those 4 years, going from an estimated population of 120 million in 1346 to some 65 million in 1352!.

Did our people just lay down and die? (they very well could have, it must have seemed like the end of the world!)..No they did not!. In the ensuing centuries our people came back stronger than ever, giving the world the rennaisance, the enlightenment, the scientic & industrial revolutions, democracy & LITERALLY CREATED THE MODERN WORLD!!. We now number some 1 billion white souls scattered over much of the planet, yes our current demographic is in the negative but birth rates ebb & flow throughout different epochs, that can rapidly change.

You had best hope (for your sake) that we do not. For this Earth will enter an eternal dark age, the light of the world will have been extinguished. Wallowing in one dull, mediocre brown mass who all look & act the same. Controlled by a cruel eastern despotism...WHO do you think it is that produces almost all of the worlds food?. WHO do you think is responsible for virtually all innovation & medicines. WHO do you think created, operates & maintains the worlds vast modern infrastructures?..It certainly is NOT the negro (profound, utter, abject incompetance!). Nor the Arab (who rely heavily on western expertise just to maintain their economies). Nor the mestizo's (ditto again). The only ones besides the Euro is the east Asians (albiet, their technology & infrastructure came from the west).

If we are gone, does anyone REALLY beleive that the Chinese will respect European concepts as "human rights"-"the rights of man", et. al??..I mean REALLY?!..If we are gone & China covets any part of Africa (or anywhere else) they will go in & take it & exterminate anyone in their way (& you know it!).

So for your sake you had best HOPE that we stick around & remain strong!.

Anonymous said...

I don't go to movies, but I can say that whenever a black fantasy protagonist is portrayed on television, whether in shows or commercials, I'm quicker than light speed changing the channel.

Anonymous said...

If you really wanted to know what black people don't like have you ever oh, I don't know, ASKED any? And not just any, I mean large amounts. Young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, etc? I suppose if *ahem* "accuracy" is your goal then arming yourself with first-hand knowledge would be the best thing to do.

As far as the immasculization of the while male... honestly this is something I have seen my entire life. From age 3 I could beat up the best of the boys on the playground and then when I got older and boys wanted to pick on me, none of their bullying attempts seemed to last. I have sensed a kind of weakness, and fear in many of the men I've dated... which leads to me ending the relationship. I don't need to waste my time with someone who has no balls or backbone and is easily influenced by ouside views blaming anyone other than himself for his own failure to be a real man. I've also noticed that a large amount of men are bisexual these days. I've broken up with at least 2 men because of that. It's pretty sad that 90% of the guys I've known cried more than me when faced with a crisis (and I'm the girl!). White men are immasculating themselves, and instead women have to take control and handle situations. It's a good thing we are the only gender strong enough to be given the responsibility of bearing the children of earth.

White Devil said...

SBPDL,

Read this load of horse shit:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/part1/110503&sportCat=nba

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

White Devil,

Bill Simmons wishes he were Black. His "The Book of Basketball" - while entertaining - is basically a 700+ page discussion of his obsession for Black basketball players.

It gets uncomfortable to read, and one can only imagine seeing Simmons saddle up to some Black pro basketball player asking for his autograph with the look of a 18-year-old virgin on prom night.

If I were the basketball player in question, I'd run like hell away from the dude.

No, Simmons personifies your average white sports fan perfectly. He might be occasionally fun to read, but the guy would go for a melanin transfusion the first moment they become available.

Anonymous said...

The reason why anti-establishment black actors/rappers become family figures is because they are so outrageously macho that film execs see their burliness and roughness as an opportunity for contrast with a silly family-centered movie. Most of these folks transition into family films by doing typical fish-out-of-water comedies like Ice Cube in "Are We There Yet?" and The Rock in "The Game Plan" and "The Tooth Fairy." Their machismo is the reason they were cast in the first place.

Almost all action stars do those movies - Arnold had "Jingle All The Way", Sylvester had "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. Which is another example of a contrast situation - old ladies cast as foulmouthed badasses, aka the last 20 years of Betty White's career and the total inverse of Ice Cube being cast as a family man.

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

Last anon,

I'll consult with Charlie Murphy from "The Dave Chappelle Show" who pointed out Black fashion back in the 80s in the hilarious "Prince basketball" skit:

Charlie Murphy:IF YOU WEARING BAGGY SHIT NOW ACTING HARD..IF YOU FROM L.A. YOU MOTHAFUCKAS WEARING SOME STRANGE SHIT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaKHR6oe52Q

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 3:04

Make me a sandwich. Men have been emasculating themselves ever since women bitched about not being in the workplace (which real men made) or having the right to vote (which by the standards of the time a lot of men couldn't either), then had to accommodate or face "discrimination" and "sexual harassment" lawsuits as a result.

Being in a relationship with someone like you would be an insufferable bore because you want kudos just for existing (I'm a woman, we can bear children, I'm a princess so treat me right because I'm entitled to everything a man can give me). Go fuck yourself, maybe you'll get pregnant and have something worth bragging about.

Anonymous said...

All the weapons they are holding were made by whites though.

Anonymous said...

Weapons made by whites, using film and cameras made by whites and likely asians, recording the sound with devices and techniques invented by whites and asians...

Anonymous said...

SBPDL,

"The agenda of movies over the past 25 years has been the gradual demasculization of the white male to the point where 2010s The Other Guys spoofed this concept by having The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson play alpha male cops to Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s white-bread nerds:"

Did you even watch the movie?

The Rock and Samuel Jackson had short , but funny roles in the film. They were both ancillary characters. Sorry ,but this film was not a very accurate example of blacks "taking over" Hollywood.

Now if your point was an objection to the very existence of black actors in film period, then point well made.

-Black guy

Greying Wanderer said...

"isn’t it strange how many gangsta rappers start off as anti-establishment, radical Black Nationalist figures and through metamorphosis become family-friendly actors?"

Rappers are often the bright ones who use rapping the same way weedy white kids use comedy. They're more Mama's boy than gangsta by inclination although obviously they have to act up to the image sometimes and pay the price.

Ivan Urkinoff said...

"If you really wanted to know what black people don't like have you ever oh, I don't know, ASKED any?"

There are professional survey/polling organizations that do this (Nielsen, etc), that's how advertisers know when/where to promote their products.

What a dumb fucking question.

Anonymous said...

I see Diarrhea is still here.

Ivan Urkinoff said...

"Sorry ,but this film was not a very accurate example of blacks "taking over" Hollywood."

The point of the column is the de-emphasis of white males in film.

Anonymous said...

Which is why I've hardly watched any movies since the 1990's. Too many blacks in the movies and too many blacks being loud in the theaters.

Silent Running said...

While I agree with the main thrust of this article, I have to disagree with you on The Punisher. I consider the movie unwatchable. I like Tom Jane, but neither he nor Dolph Lundgren were able to really portray the character. Jane's Punisher is the opposite of a badass, getting kicked around by virtually every villain that comes after him before killing them with a lucky shot. The Punisher is a methodical, ruthless murderer.

Michael Biehn is definitely underrated as an actor, but he's also an icon. The image of him in futuristic Terminator gear (which became the first incarnation of Solid Snake) will live forever.

Dissident said...

Blacks aren't "Taking over" Hollyweird, but they are over-represented in films.

Art imitating life: Wrong, it's more like life imitating art.

Hollyweird has an agenda, and that agenda is to restructure western society, minorities are being used to accomplish this goal. They are useful dupes and willing participants in the destruction of our once proud heritage.

Once the changes have been fully implemented then, they too, will be thrown aside. Sacrificed on the alter of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!

So all you blacks that are aiding and abetting, and wishing for the demise of whites: You've been warned.

Ivan Urkinoff said...

"isn’t it strange how many gangsta rappers start off as anti-establishment, radical Black Nationalist figures and through metamorphosis become family-friendly actors?"

And of course they're never asked to reconcile their racist, anti-white rantings with their new "mainstream" persona.

Queen Latifah and Ice Cube are both racist pieces of shit who now want to be accepted as mainstream actors.

Stuff Black People Don't Like said...

Black Guy,

I saw "The Other Guys" in theater. Casting The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson as bad ass cops (see the first clip above from the film) was a play on the discernible patterns of casting minorities as bad ass characters while regulating white guys to "bumbling side-kick" status.

Silent,

I forever be perplexed why Marvel neutered Thomas Jane's "The Punisher" and basically turned him into a punching bag for 9/10ths of the film.

However, the last 10 minutes of the film redeem whatever "Count of Monte Cristo" style vigilante they were going for in most of the movie.

As a huge fan of the Garth Ennis Punisher Max run, this one scene is representative of what the sequel could have been:

ending to 2004's The Punisher

Problem, of course, is that most of those who do evil to others, killers, rapists and psychos are disproportionately Black.

Having a white dude going around blasting the criminals Thug Report makes famous wouldn't be a winning proposition for film makers.

It's funny, as America's white population dwindles, the number of non-white heroes in film goes up, but the number of white villains only grows.

Maybe that's why a true Punisher film can't be made and why he continually fights the Italian, Russian or Albanian mob in comics.

Having him engage criminals that reflect reality would immerse The Punisher in a world that would deem his actions 'racist'...

Anonymous said...

Great post, Paul! Can't wait to get the book. Perhaps an autographed copy?

-Ulick Varange

Anonymous said...

People have talked about TV, but games also have plenty of white heroes. Oor at least, in the case of games produced in the far east, characters you would no little trouble thinking of as white. I played Vanquish just before reading this, and was struck by "Hold on, this game only gets this 'diverse': the player and allies are all Germanic, and the enemies are Slavic (and robotic)."

I'm still annoyed by ludicrous black appearances, it's true, and I avoid the games in which you'll see a lot of them, but you might keep games in mind.

Percy Kittens Reloaded said...

Bokeem Woodbine is in talks to join the cast of the remake of Total Recall:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118036338?refCatId=13&query=woodbine

I guess Sony wants to atone for the fact that the last Total Recall film had only one black character in it, and he happened to be a backstabbing, two-faced, mutant with "five kids to feed."

Anonymous said...

To anonymous babe:

Jesus Christ Supercop has it right, you women wanted this metrosexual BS so now that this bed in made lay in it and wallow.

What a bunch of sanctimonious crap.

Anonymous said...

"It's pretty sad that 90% of the guys I've known cried more than me when faced with a crisis (and I'm the girl!). White men are immasculating themselves, and instead women have to take control and handle situations. It's a good thing we are the only gender strong enough to be given the responsibility of bearing the children of earth."

Translation: I weigh 300 lbs and can't get a guy to stay with me.

Anonymous said...

Ret'd LAPD here. I was disappointed with the movie Ironman when Terrence Howard was cast as the R&D Air Force guy. Throughout the movie it seemed as if he was trying NOT to speak in ebonics and suppress it. The ebonic lilt in his speech was ever present, and in one scene he was showing some new pilots around a Predator. Robert Downey Jr made a joke to the pilots that was to embarrass Howard. He says to Downey, "They gon' blee dat" or in English, "They're going to believe that". I picked up on his lack of proper English right away, especially since he was portraying a full bird Colonel who was responsible for research and development. This was Hollywood black ass-kissing at its finest.

Anonymous said...

What the heck is good about this when they don't have enough respect for black women to put one in the movie and portray her as a beautiful sex symbol or one of their leading ladies. Half of these black males aren't about black people. They are about themselves and their macho, arrogant, sellout attidudes. All they are are white male wannabes. Get real. There is nothing concerning black culture and the black community about Fast Five. A bunch of men that are only black for ticket sells but even in there movies their backs are solidly turned on being anything that would show them as men who actually like and support black women.

Anonymous said...

Keep making things up about how bad it is to be white! How dumb do you have to be to believe this racist bullshit?

Anonymous said...

I live in previousy white minority functioning south africa, I am a fan of the original fast and furious cult hit, so decided to go see the latest installment of the franchise, the movie is what it is, I didnt go expecting anything profound, it was enjoyable, what I found ironic is that its set in the browning experiment called brasil, but what shocked me was the young black ghetto culture disciples in th2 audience.Im sure most of you on this site know the extent that educational excelence has been erroded in south africa.I noticed that the thug ghetto culture adherents can not locate their seats, they barely literate, they have no concept of punctuality, even for a movie that to for the ghetto trash should be gospel, there deliquency doesnt lend itself to keeping quiet and "concentrating" for 1.5hrs.But the scary part was how these thugs, both white and black cheered at the sight of money applauded at when the walker turns to the dark sideI left the movie knowing how it felt to have the white smacked out of me, seeing white kids behaving like inner city thugs dressed in hip hop with their priveledged black friends which are introducing them the to ghetto shithole cultureI was thoughrouly ghetto niggered out, my grand father lived in brazil as a portuguese immigrant its becaome a browned out shithole now

Anonymous said...

In the Iron Man comic book, James Rhodes was from the beginning a black man. If you see Terrence Howard in an interview, he is surprisingly articulate. The "suppressed ebonics" you speak of were an affectation for the role. I don't recall where I read it, but it was written somewhere that he is borderline genius. As is Will Smith, who turned down M.I.T. for his mulit-platinum, multi-million dollar rap career. Saying that to say, call it both ways and give credit where it is due.

Anonymous said...

Doctor Who when it really began sucking had a 27 year black woman as a Brigadier just below a General in rank in the UK army.

Anonymous said...

To the woman who has a problem with men-

I am a white woman and I do see what you mean. However, there are good white men out there that are not weaklings, babies or emasculated, they're just hard to find. I am most definitely NOT a feminist nor have I ever wanted a wimpy man, but I do want a man who has feelings, not a robot or a sociopath. My husband has cried in front of me and I actually appreciate it as it shows that he is human and has feelings. He is a strong man, a wonderful husband and a great father and it would be asinine of me to think less of his masculinity simply because he has feelings. I know that modern society has warped women and made them feel like they have to be breadwinners and "equal" to men, but it is just a trap, a lie and a new, worse form of slavery. At least before feminism we had security and marriages for life, now a man can dump you for no good reason (or you can leave him because you don't feel "fulfilled"). We have to work at home and in the workplace, leave our children with strangers and miss their childhoods, and we wonder why they are angry, resentful and get all their influences from their peers? WAKE UP! MEN are not to blame here, WOMEN are. We wanted this, and now that we have it, it's shit.

If you want a good man, you need to realize that he will NOT be perfect. Plain and simple as that. Are YOU perfect? Would you want some leeway regarding your flaws or imperfections? Then realize that you have to give to get. I think women don't realize that nowadays, which is sad, but society has warped women into believing nonsense that goes against all natural laws. I used to "want it all" but then I realized what "it" was, and now I'm just a happily married stay at home mother who loves her flawed husband deeply. I know how good I have it, and I hope that I show my husband every day how much he means to me because he is so good to me in so many ways. But I love him most when he takes off that mask of manliness (not that he's not manly because he is) and just allows himself to be a real person who shares his feelings and thoughts with his wife. All I can say to you is that I hope you give your position some thought as you will end up lonely and will die alone if you don't cut men some slack. Also I would recommend REALLY examining media and societal views as there is a definite agenda and bias to them and it is damaging and disingenuous. I did, and now I have the very thing I always wanted...a happy family and true love. I wish you well.

Dissident said...

To the poster @ 2:03.

I appreciate you taking a stand for we men out here. We're taking it on the chin daily, especially white men. I'm glad that there are women like you that understands the agenda, the societal engineering, and the feminist BS.

I hope to hear from more women like you on this blog.

PS. I'm not more perfect either, but I try to fulfill my role as a mentor and an example of what what a male should look and act like. I'm respectful of women, and I try to demonstrate characteristics that I believe have all but vanished....like chivalry, honor, adoration, respect,kindness, etc..


I'm glad that there are women that appreciate those traits.

Annie Oakley said...

I love my white husband. He's flawed and so am I. I make him first and he makes me first, pure and simple.

I bought into the feminist mindset a long time ago. It made me nothing but miserable. I thought I could live the Sex and the City lifestyle, but I kept attracting uppity white boys who would dump me if a bigger better deal came along.

White men have it hard, that is why I am the way I am with my husband. He gets it from the government, his job and society.

At least when he comes home, he has a safe peaceful oasis with me.