“The Myth of Black Hollywood” and other links…
Black Yoda: “It’s hard not to be struck by the irony after considering the subsequent career paths of some of the featured artists. Flavor Flav flatly rejects an offer to play a buffoon in this video. Well, we all saw how that turned out… A lot can change in 20 years. A lot should change in 20 years. The question we should ask ourselves is: Are things changing for the better?”
“Brutal Reprisals Against Peaceful GA Inmate Strikers Confirmed. Was One Victim Hidden For Weeks By Prison Authorities?”
Bruce A. Dixon: “It now appears that at least one inmate, Terrance Dean of Bibb County GA was brutally assaulted by staff at Macon State Prison on or about December 16 was so severely injured prison officials secretly evacuated him to a hospital in Atlanta without bothering to inform his family. It's not known at this time which Department of Corrections officials authorized the secret evacuation, who decided not to notify Dean's family of either his injuries or his whereabouts, or whether the prisoner was transported the roughly 130 miles to Atlanta via ground or air ambulance.”
“Race and Economic Mobility”
Ta-Nehisi Coates: “The reasons for widespread downward mobility are complicated, but here are a few possibilities: on the whole, African Americans have few assets and are more likely to be in substantial debt. Moreover, middle-class African Americans are more likely to work in lower-income jobs and careers—nursing, teaching, etc.—and less likely to live in areas with rising or high housing values.”
“Dirty Office Politics”
Jane McGrath: “People who get promoted are probably heavily involved in office politics. They often voice suggestions for improvements and make themselves known. Those who consider politics beneath them keep to themselves and appear unfriendly or unmotivated, even if they work hard. When budget cuts are necessary, these people might be the first heads on the chopping block.”
“Francis Ford Coppola: On Risk, Money, Craft & Collaboration”
Ariston Anderson: “We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.”