This something I wanted to start…talking about ‘those movies’ that just stick with you, become a part of you. Sarafina is one of those movies. You all know what I am talking about movies that connect people, that if I just said Sarafina people would start laughing and someone would quote the movie in their best South African accent. They are movies that you can watch over and over again no matter how difficult the subject matter. For me Sarafina represents my childhood to the fullest, in the sense I when I was 7 years old my mother woke me up and told me to watch a news segment with her…that news segment was the live footage of Nelson Mandela being released from Prision. Even writing it brings back memories of how eye opening that was for me. From that point on I wanted to soak up anything South African, I’ve probably seen all the major movies on South Africa from Cry Freedom(Denzel!!) to various documentaries…how could I forget the classic Shaka Zulu! I want to tackle Nelson Mandela’s Autobiography, but I’ll be truthful that joint is like the Cornel West reader, it’s thick LOL. The more I learned about South African history the more I wished I could have been in the struggle to protest Apartheid but also I understood the parallel or should I say inverse of American segregation/fight for civil rights and the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. Honestly Sarafina aided me in getting to the point I am now with my understanding of world issues especially African Diaspora issues. South Africa is a definite trip in my lifetime. So big up to Leleti Khumalo(Sarafina) and Whoopi Goldberg(can’t forget her)
America’s brownin’, 20 years from now every town’ll be brown and Latin- Nas
I read this article today on CNN.com, here’s the link ‘Minorities the majority by 2050′ Okay, I’m inclined to believe the line from Nas, forget 2050, more like 2028 and if 2050 is the marking point in 20 years the racial make up of the U.S. will definitely include a very visible population of people of color. This article wasn’t telling me anything that I don’t see on a daily basis. I told my friend a while back the U.S. is the ‘new Brazil’ as far as diversity of people. I have one big problem with the article though this quote “The African-American population is projected to increase from 41.1 million to 65.7 million by 2050, going from 14 percent of the U.S. population to 15 percent”
STOP! So in the next 40 years the African-American population will only increase by 1 percent Excuse me but that is crazy! The article also quotes Census bureau information that “The group predicted to post the most dramatic gain is the Hispanic population. It is projected to nearly triple, from 46.7 million to 132.8 million, from 2008 through 2050, the bureau said. Its share of the total U.S. population is expected to double from 15 to 30 percent. “Thus, one in three U.S. residents would be Hispanic,” the Census Bureau said in a news release.” Okay hispanic is not a race or one ethnic group. I could be hispanic if my last name was Moreno and my family was from Cuba but because my family is American born I am classified as an African-American. I don’t know about you all there are a lot of African Americans having babies. Our numbers never move! We’ve been 14% of the population for a long time. Don’t think the struggle is over yall, it’s just taken a new form, in the form of name discrimination, GPA, we have to recognize what’s going on. Oh! I am firm believer that the 14% statistic is bogus as well. I live in the mid-atlantic and there are a lot of African-Americans here, points north, south and definitely west of me. Like Mos Def said “nearly half of America’s largest cities is one-quarter black”
I have nothing but good words to say about this. Gordon Gartrell radio is Phonte of Little Brother(One of my favorite groups ever!) and DJ Brainchild…if you know about Phonte you know what this is, if not I can tell you it’s good music and some hilarious commentary and insight from the one. The only, Phontigga.
