Tweet Thanks to the Boston Phoenix for linking! I’d been planning a post on Attack the Block, the brilliant UK sci-fi film, and Misfits, e4′s hit teen series, before I read about parts of London spuriously rioting in response to the police killing of Mark Duggan. When I read the youth of London were enraged, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
Did ‘Attack the Block’ and ‘Misfits’ Presage the London Riots?
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on August 8th, 2011
Gay in Color: 2011 Wish List
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on January 14th, 2011
Tweet It’s a new year, and going forward I’ll be writing a bi-weekly column for MTV/Logo’s AfterElton about issues affecting gay men of color in pop culture for AfterElton. I’m trying to focus on as many colors as possible, so please message me with tips and suggestions: there’s a lot to cover out there! Since [...]
Robert Townsend Talks ‘Diary of a Single Mom,’ ‘Los Americans’ and Making a Difference Through the Web
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on December 7th, 2010
Tweet For a full transcript of the interview, click here! For three years Robert Townsend has been working as one of the more prolific and successful web series directors around, trying to do good with a number of projects with socially progressive non-profit One Economy. With over 30 years in the industry, Townsend is an understated but [...]
Why Black Americans Should Care About Net Neutrality
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on August 30th, 2010
Tweet Everybody loves YouTube. Whether you’re into Miss Jia, Kingsley, or that guy who impersonates Obama, the Google-owned site is still a place for regular users without big marketing dollars to showcase their talent and style. So you’re forgiven if you greeted the hand-wringing over Google and Verizon’s net neutrality pact with an impassioned “who [...]
Posted in uncategorized 
Tags: black, net neutrality, politics, race, Video (Web/Mobile/Transmedia) 
2 Comments »Television and Abortion: Two Shows, Two Different Paths
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on January 22nd, 2010
Tweet Thanks to Racialicious for reposting this! Two broadcast television series this week featured prominent narratives on teenage pregnancy and abortion. A rare coincidence, indeed — or perhaps not, giving it’s the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In Private Practice (“Best Laid Plans“), a rich black family’s 15-year-old daughter, Maya, gets pregnant and grapples with [...]
Did “The Wire” Presage Politics Post-2008?
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on January 20th, 2010
Tweet Thanks to Racialicious for reposting this and Occupy The Wire for linking! Get ready for reason #573 why The Wire was the best television show of the aughts. In the wake of Scott Brown’s upset in the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate, I’ve been thinking a lot about the cycle of politics. I’ve [...]
“Invictus” and the Politics of Idealism
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on December 12th, 2009
Tweet I tend to avoid in films what we see in Invictus: rugby, sports, Matt Damon, Morgan-Freeman-as-Deity-figure, sports, and Clint Eastwood. I should be ashamed of avoiding Eastwood, but his recent films have often been marketed as morally simplistic (and his Republicanism doesn’t help): we know with whom we are supposed to identify and who [...]
"V" From Fascists (1983) to Obama (2009)
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on November 24th, 2009
Tweet V airs its winter finale tonight before resuming episodes in March 2010. If you haven’t seen ABC’s V yet, I’ll spoil it for you: the Vs symbolize President Obama. Countless articles have spelled it out: io9, Chicago Tribune, BreitBart, and Entertainment Weekly, among many others, have already foregrounded the debate. It’s very obvious. In [...]
Rethinking “Post-Racial”
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on November 20th, 2009
Tweet I’d originally planned to do reams and reams of reading on this, and an extensive literature review, but I’m so busy writing, curating, filming, editing and researching other things I won’t get to it for another year, and I don’t want to cite some theories and miss others. Eventually I will have to do [...]
“Ugly Betty” Inspires Michelle Obama?
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on November 7th, 2009
Tweet I don’t normally do fashion, but I love it when two of my favorite things come together! Michelle Obama wore a Moschino jacket while visiting the Department of Energy for the National Science Bowl. I noticed the jacket from the fourth episode of this season (the fourth, and, likely, last) of Ugly Betty (“The [...]
