i wasnt around in 1931... but i nominate harry roy and his orchestra

The roles are there. They just choose not to cast POC.

I agree with you on driving the academy to irrelevancy. The only thing I think we should realize is that a person of color, Inaritu, has a chance to be a back to back oscar winner for Directing. I am staunchly against the white washing of the oscars, but as a person of color working in Hollywood I see, someone who…

Yes. I would really like to know who this year should have been nominated instead. I just think the roles aren’t there. I’m not gonna say the Academy always nominates the very best performances every year, but they can only chose from roles that are in movies that exist. I get the outrage, I do, but I don't get being…

I would definitely be more specific than that, no matter the age. But then I am Black, and we don’t have the luxury of waiting until our kids are older or taking their sensitivity into account when dealing with the facts of race. If white people would do the same, things might be better.

A couple of years ago, my daughter was reading a book for school - a children’s biography about George Washington Carver. And I read the book and it was happy, clappy slave apology bullshit. So we talked about it. She asked if it wasn’t true that there were slave owners who were nice and treated slaves like family. I…

My guess? They were all so aware of the complexity of the situations they were portraying that they didn’t realize that this complexity did not carry on in the book, and that without the background knowledge they all possessed, the book comes off very badly.

I think the story would have been really powerful and heartbreaking if handled in a different way. You have an innocent child who wants to be helpful and receive praise who is very excited to be helping out grown ups with an important project. But at the end she is not permitted to eat the cake she worked so hard on,…

I don’t think this book is aimed at toddlers. It seems more the 5-8 year old demographic, which is actually a pretty good time to begin exploring historical complexity. I vividly remember my 2nd grade teacher reading the class a book about the Civil War in which two Union soldiers (one white, one black) are captured…

The strange relationship between slaves and their masters is a difficult topic because of the range of experiences. Of course there was abuse and brutality- there are plenty of first-person accounts documenting that. Yet there were also accounts from some slaves that did exhibit pride in their work and, strangely,…

I, too, hope to have pedal-soft skin one day... *siiiiigh*

I, too, hope to have pedal-soft skin one day... *siiiiigh*

...wagina?

Well, that’s the conceit of the article right? It can be hard to tell what to call come sexual encounters. The problem, in my mind is labeling it rape, conveys a judgment about the appropriate punishment. There are a few comments here to the effect of, I think it was rape, but he shouldn’t go to prison. That makes no…

Yes, for sure. I was actually going to bring up the term “sexual assault,” because I think it’s often a more useful term. In part because (broader definition aside) it doesn’t have the same history and connotations as the word “rape.” Rape has been so sensationalized, and even romanticized and eroticized, that it’s a…

“All sex should be wanted sex, and just because this sex wasn’t really illegal doesn’t make it okay,”

If there is a woman alive who has not had this experience, I’d like to meet her, because she is a rare, rare creature. I’m so grateful to you for sharing your story and elaborating on the complexity of consent. So many people want to make it a black-and-white, yes-or-no issue, and the more people who stand up and say…

Finally, a comment I can get behind. I’m shocked (but why even at this point?) that it got snubbed over The Martian. And actually, I laughed more in 10 minutes of The Big Short than The Martian, Spy, and Trainwreck (which was sloppy and lame) *put together*.

Rooney Mara is really fantastic in Carol. Like on par with Cate Blanchett.

I’m so glad it looks like she’s moved on from the see-through sparkly gowns with the nana knickers underneath. Actually I’m glad everyone has moved past that.

I mean, if you watch just this video, it looks like he’s laughing at something someone said to him off-camera and wasn’t paying attention to the proceedings at all.