Hey, Tea Party...Your Inner House Negro is Showing

Once upon a time, in a blog not so far away, a history lesson was delivered...like, twice.  Much later, a similar history less was delivered on another nearby blog.  Skip to present day, dear children, and you will find the descendants of some of those poor bastards haven't learned a goddamn thing (behold white-skinned house negro to the left - and don't bother mentioning the random POC who attend these Klan meetings; quite naturally, they are house negroes by default...you know, like the one on this drapto blog right here?  Notice how the drapto fuck parades this token ass mug as his "the Tea Klux Klan ain't racist" saving grace....).

Now, I get poor people.  I get disgruntled people with mortgages they can't pay and other bills they can't afford - I get them.  I'll even go so far as to say I understand why they may want to drink a little or smoke a little sumpin' sumpin' to forget their woes every now and again - I get them; I really do.

The Thing About Black Women and Interracial Dating....

My God...do we really have to go through this again?

Apparently so.  Now...Jill Scott's article isn't what bugs me; let me make that clear.  She's being honest, and in her honesty she is not bashing interracial relationships.  She's not arguing against them.  She's just being honest about her initial instinctive reaction.  In fact, she makes sure to state, "...when my friend told me his wife was indeed Caucasian, I felt my spirit...wince. I didn't immediately understand it. My face read happy for you. My body showed no reaction to my inner pinch, but the sting was there, quiet like a mosquito under a summer dress...Our minds do understand that people of all races find genuine love in many places. We dig that the world is full of amazing options. But underneath, there is a bite, no matter the ointment, that has yet to stop burning. Some may find these thoughts to be hurtful. That is not my intent. I'm just sayin'."

So again...what bugs me are the comments.  Take this village idiot right here:

Contemplating "Diversity of Opinion"

Why is it that the people who are most likely to invoke the "diversity of opinion" defense are usually opining against diversity?

Ankhesen Mié

Draptoresponsia Case Study #8: Faux Pas and Fables

Patient #0008

Clinician was referred patient by a liaison to Racialicious, whose notes were documented while observing the patient feverishly muttering to himself in his natural habitat.

When the University agrees that its curriculum needs to change to address “the growing diversity of our campus” or any other imaginary concern of its students, it opens itself up to politically motivated efforts like ethnic studies. Tragically, worthwhile academic subjects like Egyptology have also been subsumed into the larger effort of emphasizing diversity and ascribing significance to the insignificant, as demonstrated by Professor Christopher P. Jones’s comments that “Egypt is a major African civilization,” and that “it is very important that Africa should be a part of what everyone thinks about the modern world.”

Egypt is a worthwhile subject not because it is an African civilization, but because it represents an incredibly sophisticated and important ancient civilization that happens to be African—let alone the fact that the Egyptians pharaohs, with the exception of 75 years of Nubian rule, were about as “African” as Ian Smith. Harvard should have an Egyptology department, or at least devote some of its resources to the study of a civilization which has had such profound influence on the world. It need not offer a course on African civilizations if there is none worthy of study. The progressive priorities of Harvard’s curriculum usually do not coincide, however, with the promotion of meaningful areas of study.

Upcoming Musicians of Another Color: MBLAQ

*sigh*

A pygmy's work is never done.  I'm supposed to be taking a nap right now (being old and all), but I decided to give in and investigate these folks and now I feel I need to just get this out before I snooze (I hope they understand the sacrifice I'm making for them).

Pre-existing boy bands of Korea, your careers are officially over.  Give up now and retire while you still have your dignity.  'Cause ladies, gents, and undecideds, the Ankhesen Mié POC-Understanding-Each-Other Award goes to the glorious Rain and his new group MBLAQ (to all you drooling androphiles, these guys are in their twenties--except for one, but he's still legal--so ogle all you want).

Pay No Attention to the Slurs in FRONT of the Curtain....

...'cause we usually keep that shit on the inside.

Seriously?  Seriously?  Protesters go spitting and hurling racial slurs and surprise, surprise, we're told not to pay attention.  It's an "isolated incident".  It doesn't "mean" anything.

Yeah...and we've never heard that one before.  As blogger Field Negro writes:

Poor James Clayburn, I saw my man on CNN this evening and he still looked scared. He told Wolf Blitzer that he was having flashbacks to those civil rights days. He said that he looked in the eyes of the tea baggers and saw the same hatred he saw back then. Yeah, that kind of hate just doesn't happen overnight with the passing of a bill, Jim. No sir, that hate has been there all along. It's just been hiding under the surface and waiting to come out.

Well said, Field.

How "FlashForward" Went and Fucked Itself, Part I

First Fuck-Up - Deicide

What network in its right mind lets someone create an entertaining, highly promising show...and then leave?  What if Joss Whedon had ditched Buffy after Season 1?

Second Fuck-Up - Hiatus

Four months?  Your show takes off for four months and expects everyone to remember everything and pick right up where you left off?  Uh...no.  Hell, I was looking forward to the return of Demetri and Zoey--eagerly-- and yet even I couldn't remember the day or time the show was supposed to come back on or what all was supposed to be going on.

Third Fuck-Up - Star Trek Villain Syndrome

"Flosso" was a joke; his name only confirmed it.  The actor was terrible.  His dialogue was atrocious.  His subplot was bullshit.  His death...a possible remedy.

Dear Orci & Kurtzmann

Dear Orci & Kurtzmann,

Please, please, please...do not fuck up the sequel.

Seriously, dudes.  I'm reading some mighty scary talk on the net, kids.  People are dropping creepy terms like "love triangle" and "break-up."

Mm-mm. *shakes head* I'm not trying to hear any of that nonsense.  See guys, you've already earned the Ankhesen Mié Bad-Ass Mofo Award (a highly coveted accolade, mind you).  Now, you two earned this award when you called bullshit on America in a few very important ways.

Underappreciated Actress of Color #25: Françoise Yip

What...the fuck?

I first saw Canadian-born and raised Miss Françoise Fong-Wa Yip in Black Mask opposite Jet Li.  Naturally, I fell in love.  I love me a punk rock wig-wearin', ass-whoopin' woman.  The world needs a lot more of them, quite frankly.  (She was also in Rumble in the Bronx, but...come on.)

In the meantime, I waited.  I figured that once producers, writers, and directors saw what you're seeing to the left here right now, her career in Hollywood would take off.  Ah...me of too much faith.  I didn't see Miss Thang again until Romeo Must Die (you have to watch all the way through), where she wasn't nearly featured enough.  Years, later, I saw her again.  But to say she was grossly overlooked and underused in Blade: Trinity is an understatement of epic proportions.  I love me some Parker Posey and all (I actually do), but chica should have been given top billing.

So back to my original question: what the fuck?

How did Hollywood miss her?  How do you miss her?  Who looks at her and thinks, "Nah, we can't possibly come up with a kick-ass starring role for her?"  To her credit--and the lack of stupidity of some--she has stayed busy, but not starring-on-the-silver-screen busy.  So again...what the fuck?

Draptoresponsia Case Studies #5-7: Deflecting Fragility

Patients #0005, #0006, and #0007

Clinician observed walk-in patients in the lobby of Stuff Black People Don't Like where the OP (a drapto in human clothing) discussed the racist PA announcement case at a Wal-Mart.  As the OP writes, a person accessed the store's PA and asked all the black people in the store to leave.

Clinician noted that numerous draptoresponsics were drawn to the post.  Patient #0005 states:

A man has been arrested and taken into custody for MAKING A PA ANNOUNCEMENT that blacks didn't like.

The tree of liberty is starting to need refreshment.

Underappreciated Actress of Color #24: Ryan Michelle Bathe

What bugs me the most about Miss Thang here is that she turns 34 this summer and I bet none of you really know who she is or why her undeniably beautiful face hasn't graced more TVs, film screens, and magazines.

I was horrified when I first saw her because I thought she was a replacement for Kerry Washington's character (Chelina Hall) on Boston Legal.  But then I realized she was an all new character and was excited for the next fifteen episodes...until her character Sara Holt disappeared without explanation and bummed the life out of me.  In the meantime, I don't watch Trauma, but so far, her character Sela Boone's only been in seven episodes.  

Miss Bathe (I love her last name!) has since done a lot of TV spots we've missed and movies I've honestly never heard of but will have to start digging up.  She is too beautiful, too elegant, too graceful an actress and to be honest, I am just too annoyed we haven't had more of her.

Draptoresponsia Case Study #4: The "Appropriation" Complex

*Warning* Post contains highly offensive imagery

Patient ID #0004

Patient #0004 had to be observed from behind a bulletproof glass window while armed guards patrolled the floor.  Angered by the fact that the Ancient Kemites were black, the patient was presenting draptoresponsic symptoms of arrogrance by rewriting history:

Black Folks...Grit Your Teeth, Strike Out "Negro" & Do Your Census

Yes...I saw it too.  Yes, it annoyed me too.  Yes, I will be filling out the census form anyway.

Just get it done.  Scratch out the word "Negro" (little hint to our BFFs at the Census Bureau to ignore our senile kin next time), be as accurate as possible, and remember...it's only once every ten years.

Not filling it out won't make it go away.  When we ignore the our BFFs, they send their BFFs out to make our acquaintance.  As you can see, that's a friendship which doesn't come cheap.  And since we "Negroes" ain't got two nickles to rub together at this particular juncture don't have a lot of spare change right now, it's best if we just fill the damn thing out and send it back.

Y'all go on and be good now.

In Case You're Wondering....

Consider this a Q & A Session for Draptoresponsia, or "running away from responsibility".

1) Ankhesen, why do you insist on using this word?

White Whine consumers bitch that they're tired of hearing about racism.  In their selfish, privileged little minds, it doesn't occur to them--you know, the way almost everything doesn't occur them?--that POC are also tired of talking about racism.  In fact, we're so tired of talking about it we're almost as tired of it as we are of actually experiencing it.

*shrug* Wordplay just keeps me young, I guess.

2) Ankhesen, do you really think "draptos" are mentally ill?

No, partially because not all draptos are the same.  Some are more arrogant than others.  Some are much dumber than others.  Some are young and naive, while others are older and more impotent.  Some are more sexist than others.  And some wet themselves upon reading of Jensen's Theory of White Fears, while others immediately start mouthing off just to keep from wetting themselves/crying like children.

Another reason is that we don't want people falling back on the old "I can't help that I act this way; I'm sick" routine.

Draptoresponsia Case Study #3: Irony of the Unaware

Patient ID #0003

Clinician met a walk-in on Abagond (a blog with an alarmingly high concentration of draptoresponsic activity).  The patient appeared to have trouble with people studying/using the term "draptoresponsia":

"The ironic thing about this is that accusing people you disagree with of mental illness is aggressive and petulant, not to mention generally delusional and a great example of avoidance behavior."

Patient presents symptoms of overconfident ignorance with his misuse of clinical terminology (applying "aggressive and petulant", "generally delusional" and "avoidance behavior" to someone who's pointing out and confronting a problem).

Draptoresponsia Case Study #2: Red Herrings in White Whine

Patient ID #0002

Clinician encountered Patient #0002 on an Abagond blog post discussing the history of draptoresponsia.

This whole concept of drapto is a direct descendant of the modern gnostic cult that is the “equality cult”. Just like any gnostics their adherents claim to have a special mystical knowledge that confers them superior moral status: the mysteries of “white privilege” and “institutional racism” whose true form is revealed only to the true believers (the saintly POC and a few select whites steeped in anti-racist mysticism). While these concepts are presented as revealed truth without any evidence, anyone who doubts their existence is presented as proof of their existence .

Draptoresponsia Case Study #1: A Tale of Two Blogs

Naturally, draptoresponsics do not like me, and quite frankly...I can think of no higher compliment.

Patient ID# 0001

I was posting on Julian Abagond's blog (notably here and here), when this  utterly adorable drapto there started following me diligently, trolling the blog to the point that I'm now beyond flattered.  I do not respond to him when he posts, of course (I was actually speaking to someone else); after all, one does not "engage" draptos; one merely studies them and compiles their commentary.

People of Color =\= Liberals, Women of Color =\= Feminists

White people, stop grouping all people of color in with white liberals.  Stop thinking our lives are "liberal" or our way of thinking is "liberal" or that we are who we are because we're "liberal".  White liberals use POC issues as ammunition to go after their conservative enemies, and as human shields when their scheming backfires.  They don't give a fuck about POC, and we've known that for quite some time now.

There's a big, glowing neon duh sign in the room and it's followed by this little tidbit here: being "liberal" is a choice.  Being born a person of color, however?  Not so much.  The two concepts are not synonymous in any way.

Mind you...here in the Land of Moi, words like "liberal", "conservative", "moderate", "Democrat", and "Republican" don't mean shit--I repeat--don't mean shit.  All they are to Moi are labels of cliques which allow grown men and women to act like little mean girls.

Ankhesen Mié on "The Paul Goebel Show"

And the Ankhesen Mié Bad-Ass Mofo Award goes to the fabulous Mr. Paul Goebel who, on his show, mentioned my quiz on Star Trek (2009) fans and their possible latent racist issues with the pairing of Spock and Uhura.

Paul Goebel, of The Paul Goebel Show, spoke about my quiz in Episode #179 (on 2/7/10, I believe) and bless his heart, LOL...because he took it from my LiveJournal, which has no pictures of Moi, he didn't realize I'm a woman.  Check out my Press page for all the links.

Anyhoo...it's not just his mentioning of the quiz that earns him my award, but the specific question he chose to discuss.  The answer after the question comes from a follow-up discussion which, I couldn't help but notice, most quiz-takers avoided like the plague.

Drapetomania, Meet Draptoresponsia

Even now the thought of my cruel abuses begins sometimes to creep up and kindle my feelings, until I feel unhappy in my own house, and it seems as if the devil was getting the better of me. I feel, then, that I could destroy that tyrant who, knowing that I was a man, cut me with a whip in a manner worse than I will name. Then I think, “What is the use? Here I am, a free man in Canada, and out of his power.” Yet I feel the stirrings of revenge.

John Little

I been whipped from sunup till sundown.  Off and on, you know.  They whip me till they get tired, and then they go and res' and come out and start again. They kept a bowl filled with vinegar and salt and pepper settin' nearby, when they had whipped me till the blood come, they would take the mop and sponge cuts with this stuff so they would hurt more. They would whip me with the cowhide part of the time and with a birch sprouts the other part. There were splinters as long as my fingers...They didn't whip me with a bull whip; they whipped me with a cowhide.  They just whipped me ’cause they could—’cause they had the privilege.  It wasn't nothin' I done; they just whipped me.

Sallie Crane

Now, say for instance I'd go out here to S.'s place. I'd have to walk. An' I would have to be back maybe in a hour. Maybe they'd give me hour. I don' know jus' how long they'd give me. But they'd give me a note so there wouldn' nobody interfere with me, an' tell who I belong to. An' when I come back, why I carry it to my master an' give that to him, that'd be all right. But I couldn'jus' walk away like the people does now, you know. It was what they call, we were slaves. We belonged to people. They'd sell us like they sell horses an' cows an' hogs an' all like that. Have a auction bench, an' they'd put you on, up on the bench an' bid on you jus' same as you bidding on cattle you know.

Fountain Hughes (Hear his voice)

Drapetomania (also spelled Draptomania), for those of you who are unfamiliar, comes from the Greek drapetes (a runaway) and mania (madness).  The Louisiana doctor Samuel Cartwright created it in 1851 to "explain" why black people would try to run away from bondage.

The Ankhesen Mié Lexicon, Volume II

The Avatar Defense

When James Cameron unleashed Avatar upon the world and people of all skintones denounced it, the popular reply was, "It's just a movie--who cares?  It's got great special effects."

This is arrogant racism, and yes, this precise scenario has played out with other films before.  This is derailing in its rawest, most shameless form.  The people who analyzed Avatar did so intelligently; they voiced valid concerns, they provided references, comparisons, and overall in-depth critiques.  To tell all these people to ignore the healthy, self-examinatory, communicative dialogue they were having with themselves and others is a perfect example of the preservation of racism.

Boycott Films Which Misrepresent POC

"Years ago, Hollywood had standards, which they hated.  And then Hollywood decided to eliminate standards in the name of 'artistic freedom.'  Have movies gotten better?  Not really."

Nancy Reyes

If you're a POC, you may or not agree with that statement in terms of Hollywood's treatment of POC, however, Reyes has a point.  As writer John Farr states:

"...though in revenue and distribution terms Hollywood continues to dominate the global film market, the most original, intelligent, and enduring movies today are being made outside this country.

"...As a consequence, they are working that much harder to keep our offspring hooked on a steady stream of comic book and computer game adaptations, brought to the big screen with lots of quick cuts, deafening noise, and whiz-bang special effects."

James Cameron Wants to Kill Himself

'Cause Karma Exists, Y'all...Even in Hollywood

With mediocre music, abysmal dialogue and a recycled plot that was already panned by critics and viewers a zillion times before, James Cameron unleashed the racial "white guilt fantasy" abomination that was Avatar upon the world, using sinfully copious amounts of hype to turn that atrocity into the highest grossing film of all time.

When confronted and asked about the racist themes in his work, Cameron was predictably defensive and clueless (stating he felt it "was a hardly racist message at all"), not to mention unsurprisingly sexist.  Needless to say, it did not endear him to us.

Mr. Rich & Privileged--who spent ten years and $300 million to make this film--expected it to just walk into the Academy Awards and then walk right out again, the triumphant, conquering hero.

Indeed...the Academy did not agree.

Underappreciated Actor of Another Color #9: Eddie Spears

Children...here's a noise to consider: Mmmmmmmm.

27-year-old Eddie here is a member of the Burnt Thighs Nation, a sub-tribe of the Sioux Lakota.  He has been acting since he was 10 and has only played historical Native American characters so far.  Which is why his IMDB list of works can be read in a single glance (very upsetting, by the way).

Eddie's looks and acting instantly render viewers speechless.  Dude here gives friggin' Nathaniel Arcand (who's actually in Black Cloud with him) a run for his money and yet--I'm guessing--Hollywood's memo got lost in the mail.

*cue eye roll*

I just can't stop looking at him.  Can you blame me?  I don't blame you.  I just don't understand how the greasy, skeezy, and boring faces of male Young Hollywood are rolling in dough, buzz, and one upcoming project after the other while Main Man right here turns only 28 this fall and in 18 years of acting, he has 10 projects to show for it - WTF?  Who's genius idea was that?

Underappreciated Actor of Another Color #8: Pej Vahdat

While watching FOX's Bones (about which I'll be having a little chat with y'all later), I noticed Mr. Thang here and fell for him instantly.

Portraying the brilliant scientist and devout Muslim Dr. Arastoo Vaziri, Pej won my heart within a single episode and in less than a minute.  His intelligence, religious devotion, compassion and intense sense of morality is beyond sexy for me.  Born Pejman Vahdat, he's six feet tall and obviously delectable...but FOX apparently can't decide whether he's playing a Persian or an Arab.

He's a versatile, watchable, and overall engaging actor of considerable talent and skill, and he's been in the game six years.  So I will forgive this not too long list of TV spots and film appearances.  And as my respect for Bones steadily plummets, I forgive his not being made a regular cast member, as I think His Royal Hotness here has much more important shit to do with his career.

Underappreciated Musician of Color #10: Santigold

My...girl!!!

In my car, on my computer, even on my phone...I cannot stop buying songs by this chica, hear me?  This is my girl!!!

...Can't say it's gonna get me far
Do no good to say what you are
I run the streets and I break up houses
River runs deep and the flame devours it

Me, I'm a Creator
Thrill is to make it up
The rules I break got me a place
Up on the radar
Me, I'm a Taker
Know what the stakes are
Can't roll it back, it's understood
Got to play our cards...

--Santigold, "Creator"

Hell yes, she's a Creator!!!  Love the look, love the lyrics, love the sound.  Love the not-dying-to-be-mainstream 'tude.  Hell, I've just now created my POC-Says-Fuck-You Award and it goes to Miss Thang right hyah.

Underappreciated Musician of Color #9: M.I.A

...Sweat shops have made me shifty
Like a ninja with speed I'm nifty
I hope I live 'til I'm fifty
See my city go from gritty to pretty

  --M.I.A., "O...Saya"

As you can guess...I adore MIA.

Born Mathangi Arulpragasam in England, raised off and on in turbulent Sri Lanka, in India, and finally in England again, this gorgeously chocolate Sri Lankan Tamil political lyricist almost won an Academy Award for the song quoted above.  One reason for this is MIA aims to "write songs about something and make it sound like nothing."  Hence the diverse, catchy beats and digital-affected vocals, beneath lyrics of sheer brilliance.

Underappreciated Actress of Color #23: Ginny Holder

Behold...yet another dark English dame.

Britain knows where it's at.  No wonder the country is kicking America's ass in, say, oh I dunno...choosing some bad-ass bitches who can actually sing producing superior musicians, perhaps?

But I digress.  I first saw Ginny Holder my freshman year of college.  I caught the last half or so of a TV showing of Wing Commander (shudder-worthy, by the way), and my eyebrows flew up when I saw her locking lips with a certain SLC Punk alumnus hottius.  I didn't catch her name at the time...but it's probably safe to say I haven't seen her in anything Stateside since.

America, Didn't I Tell You to Stop Trying to Scare Black Women?

Shit like this does not endear you to us.

Why "Preference" is the Racist Mot du Jour

*shakes head*

People crack me up, and yes, I am talking about all people in this post.  Humans can truly be a two-faced breed.

I am deeply amused by the "Preference Defense" people employ when trying to defend what they want in a long-term mate of a specific color and why.  This is one of those instances where everyone - at some point in the conversation - drops the "I am not a shallow racist, but..." line, or its slightly less conspicuous twin.  This is one of those instances where I actually have to respect people who flat out state, "I'm a shallow racist, that's why I prefer [insert race here]".  Not-so-oddly enough, I've yet to actually hear that one in mixed company.

So why aren't people just being honest?  I have a thought or two on that.

The Kemites Weren't White or Arab; Get Over It Already

We [Arabs] have been in Africa for 1200 years, and yet we still behave as colonialists.

--Mohammed Ahmed Ben Bella

My POC-Understanding-Each-Other Award goes the above speaker, a former President of Algeria.  It also goes out to any Arab who is also willing to speak thusly, because this ridiculous claim Egyptian Arabs are trying to make on Ancient Kemet is a fail of epic proportions--amongst other epic fails.  Ancient Kemet preceeds the Arab conquest of Egypt literally by thousands of years.

Fuck...any undergraduate history major who stays awake for five minutes in class can tell you that.

Underappreciated Musician of Color #8: Jin

I had a bizarre moment today while watching TV. I was flipping through the channels and I came across MTV. On the tube was something I had never seen before - an Asian guy.
 
It wasn't the revelation of seeing an Asian man on TV (as rare as that may be), it was the context. He wasn't rattling on in really bad English (as I saw last night on The Practice); in fact, it was basically the opposite in dimension and delivery. He was rapping.

And he wasn't just rapping...He was serious. Brief research shows that he was signed to Ruff Ryders after he made a name for himself on a seven-week long freestyle battle competition on BET. Wyclef was by his side to throw in a few verses. And there were voluptuous black women that were caressing his body like they meant it.

~ Walter Chen

The Ankhesen Mié Lexicon

It's occurred to me recently that I tend to speak my own language-ish on this blog, so I'll be a good person and define some of what I say in case you're new and confused.  And yes, I will update this page as I go along.

Ecirb & Rankin Syndrome

This refers to the white tendency to join a POC social cause in hopes of earning the respect of POC (so they can speak as "equals" on topics they couldn't otherwise--and still can't no matter what) and/or in hopes of earning POC love and unconditional acceptance.

The first part of the name comes from an SWPD guest post in which an author asks POC to be more accepting of guys like his white friend whom he refers to as "Ecirb".  "Ecirb", as you can read for yourself, attends ethnic studies classes and apparently expects some sort of cookie for trying to understand other people.  Even worse, he expects to be listened to in these classes, while he himself is still admittedly at the learning stage.  Uh...privilege much?

America, Stop Trying to Scare Black Women

"We white men aren’t the ones going mad from sexual frustration, as liberals claim. We have enough potential partners.... Instead, it is black women who lack potential partners and have to tolerate degradation as a result."

~ Drapto Blogger

*sigh*

I've seen a lot of bullshit like this, and honestly it didn't come as a surprise to me.  As I learned years ago in grad school while studying Race and Ethnicity in America, whenever a minority (or in this case, members of a minority) starts to do very well in America, its success always comes at steep price.  Notice the first line under the section "Effects of Model Minority Stereotyping" states: Asian Americans may also be commonly stereotyped by the general public as being overly studious, smug, materialistic, arrogant about their academic and professional successes, elitist, brand name conscious, yet paradoxically passive.

'Cause in America, when talking about minorities, you just gotta have that paradox.

Underappreciated Actor of Another Color #7: John Cho

~Special Edition Post~

I have a confession.  I've been a fan of Mr. Lucky Number 7 here since I was a teenager--I was one of the devout.  The crush I had on him was something fierce, and one of the very few reasons I don't have it as bad anymore (it's certainly not gone), is that a certain Korean performer had to go and get all ninjitsu-tastic on me...but I digress.

My main reason for seeing the new Star Trek film was John Yohan Cho.  When I heard he had a bad-ass fight scene...Mmmmm...I counted down the days like a fiend.

Now, you may be wondering why the hell one of the most successful (if not the most successful) Asian-American actors is on this list.  He's been a model, and has even been on People's list of pretty folks twice (which goes without saying).  He's done a lot of TV spots.  He's been in the American Pie Films, American Beauty, not to mention the Harold & Kumar films, and the iconic Star Trek.  And now...he's on FlashForward playing the sexy, gun-toting, hell-to-the-nawin' FBI Special Agent Demetri Noh (perfect name, by the way), and engaging in some sensuous Blasian love (**update: there was a hot video originally linked to that, but the idiot use removed it) with a fellow underappreciated beauty.

And now that we've gotten that out the way, let's talk realistically.  After all, he would.

Underappreciated Actor of Another Color #6: Efren Ramirez

LOL - I'm not even sure where to begin with this guy.  Like...he doesn't care.  No matter what the role, he really doesn't care.  Some of you already know this...because you've already seen how much he just doesn't care.

Quirky, eccentric, 36-year-old Efren Antonio Ramirez is awesome.  Needless to mention, this Salvadoran-Mexican actor is hot ('cause see...this look he's got going on now?  With the longer hair?  And the glasses?  More than works for me, hear?).

Mr. Thang here has it going on.  As you can see on his home site, he's a DJ, an author, and a humanitarian.  He was briefly married to a fellow underappreciated thespian (though I have to wonder what could make her let this one get away, 'cause...damn).
*mops up drool*

Anyhoo, Ramirez continues to act and produce.  He's been in successful films.  However...he's not usually the star, a lot of his acting resume involves guest spots on TV or starring in something from the indie side...so I'll just end this with my usually head-shaking at Hollywood's fail.

*shakes head*

How Statistics Threaten White Privilege

Now is a great time to go off, just FYI.

I've noticed the "skewing" and "refurbishing" of statistics when race gets involved.  Drunk driving's a good example.  Notice that in earlier years, the report has no problem putting in race (where whites are reported as driving drunk the most).  But by the later years, there's no more mention of race.  And when there's no mention of race (cough, cough, like when Stack crashed his plane into the IRS building, cough, cough), it's safe to assume "white".  Because when POC misbehave, agencies have no problem reporting that.

Like the Bureau of Justice statistics.  The top half of the page puts stats about black issues in bold.  The reader nods, figuring Negroes are as violent and as vicious as ever and doesn't bother scrolling down (past the stats which shows whites have killed and died more than blacks in gang-related violence, by the way) to get the full story in which the reader will soon notice Negroes aren't the biggest problem with homicide.

Which brings me to the most recent National Survery on Drug Use and Health.  You click the link, scroll down to categories involving race and you get the statistics that black did the most drugs...for the past month.  Keep in mind the report is supposed to cover the entire year, and this "month" isn't specified nor is ultimately even relevant.  Why?  One, notice that whites (aged 12 & older) still have the market cornered on binge drinking, and yet that's not in big, bold letters anywhere.  Two, if you go to the actual data tables of the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Data Archive (which you really have to dig to find), you'll find that whites do more drugs than any other group in an America...contradiction much?

Now, a question you might be asking right now is...why is Ankhesen focusing so much on whites misbehaving?  The question you should be asking is...why not?  What would happen if, say, cops, judges, schools, and employers (and, gee, maybe parents) seriously took this data into account?

Letter from Dr. Jody Blanco on "Compton Cookout"

The infamous UCSD "Compton Cookout" sparked quite a bit of outrage (so much the NAACP had a few things to say [surprise, surprise]).  In the meantime, I've got a quite a few POC-Understanding-Each-Other Awards to dole out to my non-black POC siblings who took issue with the "Cookout".  The big one, of course, goes to Dr. Jody Blanco, who wrote to Filipino students urging them to also take offense and represent, not just for black folks, but on behalf of marginalized POC everywhere: