Yes, I do wonder if that is at all connected to the fact that Britain was the country most sympathetic to the Confederacy during the war, even though it had long outlawed slavery and was actively fighting it in international waters, because the British economy relied rather heavily on cotton to feed its mills.

Agree 100%. It's far easier to slip into insensitivity as an outsider, without the benefit of cultural messages advising you on what is and isn't considered appropriate. That isn't to excuse this sort of thing, per se, more to remind ourselves that if we are more sensitive about race/gender/class issues related to our…

Exactly what I was going to say. If Americans think foreigners having a love of Americana is a 'hipster' phenomenon, they would have been bowled over by how many hipsters there were in 1950s Japan... I think it's more surprising how little of American culture we've absorbed, considering how thoroughly we're bombarded…

Not to defend (or condemn) the idea for the ball, but Victorian is not at all equivalent to Antebellum South in a British imagination. If you look at it from a (possibly thoughtless) foreigner's perspective, the American South has an exoticism and an aesthetic completely its own. There were obviously similarities in…

Bah. Sloppy seconds.

I'll co-sign on behalf of the south coast of the UK (your Portland is probably named after ours, New England!)

One letter switch away from perfection...

If anything she isn't hammy enough. She just seems a bit worn out. She's meant to inspire abject terror!

It looks like the orphans are getting a way less harsh deal in this movie than in the original. In the 80s version they were on iron bedsteads scrubbing the floorboards on their hands in needs, in this one they just seem to have a messy house...

The way that little kid yells "We don't like his religion!" just cracks me up. This kind of naive but goodhearted, painfully-earnest egalitarian stuff that surrounded the 40s kind of breaks my heart. Although the simplicity of the messages is woefully inadequate by today's standards, the sheer earnestness of it…

This article is brilliant and shocking and very well written. But it always blows my mind how Americans use 'Asian-American' to mean both East and South Asia. Like, the fact that you can use the example of Chang and Eng Bunker in a defence of an Indian-American woman and it makes perfect sense in an American context.

Much as I think they're both extremely charming people, it frustrates me immensely that someone chose to call their child Peter when they already had a child named Lupita. It's like having a Roseanne and then an Anne.

Again, I'd just like to point out that these messages are certainly not part of popular perception of British black women in the UK. I am in no way claiming to be qualified to speak for the Black British experience, but as a Brit I can speak on what popular culture perceptions of other races are in the general…

I was unaware of this, so thanks for adding to my understanding. I've never heard a POC express anything similar, but perhaps it varies depending on location/background? I can imagine that opinions on intra/interracial dating would be very different in a small rural town to in a multiracial inner city borough.

I can't speak to Ridley, but Steve and Chiwetel are both British and it is far, far more common for POC to date outside their race here (aside from some strict religious/cultural communities where it is often discouraged). The white population is 87% and the black population is 3% (with mixed race, mostly white and…

Yessss, so.fucking.excited. I have been waiting for this since that tantalisingly brief hint at the Tracy/Hepburn romance in The Aviator.

They look cold. They are wearing short shorts and the wind is blowing. And they are looking *dead-on* at the photographer who must have been trying to attract their gaze, almost as though being yelled at by paps is not their idea of a fun weekend.

Channing Tatum, I wanted to dismiss you so badly but you keep being SO DAMN WINNING. I don't even know what's up with us right now...

I agree, but the true facts are sufficiently unsavoury that they don't require any exaggeration or inflation. That only detracts from the reality, which was distasteful but to my mind not really my business. Talking here specifically about the instance we know about (the relationship with Soon-Yi), not the molestation…

So an article that sets out specifically to attack Allen (as is obviously their right) might have some interest in mislabelling a photo to embellish their case? Here he is with his two adoptive daughters - Bechet, on the right, is clearly the girl in the photo.