“99% percent of the scripts I have at home [from] young, up and coming African American writers…almost all of them are urban mothers who are crack addicted”

I have yet to see the movie. But based on all the reviews I have read about this movie from people who actually review movies for a living,
it did not meet up to the hype. I tried hard to find a favorable review, but I just could not find one.

REVIEW: “Red Tails” Has Heart But Falls Short

“But the obvious sanitizing of the story of the brave, inspirational men and landmark events on which “Red Tails” is based feels like a disservice to both them and their accomplishments.
Two out of five stars.”

Rotten Tomatoes

“Well, I personally don’t imagine the film will find an audience, but not because it’s about black people. I think people will avoid it because it’s not very good.” (Huffingtonpost.com)

“The movie is so desperate to be palatable, to appeal to everybody that it doesn’t taste like anything,” said Wesley Morris, an African-American film critic for The Boston Globe. The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips was even less charitable, writing, “Red Tails squanders a great subject, reducing the real-life struggles and fierce heroics of the Tuskegee Airmen to rickety cliché.” (thegrio.com)

The actor lineup alone didn’t really inspire me to declare a movie night for the family. Cheadle, Freeman, or Washington would have changed all of that for me.

With just about every major movie critic giving this movie 2 stars, I wonder just how many of the same people who turned this movie into a cause are going to give their HONEST opinion ONLINE.

My wife told me that a friend of hers on Facebook immediately expressed online how this movie was very good and everybody should see it. Right under her comment someone else said that they just saw the movie as well, but they were going to keep their comments to themselves. Now why is that? George Lucas’ troubles getting this movie past Hollywood’s elite automatically became the latest Black cause, so we pushed it and defended it. With just about every film critic (Black and White major critics for those who need that info) all suggesting that this film was not one of Lucas’ best, will those who just marched on Main Street for Lucas show some honesty?

All of this is coming from a person who not only loves a good movie with a lot of action, but movies that can equally tell (or re-tell) a great story. I am no fan of Alice Walker, but I thought Steven Speilberg did an awesome job telling the story. ‘A Soldier’s Story” was also a very great story. ‘Glory’ was a great film I thought did a great job re-telling history (Denzel and Freeman in the same flick! I mean, come on. What else should I expect?).

Did Lucas do a good job telling the story? Please tell me why I have to see this movie.

Ever since George Lucas spoke out and said that the reason why his film is not getting the buzz it should is because it has an all-Black cast, many Black folks have found yet another reason to “march” virtually.

Like most Black films, I am always very hopeful that they will perform well at the box office. But the reality is that some do very well and others flop. But isn’t that the case with all films?

My biggest complaint against all of this ‘call to arms’ buzz over George Lucas’ latest film is that there have been MANY Black filmmakers that have made the very same complaints as Lucas in the past. While many do manage to get some support, none of them have generated this amount of buzz in the Black community this quickly and this wide. As I mentioned on Facebook, all throughout the year there are many Black film festivals and all of them combined can’t even buy this type of buzz in our own community. George Lucas? That’s a different story. And ironically, some of the very same American Negroes who constantly make the case that White folks can’t tell OUR story are front and center for Lucas.
Adam Howard for thegrio.com wrote the following~

“Red Tails won’t attract audiences because it was hard to finance. The film will have to deliver dramatically or it will have been all for naught. The Tuskegee Airmen’s story has potential for a compelling melodrama, but if this film falls short it will be the fault of the filmmakers and no one else.”

Howard is telling the truth. What is ultimately going to make or break this film is going to be the film itself and the people who took part creating it. Recently, I debated a guy who was just hell bent on making this whole thing strictly about race. While I am in no position to deny Lucas’ claims, I do know that a movie staring Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, and Ne-Yo (uh..Ne-Yo????) isn’t exactly a lineup that has traditionally brought out massive crowds. Gooding and Howard are very good actors, but they are marginal when compared to the likes of Denzel Washington, or Morgan Freeman. And the box office numbers are going to reflect that fact. That is just the honest truth that many of these folks don’t want to admit. These actors just do not generate the kind of buzz folks are suddenly expecting.

Here at Blackinformant.com, I always tell readers to check out the Black indie films I advertise here and be sure to give these filmmakers your HONEST opinion. Don’t just support them because they are Black. Applaud them for their efforts and tell them how they can do it better.

The article I linked to earlier quoted a few Black film critics who are less than thrilled about this movie (and yes, they have seen the film).

Please go check out this film if that is what you want to do. But don’t do it out of some racial duty.

This morning I looked at the following sites:

theroot.com
thegrio.com
blackweb2.0.com
Blackenterprise.com
atlantapost.com (which apparently is now bundled with madamenoire.com
Blavkvoices.com (Mobi
le)
This is perhaps the BIGGEST story

when it comes to how we use the Internet. Out of all the sites mentioned above, only blackweb2.0 mentioned it once. All others haven’t even touched it. Why? Is it because they did not get the memo? Is it because none of them found the story interesting enough to just mention it? Is it because it is too complex beyond stories with a race angle?

Throughout the day, I will be posting some links about this very important issue (both pro and con) and leave it up to you

to decide. This issue would have a serious impact on many of the popular sites owned and made profitable by us, and nobody’s talking about it???

Throughout the day, I will be posting links (both pro and con) on the blackinformant.com Facebook page.

Stay in the loop.

Apparently, the editor of Black commentary (not news) site is offended that Romney gave a poor Black woman some money for her troubles.

“Appearing on MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, TheGrio columnist Joy-Ann Reid lambasted Mitt Romney for handing an impoverished black woman a wad of cash at a campaign stop. ‘As an African-American woman, it galls me,’ Reid exclaimed. ‘I don’t even like to watch it. I felt like it plays into every sort of patronizing stereotype of black people.

‘Oh, here’s this little lady, let me give her 50 bucks!’ Reid snarked. ‘I mean, this is the guy who offered a bet of $10,000 on stage, you know, to another candidate, but, you know, here, let me lay off 50 bucks on this woman. And I think it plays into that conservative meme that you don’t need actual programs that the government puts in place to help people in need, we’ll just give them charity. The church will take care of them, I’ll give them 50 bucks.”

But apparently, Reid and the publication she helps manage had nothing to say when word got out that the Black woman Obama promised to hook up due to her housing issues already was a homeowner in the first place.

Honestly, when I heard that Romney did this, I also rolled my eyes. Not for any racial reasons. But because this is just more political dog and pony show to gin up some votes. I get it. It’s phony and fake.

The problem I have with Reid is that she, like most Beltway Black Folks always make this claim that they are “offended as a Black woman/man” at any action by someone outside Alpha Jackass Alpha (Democrats). But these same people will excuse and completely ignore the very same mess right in their face. A recent study concluded that Obama has taken more money from Wall Street than any US President in the last 20 years…including both Bushes. But people like Reid and her publication will ignore that and literally turn their publication into something that should be called “Cc’d by the White House Dot Com”.

Problem – STUDY: Black Boys Receive Less Attention, Harsher Punishments, and Lower Grades In School

Now here is a question for you. If this report is as accurate as it claims to be, WHY THE HECK DO WE CONTINUE TO FIGHT AGAINST PUBLIC SCHOOL BUDGET CUTS (especially for low-performing schools)?

Solution – Adelanto parents p.ull ‘trigger’ to upgrade school

Here you have Black and Hispanic parents working together to take over their failing public school. The want to turn it into a charter school that is opereated by the parents.

As expected, I see that the Beltway Black elite has only picked up on the first story. The second story is something I have seen on Main Street USA all the time.

Read more:

Since Obamacsre was called “The civil rights issue of our time” by those who fought for it, I will stick with the comparison.

In the meantime, Obama continues to issue waivers to this “right”.

“Labor unions continued to receive the overwhelming majority of waivers from the president’s health care reform law since the Obama administration tightened application rules last summer.

The Department of Health and Human Services revised the rules governing applications for health reform waivers June 17, 2011, amid a steady stream of controversial news reports, including The Daily Caller’s story that nearly 20 percent of last May’s waivers went to businesses in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s district in California.”
(Read more…)

After spending some time online this morning, I see that the latest cover of Essence magazine is turning out to be a hit. Why? Because it features that darling couple Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union.

A couple of years or so, some of the same people raised pure hell when the same magazine featured the then interracial couple of Kim Karashian and Reggie Bush on their “Black Love” edition.

Can I ask a simple question? Is a man that cheats on his wife and leaves her for another “Black love”?

Actually, the real AP headline reads “FEMA Asking Hurricane Katrina Victims To Give Back Money”. Both headlines are actually true. But only one adds that extra bite of truth that typically evokes some kind of response.

I talked about this in the days before Obama became president. I suggested that every bad action of the government is going to be reported as “the government”. I also said that many of my Black friends on the left who spent years nailing every bad action by the government on Bush’s behind will create an invisible, but well-defined line between Obama and the government he administrates. If the government does something right, it is looked at as an “Obama” victory. If it does something wrong, it’s “that dang government”.

Getting back to the story, William Craig Fugate was appointed by Obama back in 2009 to administrate FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). This same guy is now asking for some of the money back.

I can remember when those who survived Katrina were treated like untouchable saints that were violated by then-president George Bush. Remember “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people”?

Is this how Obama shows that he “cares” about Black people?

Blackinformant.com readers totally rock! Thank you one and all for your readership, your honesty and for telling others about the site.

Recently I upgraded my camera, so this is was a quick project with the family.

Recently, my wife and I were asked enter into a business partnership with a few other Black entrepreneurs that we have never met up until the phone call I’m talking about. Allow me to cut through the chase: we declined. Allow me to explain.

“A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship” That quote is attributed to business tycoon John D. Rockefeller. I can’t begin to tell you all the wonderful friendships we have made over the years that were started through doing business with these people. While many of these people happen to be Black, we are also starting to see more diversity as we become more successful.

The thing about our friendships is that for most of them, it took years for them to formulate. On both sides, a trust had to be established along with a dependable track record. We didn’t just meet at some social and huddled around our Blackness.

For some of our other friendships in business, we just clicked. In other words, it wasn’t anything that had to be forced. Our values went beyond just the typical “Us Black folks have to stick together” talk. Our vision for business and how to grow them were pretty much one in the same. We shared many of the same battle scars and could finish each other’s sentences. Some things in life just cannot be orchestrated.

Now on the flip side, I have been a part of “partnerships” that are founded strictly on race (and I have the lumps to prove it). Putting a bunch of people of the same race together in one room and expecting them to come away with the perfect plan to raise and restore the lost city of Atlantis is as ridiculous as it sounds. Sure, we all may be Black, but that does not mean we all share the same value system as it relates to business. That is why in most of my experience these partnerships not only end abruptly, but in most cases they crash, burn and then they turn nasty.

Lastly, never assume that anyone you meet in business has your best interests at heart. I DON’T CARE WHAT COLOR THEY ARE. Remember, this is business, and business is about competition. Simply believing that because someone is Black they automatically are looking out for your is one of the biggest torpedos I have seen break up small Black-owned businesses. On the flip, never assume that every Black person you meet in in business is a “Cain” waiting to stab you in the back when you least expect it. Good and lasting business partnerships are built on trust first, not race.

‘Lean on Me’ actor arrested in undercover drug buy

More on the actor from IMDB.com

“At 14 years of age, Huggy fell into the acting business when his mother brought him to a cattle-call audition in New York for the Warner Brothers feature “Lean on Me”, a starring role as a misguided drug-abusing junior high school student. The line to get in to the audition for the role of Thomas Sams was so long, it wrapped around three city blocks. Huggy and his mother became so discouraged waiting in the enormous line, they were just about to leave as the film’s writer, Michael Schiffer, walked by and spotted the two leaving. Huggy’s unique look caught the screenwriter’s eye and he promptly brought Huggy to the front of the line to meet the producers and the director. Needless to say, he booked the job and the rest is history. Huggy had a string of back-to-back successes in an acting career just beginning. His very next project “Juice, ” helmed by Ernest R. Dickerson, had him starring as Steel along side Samuel L. Jackson, Queen Latifah, ‘Dr. Dre’, Omar Epps and the late Tupac Shakur. Huggy subsequently starred in the HBO worldwide release “Strapped” that would be Forest Whitaker’s directorial debut. Huggy went on to carry his first film, Phat Beach (1996) as the star from beginning to end. The next two years were even more rewarding for Huggy, as he worked his way through episodes of “Murder One, ” “Moesha” and six episodes as Dupree on “The Wayans Brothers” series before finishing production on his next film “How to Be a Player” starring opposite Bill Bellamy and comedian Pierre Edwards.”

Equal opportunity does not produce equal results.

Over at CNN.com, many readers are thrilled over the prospects that government could actually make it the law of the land to make cell phone usage while driving illegal.

Here is just one simple question I have for you. How do you enforce a law that bans even hands free usage of your cell phone? Think about it. You are a cop sitting on the side of the road watching cars wizz by going 50, 60, 70+ miles an hour and you get a momentary glance at what appears to be someone talking. Going at that rate, how is the officer supposed to know if they are using a cell phone or not? To make things even more interesting, what if the windows are tinted?

Could it be that “We the sheeple…” are possibly green lighting technology that will allow law enforcement to detect cell phone usage in the privacy of our own vehicles? Will that technology have the ability to listen to conversations? Before you write off these questions as paranoia, keep in mind that this is the same government that recently used predator drones to catch cow thieves in North Dakota. Dan Elwell, vice president of civil aviation at the Aerospace Industries Association flatly admitted in a recent interview “It’s going to happen” while talking about drone usage domestically.

Do a Google search under “distracted driving” and you will quickly find out that eating, talking with passengers, flipping the radio, reading the paper/magazine, etc. are also major contributors to accidents. Yet for some reason our government just wants to focus on cell phone communications. Why?

Enjoy the week everybody. be sure to check out the Facebook and twitter page when you get the chance.

I always hate it when I see someone use all caps in Facebook. Why the extra drama?

Speaking of extra drama, OPERATION SCARE THE BLACK ELECTORATE has now been launched. Radio host Michael Baisden was doing his part yesterday telling listeners that “‘they’re at it again”, and “We gotta turn it out this time around to show them we are not scared.”.

Now it’s Rep. Barbara Lee’s turn.

“Rep. Barbara Lee (D- CA) charged that Republicans are “turning the clock back to the days of Jim Crow” by passing voter identification (voter ID) laws across the country.”

The NAACP is doing it’s part to scare up the world from a more global perspective as they take their case to the UN.

“NAACP warns black and Hispanic Americans could lose right to vote”

What’s fueling most of this? A law that requires voters to pay $100 to vote? No. A law that requires you to give the number of screws holding up the Brooklyn bridge? No. A law that requires you to name the episode where Fred Sanford did not call someone a “nigga”? No. This is all about a law that simply requires you to present the same ID you would present at the club: A freakin’ drivers license or some type of ID that shows that you are a citizen. But apparently, minorities are too ignorant to presenting ID when it comes to the voting booth according to these people.

In the meantime and to my knowledge, not one of the people mentioned here made a big deal about Black folks screwing other Blacks down in Alabama recently at the voting box. The story came and went. Perhaps the main characters in that story did not “truly” reflect America.

While the rest of America is hotly debating issues like taxes, government wasteful spending, international relations, etc., these individuals once again act like massa in the days of old by giving the Black electorate scraps from the table by making race the top and only topic.

For some time now, I have been maintaing a photo blog over at tumblr. This is a place where I tell the story of my people with the neatest photos I find from around the net. Obviously, I use the tumblr app to post all of my photos. Again, what I like about Android is that it links my tumblr account to the general share menu making it super easy to post images on the fly.
If I come across a photo that I really like on Flickr and would like to share it on tumblr, I just use the Flickr app and it allows me to easily cross post to tumblr with ease. Imagery and how you put it together is the next frontier for bloggers. The days of reading long text are numbered. Use that camera on your phone and tell  your own story today.

Check out my tumblr page just below.

http://afrodad.tumblr.com/

I think in this high tech era people are catching on to the fact that Photoshop is used just about
everywhere. But given that fact, I don’t think many of us realize just how extensive it is used. As a photographer, I use it with my clients, but that is mainly for things like skin touch ups, whitening teeth, eyes, etc. But some of this stuff is way out of hand. Check out this link to see more.

Groups like the National Urban League, NAACP and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network are all on record for supporting the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. If you remember, I wrote about this “interesting” relationship between these wireless companies and activist groups. Former head of GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Jarrett Barrios was kicked off of his post with the organization after it was revealed that the organization received a payout donation from AT&T. In exchange of the donation, GLAAD publicly supported the merger. While GLAAD swiftly dealt with this news, there were no such reports of resignations within the NAACP, the National Urban League, or the National Action Network.

Most of the above mentioned groups have been very vocal over what they deem as corporate greed (large companies that allegedly squeeze out the little guy). Yet here you had what could be one of the largest corporate mergers to date and these same activists readily co-signed on the deal. In fact, one of the main reasons given by the FCC for their refusal to green light this deal: IT’S TOO BIG!

Article 1:

“While these agencies perform independent due diligence on mergers, they are essentially looking at very similar things. And in this case, both have concluded that the merger would leave the wireless market too concentrated. The FCC, for instance, said it had concerns about competition being harmed in 99 out of 100 top U.S. markets.”

Article 2:

“A senior FCC official said the commissions had ‘never seen anything like the deal described in this record.’ It would create “unprecedented concentration in the wireless industry.”

This is not news. From the moment the deal was announced in March of this year, everyone voiced the same concern. This would hyper-consolidate an already shrinking industry. Worse yet, if AT&T succeeded, it could’ve emboldened Verizon to snap up its CDMA counterpart Sprint.”

This is a major, MAJOR story because it shows first hand how so-called activist groups are on the take by the same corporations they regularly put on blast. While this story gained a lot of traction in the online gay/lesbian community, the online Black community continues to demonstrate its lack of interest in stories that do not have an injustice bent. Stories about established companies that profited from slavery have in the past received a lot of attention. But stories about established Black activist organizations getting paid to sway public opinion in favor of the very thing they protest (blatant hypocrisy)? Naaaa! Let’s talk about the Soul Train Music Awards.

Over the holiday, I asked someone who was deeply involved in the latest installment of CNN’s “Black in America” where the topic centered around Blacks in Silicon Valley. He told me that out of all of the BIA installments, this one was by far one of the least watched. I asked this individual “why”, and without blinking they responded “Because it not center around injustice”.

Nothing wrong with talking about how individuals, groups, government officials or corporations are ripping off Black folks. But we miss so much when we exclusively express an interest in those stories. The powers that be know this all too well and have been able to move billions of dollars under the cloud of our own ignorance.

Which show?

Soul Train Music Awards.

From DailyCaller.com

“Law enforcement officials have charged 12 people with using absentee ballots to skew an election in Georgia.

“As a result of their grand jury findings, 12 individuals were indicted in that particular matter and we will be trying that case in a court of judicial law instead of a court of public opinion,” District Attorney Joe Mulholland told the local TV station, WALB.

The charges followed a bitter November 2010 school board election in Brooks County in which the final tally was changed by an unusually large wave of absentee ballots.

During the election, 1,060 absentee votes were cast out of the 1,403 ballots mailed out to people who requested them, according to a July 2010 report by WCTV.

That’s far higher than nearby Thomas County, which had 119 absentee votes cast out of 202 requests, and Lowndes County, which had 169 absentee votes cast out of 439 requests, said WCTV’s report.

The 12 people charged are aligned with the Democratic Party.”

I’m going to continue to say this until you get it: “Racism is nothing more than a weapon in the political world.”

I just check all the major online Black publications. And while I have no trouble finding “Herman Cain is an Uncle Tom” stories, not one found the time or space to mention this story on voter fraud. Both sides will stop at nothing to win. Anybody preaching about the need  to reform the “tone” in DC and political talk is trying to play you. This is straight up war. One big gang fight.

Some time ago, I interviewed a District Attorney in Alabama over the widespread voter fraud cases in his county. Here is a link to that podcast.