Given The NY Post Cartoon Reaction...

Why has no one been up in arms about this game, released after Obama was virtually locked as the Democrat's nominee?

GET YOUR WAR ON: Obama & His Young White Harem

(hat tip to Kevin Church)

Forest Whitaker Is "Ugly, Black & Unbankable"

Acclaimed Australian director Rowan Woods had to fight to keep Oscar winner Forest Whitaker in his new film Winged Creatures after a film company executive dismissed the actor as "ugly, black and unbankable."

Despite having "the hottest ensemble cast in town", including Guy Pearce, Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Jennifer Hudson, Woods said the company who owned the script wouldn't accept Whitaker as a leading man.

"The initial finance fell through when I stuck with Forest Whitaker for the role of Charlie," Woods said.

"An executive told me straight: `Even if he wins the Oscar he's ugly, he's black and he's unbankable.'"

Checking the IMDB listing for the movie (which can often be unreliable), Winged Creatures was executive produced by RGM Entertainment. Indications are that the company is not based in the US and executive production is normally about putting together the financing. Whether that means a US company would never use that reasoning or would just never admit to the "ugly & black" part of it, who knows.

Buried in the story is a less serious bit of information:

Woods said his high profile cast was a pleasure to work with except for teenage starlet Dakota Fanning, who could be a diva on the set.

She initially refused to come out of her trailer on day one of shooting because her scene wasn't filmed first, and was "intensely jealous" of her young co-star Josh Hutcherson.

"Everyone was on their best behaviour on this film because they have got a `really serious Australian director who is known for his ensemble work'," Woods laughed.

"(Fanning) was the only one who was naughty."

Woods said while he thinks Fanning is a fine actor, on this film she didn't hit the mark.

"She is a gorgeous girl ... but she was the disaster," he said.

"There was something about her presence that wasn't ringing true.

"Most of our work was cutting her scenes and a lot of her scenes were cut."

I only hope that means I won't have to watch that creepy girl in too many movies going forward.

MILESTONE: One Reason I'm So Happy

Let me make something clear: my primary reason for being happy that Milestone has returned is the pure selfish desire to enjoy those characters again.

But I have another reason.

You see, recently, a friend of mine was spending time with her god-daughter and, naturally, the child's mother (they're friends and all). The child is black and attends a predominately white school. One afternoon, she told her mom that she wanted to be white.

This caused a stir immediately with the parents. Now, when I was asked what I would do if I had a child say that to me, I said I wouldn't be so quick to jump to a negative conclusion. I've had kids tell me they wanted to be a dinosaur before, so I wouldn't panic right away and fear that the child felt inferior for not being white. But that is a legitimate concern in American society, I believe.

One of the reasons this can happen is due to the images kids see in the media. Popular entertainment is dominated by white faces in this country. I'm not saying there is some insidious motivation behind that occurrence, but it can have damaging effects.

Little girls want a doll? Dominated by Barbie.
Little girls want to be beautiful? Gotta look like Barbie or all the white ladies on all those magazine covers.
Want to be a star? Almost all the big celebrities are white.
Want to be a hero? Well, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine and almost every popular hero that kids are introduced to at an early age? White.

I know there has to be more diversity these days than there was when I was a young 'un. But every time you see a white star playing what was supposed to be a black character (love that Angelina Jolie, she took a fictional black character (The Fox) AND a non-fictional black role (as the widow of Daniel Pearl)), you know that it isn't THAT much better.

And it doesn't necessarily change as someone grows up and realizes logically that no race is superior to the others. A good friend of mine never fully realized that he could be considered handsome until experiencing how his white step-mother felt about his black father. Seeing how his step-mother felt about his father was a real life-changing moment for him. Of course, now he has an ego the size of Texas, but you have to take the good with the bad when people have a break-through.

So, you know, if the return of the Milestone characters helps a few kids to dream a little bigger because they realize that you don't have to be white to do big things in life...I'm pretty fucking happy about that.

There Should Be No Surrender On Minority Issues In Comics

Cheryl Lynn has waved the white flag on the Vixen issue. Forgive me, but I want to Godfather-III her back into that fight.

Look, I'm sure Racialicious will keep up the good fight. As will Willow and 4thletter.

But we want Cheryl Lynn on that wall. We need her on that wall.

She's one of the most articulate on the subject and always brings her disarming sense of humor along with her. If you don't like what she writes, you can't handle the truth.

WGBGB: LJ Blogger "_alecto_"

OK...including _alecto_ in WHEN GOOD BLOGGERS GO BAD presupposes that this blogger has ever been good. I can't swear that they have, but I'm not creating a whole new feature for this person.

What genius effort over at their blog caused this attention?

Not going so far as to count how many times men and women speak in 1 and 1/2 episodes of Firefly.
Not suggesting that pornography has a heavy influence on Whedon's work.
Not that anyone who pays Inara for her "services" is a rapist.

But this:

Zoe, of course, is meant to be our empowered, ass-kicking sidechick. Like all sidechicks she is objectified from the get go. Her husband, Wash, talking about how he likes to watch her bathe. Let me just say now that I have never personally known of a healthy relationship between a white man and a woman of colour. I have known a black woman whose white husband would strangle and bash her while her young children watched. My white grandfather liked black women because they were ‘exotic’, and he did not, could not treat women, especially women of colour, like human beings. I grew up watching my great aunts, my aunty and my mother all treated like shit by their white husbands, the men they loved. So you will forgive me for believing that the character, Wash, is a rapist and an abuser, particularly considering that he treats Zoe like an object and possession.

So...because her grandfather was an ass, this fictional character was a rapist and a misogynist without need of any contextual clues regarding such characteristics?