Lynching documentary
Orlando Weekly has a piece this week about a documentary on Ocoee, Florida that is getting some attention. Some of you may remember the play I co-authored on the subject of that election day massacre 80+ years ago. Read more about what happened in our author's note. Go here for more on the documentary, Ocoee: Legacy of the Election Day Massacre, by UF graduates.

Terrible history
There is an exhibit at Emory University of photos and postcards of lynchings (yes, people actually sent postcards and photos of murders). The exhibit, Without Sanctuary, is based on a collection and book of the same name. Here are the photos online, here's the book. The Emory exhibit ends this December.

The Ocoee documentary and talk about reparations got me thinking on this. I hope to see the exhibit next month during a reunion trip to ATL.

Opening weekend
That Wes and Ving pic I mentioned earlier - well it opens tomorrow! The film: Undisputed, the story: Wes and Ving fight it out as prison boxers. You might also want to start checking out africana.com's new Black Box feature with a list of "black" movies coming out. I think their definition of black movie is any film with a black person in the cast or as a decision-maker. (For instance, Gold Member is listed - and is that really a "black" movie?)

Sorority Flames: Fire at black sorority house at U of Alabama

Journalists - check this
Here's a new site for journalists of color. Get news and commentary about us in the media from harambeejournal. Send items to harambee_editor@yahoo.com

Oh yeah, thanks, massa
For those of you who missed it, Dinesh D'Souza was on NPR on Tuesday talking about reparations. He, of course, is against them. I wouldn't expect anything less from the guy who wrote The End of Racism. His point this time out is that we ought to be thankful that our ancestors were enslaved. Otherwise we wouldn't have all this western culture and opportunity and we'd still be stuck in the African bush. Um, that argument's hundreds of years old. And it's still an arrogant, patriarchial point of view, even if it's spouted by descendants of former subjects.

He argues that while slavery and colonialism injure those who grow up under them, the systems can prove to be beneficial to the descendants.

You can listen to him here.

Speed posting

Okay, so maybe this is cheating. But time is short these days.

Where's Wesley? In a new movie with Ving Rhames. I'll be there opening weekend. Thanks to George for pointing me there.

Want more of DCF Chief Regier's views. Go here (pdf). Thanks to Gwen for passing that on.

Payback: negroplease has a good discussion with links on the reparations issues. Don't be too simple about it - get some information, then decide. That's what I'm about to do.

Sunday reading

Legal in black and white
Florida A & M University's law school begins classes in Orlando next week. (The first FAMU law school was closed when FSU's law school opened in the 1960s). Here's how the class looks:

Of the law school's 93 students, 41 percent of them are black, 56 percent are white, 7 percent are Hispanic, 1 percent are Asian, and 5 percent did not disclose their ethnicity on their applications.

Okay. So now FAMU has a mostly white law school. Where is this going?

Perils of a baby daddy
Jesse Jackson has decided to weigh in against Jeb's choice to head the Florida Department of Children and Families, an agency that actually loses children. Gov. Bush' choice has come under fire for some ultra-conservative beliefs (see below). The Rev. Jackson has drawn attention to himself once again, but of course his newest title, Baby-daddy, is being used against him. A Bush spokeswoman says:

“For Jesse Jackson to expound upon issues of morality and family, this is absurd. It’s comparable to Bill Clinton volunteering to teach a class on abstinence.”

Jesse should have known that kind of stuff was going to be thrown in his face. What I want to know is, how come it's okay for Bush folks to throw dirt, but not for the Democrats to talk about his druggie daughter and drinking nieces? Oh, now I remember, they have "substance abuse" problems and we're all sympathetic to his family issues.
I still kinda wish Jesse wasn't a baby-daddy. Kind of takes the moral out of his moral outrage.