Kim McLarin

Well, I finally forced myself to watch Precious this weekend past. This water is long under the bridge so, although I had a swirl of thoughts as I watched the movie, I'mma write down only two:

1) It wasn't as awful as I thought it would be -- it was worse.

2) Monique certainly earned her Oscar. Especially given that she was laboring in a movie directed by a man who clearly, clearly, clearly loathes women who look like her. (As opposed to women who look like Halle Barry and that woman who played Blue Rain, an actress of such depth and accomplishment she makes a piece of wood look like Meryl Streep.)

Oh, this is the reason to find a better blog home, so that I can post photos -- including one of this week's People Magazine. Sandra Bullock and her cutie pie adopted son.

Check out the expression on little brother's face. It's like he's thinking:

"On the one hand, jackpot! On the other hand, aw sh--."

Or
"Is this penance for Blind Side?"

Or
"Ya'll forgive her now, folks? Huh? Huh? Step back!"

This week in class, in preparation for reading Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" I asked the students to think about some aspect of their identity -- race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, etc -- and define, in words, what it meant to be "authentically" that thing. This was hard for them, of course. The first trick was plowing through the stereotypes (the women said being authentically female meant: weak, emotional, vulnerable, etc) to determine which they believed, which they believed society believed but they didn't, etc etc. Then I asked if their authenticity in that area had ever been challenged by anyone ... and what that felt like if it had...

Most interesting was that none of the white kids chose to define what it meant to be authentically white (which, of course, I knew they wouldn't). When I asked them about this responses ranged from "It's too broad" to "I don't like to think about it" to "Nobody thinks of themselves as white."

Really? I asked. You don't think any white people in this country think of themselves as white?

No. They think of themselves as American, said the student.

Oh, so to be white is to be American.

Yeah.

And to be American is to be white.

Yeah.

Did you hear what I just said: to be American is to be white?

Well, yeah.

And they all sit there and look at me as if I'm just too dense to understand .....

Strangest thing happened yesterday. I'm on the way home from the supermarket with ginger ale and freezer pops for my own sick child when I see this little white boy of about 9 or 10 running down the middle of the street. I mean: the middle of a very busy street. And he's barefoot. And wearing (more…)

A few months back I applied for this ridiculously great job, hosting a television show, locally produced and aired, focusing on political, social and cultural issues important to the black community, interviewing black writers, scientists, educators, etc. Never mind that I have almost no television experience I heard about this job and I knew (more…)