Red, White, and Blue Tails

“Buffalo Soldiers”: Oppressed people given guns and sent out to kill other oppressed people.


If Star Wars Creator George Lucas plan was to create a new generation of Buffalo Soldiers with his latest film, Red Tails, then he did a good job trying.

He put together a team of Black talented professionals to make the film; including Director Anthony Hemingway, (previously known for his directing in shows like The Wire); Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder who was one of the writers; and high-profile actors like Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard.

With this team Lucas was able to help Red Tails reach the 2nd spot of the Top 10 on its opening weekend. It was a film filled with plenty of action, lots of dog-fight battle scenes. And it was hard not to cheer on the protagonists as they fought Nazis in the air. (How could anyone be against the guys fighting the Nazis???)

But, it cannot be denied that the main thing this film does, is encourage Black people, (and other people of color), to fight for this country--a country that cares nothing about them. The U.S. Air Force loved the patriotic message so much that they even had ads running before the movie and promoted the film on their website.

A lot of commotion was raised by progressive people after Lucas went on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote Red Tails. During the interview he revealed to Stewart that he had to finance the $58-million himself because none of the major Hollywood studios would finance an expensive film with an all-black cast. "It's an all-black movie. There's no major white roles in it at all. It's one of the first, all-black action pictures ever made," he told Stewart.

And, while it is true that there is much racism in Hollywood, this film sets a bad precedent at a time when the U.S. is carrying out two unjust occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, using drones to drop bombs on countries like Pakistan, and is gearing up for a possible war with Iran.

A couple years back, Carl Dix, spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, wrote an article called, Don't Be a Buffalo Soldier! In it he says the following:

"Some people think the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers is something to be proud of. Colin Powell kept a Buffalo Soldier statue on his desk when he was a top official during both of the Bush presidencies. Colin Powell, who tried to cover up the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war, who was a major architect of the 1st Gulf war and who went to the UN and lied thru his teeth to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003, finds the Buffalo Soldiers inspiring. He called them "the wind beneath my wings" and especially cited their "loyalty." Later they were sent by the U.S. to fight Mexican Revolutionaries like Pancho Villa. This is a shameful legacy, and it’s no wonder that a war criminal like Colin Powell is inspired by it.

If you follow in the footsteps of the Buffalo Soldiers, you will be called on to do just like they did: commit horrible acts against people who have done nothing to you, and you will do it in the service of a system that has carried out terrible crimes, including against the masses of African-American people, and you may end up giving up the only life you have in the service of that foul system."

Fear of a Black Spider-Man

**SPOILER ALERT**

The comic-book world was a buzz this morning, as it was revealed that the new Spider-Man in the Marvel Comics Ultimate Universe, (not the main universe), would be a half-black, half-Hispanic teen named Miles Morales.

For those of you non-geeks, the Ultimate Universe line of comic-books from Marvel comics was launched in 2000 and featured re-imagined and updated versions of super-heroes from the regular Marvel Universe. This was done, mostly, to attract new readers who did not have to worry about knowing any of the back-story of the original characters--who after being around for many decades do have a lot of back-story!

The Ultimate Universe is constantly making big changes, like killing-off characters. Most recently, they just killed their Ultimate version of Peter Parker, so a new person had to step into the role of Spider-Man. Today, USA Today revealed that in Ultimate Fallout Issue #4, (which will be in stores tomorrow), will make his first appearance as he prepares to take over the gig.

Many fans are excited about the news; This includes, Black actor Donald Glover, who a year ago had started a campaign to get the role of Spider-Man for the upcoming movie reboot. Thru Twitter, he sent one of the writers, Brian Michael Bendis, a message saying, "just wanted to say "wow" and thank you for doing something really cool and interesting! You're tops."

Of course, this news also brings many detractors, some of which are outright racists and others who try to hide their racism with lame comments like, "You cannot reinvent characters." If you look thru the comments in the USA Today article you will see a lot of racist remarks. I won't reprint any here, you can go see them for yourself if you really want; or you can go pick up the book tomorrow and see what the hoopla is all about.

I think comic-book writer, Ron Marz, said it best today (on his Twitter account): "If Black/Latino Spidey, written by a Jewish man and drawn by a woman, is making racist heads explode, I'm totally cool with that."

Black Panther vs Hate-Monger

In my last blog I informed you about a superhero battling Christian Fundamentalists. Today, a quick summary about a comic-book that came out last Wednesday, Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #521. I've talked about the Panther dealing with racism in a previous post, and here he does it again; although, this time, it is straight-up racism, because the Super-villain is the new Hate-Monger.

As a comic-book character, the Hate-Monger has been around the Marvel universe since 1963, (originally he was a clone of Hitler)! This new version happens to be an average White U.S. citizen who just really hates foreigners. Throughout the first half of the book, (going back a year in this guy's life), we see how he losses his job, starts reading racist literature, shares his anti-immigrant beliefs on the Internet and on the street to anyone who will listen to him and then turns to a life of petty crime to "fund his revenge" because he blames immigrants for everything bad in his life.

Then, all of a sudden, he is given some kind of mystical power from some powerful being that has just landed from somewhere in the sky. (Yeah, I know). Anyway, besides a very silly and clumsily-written scene with a cop, the story was getting pretty good before the issue ended. The issue was written by David Liss, with art by Francesco Francavilla, and is available at your local comic-book store now. The next issue is expected to be in stores sometime in August.