Hollywood stumbles when it comes to race

WHERE DO WE START? Samuel Jackson, Amy Pascal, Mark Wahlberg, Selma and Oprah or, how about Chris Rock?

The reel world sometimes get unspooled and gets tangled up with the real world. Most of the time, Hollywood stumbles when dealing with race - any race: African/American, Asian, Latino, Arab, American Indians - and the list goes on. There's so much to write about:

Chris Rock: Telling it like it is

(Dear Reader: My apologies for a longer-than-usual post. If your attention span doesn't allow you to read the entire article in one sitting, I've cut it into neat, convenient parts so you can leave, come back, and pick up where you left. - Ed)  

Comedian Chris Rock wrote a searing oped on "white Hollywood" for the Hollywood Reporter, one of the movie industry's premiere trade publications. It wasn't an indictment of the industry but just a matter of fact way of admitting the way things are in the home of the motion picture industry.

To most people of color connected to the entertainment world or if you just like movies, what Rock wrote is nothing new: How the decision makers will throw a bone to a minority actor to play a secondary role, or hire actors of color as an afterthought. 

"It's a white industry. Just as the NBA is a black industry. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing. It just is. And the black people they do hire tend to be the same person. That person tends to be female and that person tends to be Ivy League. And there's nothing wrong with that."

The timing of the article after Ferguson and Staten Island and the protests that grew out of those events made his opinion piece that more meaningful.

Chris Rock is touring the country promoting his movie "Top Five." The artist has been on roll lately. He also stirred things up with his comments about race relations in interview with The New York Magazine where he disputed the traditional white perspective of improving relations among the races.

(Here's the trailer for Top Five.)

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Wahlberg wants attack on Asian men expunged from his record

ACTOR Mark Wahlberg spent 45 days in jail for his racist attack on two Vietnamese men, Tranh Lam and Hoa Trinh, when he was a teenager. Now that he's rich and famous, he wants to expunge that from his record. Columnist Jeff Yang writes a pretty convincing piece on why Wahlberg shouldn't have his record cleared.

A lot of the conservative pundits (especially from Fox News) cry out the need for accountability from black youth in an attempt to paint the late Eric Garner and Michael Brown as thugs. As Yang points out, white men with records get a pass from being accountable.

Yang writes:

Mark Wahlberg, aka Marky Mark, aka thug

"The attacks were peppered with racial slurs; he called Lam a "Vietnam f*cking sh*t" before smashing him in the head with a large club and knocking him unconscious, and he punched Trinh so hard that he left him blinded in one eye. He repeatedly referred to both men as "slant-eyed gooks" while he was being arrested. Wahlberg, who was 17, was tried as an adult and served 45 days in jail for the crime."

Despite what happened to him, Lam forgave the actor for his actions and supports a pardon. "Everybody deserves a second chance," said victim Lam, now a Houston resident.

Reportedly, Wahlberg is flying Lam and his family out to Los Angeles so that the actor can formally apologize for the attack.

Wahlberg pleaded his case with Matt Lauer in an interview with NBC's Today Show.

“From the day I woke up in prison realizing the mistakes that I had made and the pain that I caused people, I committed to turning my life around,” Wahlberg told Lauer.

I'm not sure how sincere he was when he said that. In the 26 years since he spent time in jail, though, the former rapper known as Marky Mark, never looked for the victims to apologize for his deed nor did he offer any restitution. Only now, when he's seeking a pardon, seeking to expand his Wahlburger chain and promoting a new movie, is he offering to apologize.

But others, like Yang, believe a mere apology is not enough. In her blog Reappropriate, Jenn Fang calls on the actor to produce an anti-racism PSA to make amends. A petition organized by the Asian American activist group 18 Million Rising has generated more than 13,000 signatures opposing the pardon.

If Wahlburger was black and did to two white men what he did to the Asian victims, I have a strong suspicion that he would have been treated differently when he was arrested and during sentencing. A 45-day sentence for beating two men almost to death sounds like he got off pretty easy. Doesn't that fall under attempted murder?

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Ferguson, Selma part of the same story

The cast of Selma at a screening of the movie due to premiere on Christmas Day.

THE MOVIE Selma, produced by Oprah and Brad Pitt, tells the story of the 1965 voting rights marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King, which began with the brutal “Bloody Sunday,” where police attacked peaceful marchers on their way from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

(Here's the trailer for Selma)

There's a scene in the movie where kneeling protesters put their hands behind their heads, a sign of surrender, eerily reminiscent of the hands-up posture used by today's Ferguson protesters.

At the world premiere in New York, the cast wore the black "I Can't Breathe" t-shirts expressing their view of the death of Eric Garner and the grand jury's decision not to indict the white police officer who used an illegal choke hold that killed Garner.

Director Ava DuVernay on the release of Selma at this particular time in American history:  "Protest is still very much alive and well in this country, and it’s such a poignant moment for people who have been traumatized by these issues for so long to have a groundswell of emotion, with people taking to the streets with such a fierce desire to be heard. It so oddly equates to our film, and the cultural moment we were in in 1965. It’s jaw-dropping and weird that it’s happening at the same time."

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Hacked Sony emails reveal executives' true colors

THE FALLOUT from the Sony being hacked are the revelatory emails of Sony honcho Amy Pascal which included some questionable comments about black movies and some of the big names in Hollywood.

(Here's the trailer for The Interview.)

She later owned up to her inappropriate racist emails and apologized, but the emails reveal the true feelings of Hollywood decision-makers towards the artists, who they need to make their movies; and the audiences, whose dollars make up their profits. 

The Hollywood executives may talk a good game about diversity but maybe, deep down, when they think no one is looking, they resent making any attempt to improve race relations through messaging; or being pressured to portray people of color beyond the stereotypes that movie moguls help perpetuate.

Pascal has been at the center of the embarrassing PR nightmare because some of the stolen messages include notes in which the studio chief makes a series of racially charged comments about President Barack Obama’s movie tastes. Some of the emails also included disparaging comments by Pascal and other top Sony executives about big-name stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie and Kevin Hart, according to the "Daily Variety."

At any rate, her racist emails may be the least of her worries with the hackers threatening to do even more damage, threatening even those who go see the movie. Rogan and Franco have even cancelled promotional events because of the threats. Theater owners have been threatened and Sony has told them that they do not have to show the movie. The hackers - calling themselves the Guardians of Peace - have even had the gall to compare their threatened action to 9/11.

Although the country of North Korea has not claimed any credit, the hacking is believed to be sanctioned -- if not strongly encouraged -- by that country in retaliation to the Sony satire The Interview, in which, the characters played by Seth Rogan and James Franco are asked by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The North Koreans apparently took umbrage.

UPDATE (12/17): Since this article was first posted, the U.S. has linked North Korea to the hacking of Sony Entertainment. Also, in the interest of safety, the premiere of "The Interview," originally scheduled for Dec. 18, has been postponed.)

UPDATE (12/23): Sony Entertainment has reconsidered its decision and decided to release "The Interview" on Christmas Day. 

UPDATE (12/26): Hackers should have just ignored the movie and it would have gone virttually unnoticed. Instead, it got huge PR, drew over $1 million on opening day despite poor reviews and limited release.

How will Sony, a private company, react? Hell, how will Americans react to another country threatening American moviegoers?I suspect Americans will go see the movie in droves despite -- or maybe, because of -- the threats ... unless ... its  just not funny (which according to advance reports is a strong likelihood) which is a death knell for a movie that is supposed to be a comedy.

As for Pascal's future with Sony? Who knows?

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Forget the ice bucket, here's a new challenge

Samuel Jackson

MEANWHILE, Samuel Jackson posted a video over the weekend urging celebrities to do something to protest the police actions in Ferguson and Staten Island.

"All you celebrities out there who poured ice water on your head ... here's a chance to do something else," says Jackson.

“I challenge all of you to sing the ‘We Ain’t Gonna Stop Till People Are Free’ song,” he says.

Jackson then starts singing a capella.

“I can hear my neighbor crying, ‘I can’t breathe.’ Now I’m in the struggle and I can’t leave,” he croons. “Calling out the violence of the racist police. We ain’t gonna stop till people are free.”

He linked to the video visa his Facebook page, and the post has gone viral and quickly gathered 72,000 likes and counting.

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