Born on a Friday

“Most American filmmaking, be it Hollywood or Independent is “racially problematic.” And that manifests in a variety of ways: be it Whitewashing or tokenism or just plain old stereotyping. I find Quentin Tarantino’s “dead n****r storage” Pulp Fiction soliloquy just as offensive as Anthony Mackie consistently being cast as a leading man in a Black movie but a sidekick in a White movie, just as offensive as the paper bag casting in Precious. But all of these things are inevitable under White supremacy. Until White supremacy is dismantled we can only address these issues from the outside in. And at best that leads to cosmetic change like “diversity.” Diversity is racism’s Post-It note. It’s like “don’t forget niggas.” But who remembers to look at Post-It notes?”

“Self-sabotage is knowing exactly what you need to do to improve but not doing it. It’s procrastinating doing the very things that you know will make you happier. It’s waiting till things are 100% perfect till you do them, but that of course never happens. It’s remaining in the comfort zone because of the fear of failure or uneasiness of change. It’s a mindset that you may be completely unaware of until you really think about it. So think about it. Are you a prisoner of your own thoughts? If you are, take responsibility and acknowledge you put yourself into that prison. But know that you have the power to free yourself.”