"Leaving responsibility for human rights to the private sector is unacceptable. Private sector programs cannot displace the responsibility of government to the basic social and economic human rights for its people. In the age of "personal responsibility", does it not follow that we each have a responsibility to hold our elected government accountable to the universal standards it holds other nations to? Which of the following best stands for the values espoused by Americans -- a broad and sturdy safety net for all members of our society, or one of five children hungry and poor in the richest nation on earth? . . . " Complete article

This methodically rabble-rousing film can be read two ways: face-on as a laser-sighted expose of Jamaica's economic strangulation by an IMF hell-bent on fomenting chaos and dependency in the name of slave-wage sweatshops and the almighty Mickey Dee's, or, from a slightly more askew angle, as the grimmest Black science-fiction movie of all time -- a tale of one very small Black planet's near hopeless struggle against a technologically superior alien adversary more malevolent than anybody's Borg. . . Complete article

"Far too often whenever Black people are invited to go to the movies what is on the screen is an embarrassment, disparaging us and our historical legacy. This has been particularly true with the many comedies that seem to dominate the Black film presentations, mocking and making fun of the lives of the masses of our people. This includes movies even produced and directed by highly talented members of the African community and feature Black actors and actresses. But the dilemma does not only impact on film comedies. it is also true of dramatic films where real-life heroes have had their lives misappropriated to be misused as central figures in white produced cinematic features to give a film some exotic or esoteric flavor. This goes back to at least the 1930's, where the historical great king of the Congo, the Mani-Congo, was dehumanized when Hollywood moguls took so-called artistic license and transformed him into a gigantic gorilla which they called King Kong, and transferred the setting from central Africa to an offshore island, initiating a spin-off series of movies that denigrated the history of Africa's third largest country and its people . . . " Complete article

"The U.S. property crime rate matches those of most other industrialized countries, but its homicide rate exceeds western Europe’s by 4 to 1 and Japan’s by 7 to 1. The historical roots of this disparity may lie not in the Western frontier, as many believe, but in the institution of slavery and the unusual history of firearms in America . . . " Complete article

Risking her life in the land of lynching in the late 1800's, newspaper journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett told the truth About Southern Euro-American male sexual psychopathology, among other things. Complete article

"Until recently, scholars of U.S. Black nationalism have mistakenly assumed that its significance as a political theory is based solely in its positioning as a racial politics. However, to truly understand the style and substance of its theory and praxis, Black nationalism must be recognized as a race and gender politics. This essay is an explication of the race/gender politicking of Black nationalists, focusing particularly on the ways in which politicized rap artists have claimed the Black nationalist tradition by using the Bible as a (re)source of power and knowledge: . . ." Complete paper

Back to top of page   |    Back to Floor 8 Home Page   |    Email us