Django Unchained

Feb 19 2013

Wildly unreal

 
 

Feb 14 2013

Other LAPD officers discuss problems with the department

In the movie “Django Unchained,” a slave gets his revenge on White slave owners by killing them. Many believe this modern-day “Spaghetti Western” created the label of the “bad Black man” (Django) that has been given to accused murderer and ex-Los Angeles Police Officer Christopher Dorner.

Gail Choice  |   OW Contributor
Jan 24 2013

Hollywood by Choice

Score one for the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, and Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope, for their very emotional outcry about the so-called “Django Unchained” slave dolls. On Friday, Jan. 18, the Weinstein Co. announced that it has asked toy maker NECA to discontinue the “Django Unchained” action figure dolls after receiving complaints that the dolls were offensive and trivialized the horrors of slavery.

Gail Choice  |   OW Contributor
Jan 17 2013

Hollywood by Choice

This year’s awards season is upon us, and the sole Black actress nominated is 9-year-old newcomer Quvenzhane Wallis in the Academy Awards Best Actress category for “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Denzel Washington is nominated Best Actor for his incredible performance in “Flight.”

And on the little screen, Don Cheadle walked away with the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in Showtime’s “House of Lies.”

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jan 10 2013

Practical Politics

Regarding “Django Unchained.” OK, so what we have here is another movie-version history of the Black American experience, written by someone not Black. Most of the books about our history—in spite of more than 42 years of African American studies programs and departments—are still written and published by non-Blacks. That may not be a comfortable fact, but fact it is.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.