A few months ago I caught an interview on 60 Minutes with Rita Moreno. She's back in the headlines because she is staring in Steven Spielberg’s remake of Westside Story. No shock, Hollywood is sucking on originality right now. Dragging out a movie or television series to infinity used to be the purview of Star Trek, Star Wars, or Law and Order. But I found this interesting, Mr. Spielberg is producing is in for the struggle:
In Steven Spielberg's version of "West Side Story," Moreno plays Valentina, the widow of Doc, who owned the candy store in the original. She's also an executive producer of the film being released December 10.
Steven Spielberg: She's part of the ensemble…
…Steven Spielberg: I wanted her to really, you know, bridge the legacy of "West Side Story" and to inspire our young cast.
And unlike the first movie, Spielberg set a mandate that all Puerto Rican characters be played by Hispanic actors.
Rita Moreno was cast as a Latina in the original version of this movie, and the production company used makeup to brown her skin. This is not the first example of Hollywood's prejudice showing:
Warner Orland, a Swedish-American actor, played Charlie Chan, an American of Chinese descent, in seven movies in the 1930s and 1940s. As his white skin didn’t fit into an Asian American character, the producers applied brown face.
Katherine Hepburn was cast in Dragon Seed, with brownface and “faux-Asian prosthetics.’
Laurence Olivier, as white an actor that ever was on the screen, played a black lead character in 1965’s Othello.
Not to say using white actors in non-white roles has stopped:
Short Circuit (1986) and Short Circuit II (1988), with Fisher Stevens playing an Indian engineer.
Carlito’s Way (1993), Al Pacino playing a Puerto-Rican Carlito.
The Human Stain (2003), Sir Anthony Hopkins playing a black lead character.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), with Benedict Cumberbatch played Khan, in a pitiful revision of Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan (1982) (Yes, personal opinion there, but see comments above about running it till it’s dry. Even for Hollywood it was bad).
But back to the 60 Minutes interview with Ms. Moreno, and the point Mr. Spielberg made of his directive that all Puerto Rican rolls be filled with Hispanic actors. Last time I checked, this is 2022. Is that really necessary?
The only people I see in black face these days are politicians like Ralph Northam and Justin Trudeau, plus liberal actors like Ted Danson, Jimmy Kimmel, and Joy Behar. Not to mention Hollywood has multiple A-List Hispanic actors now. Jennifer Lopez, Sofia Vergara, Eugenio Derbez, Eva Longoria, Penelope Cruz, and George Lopez, just to name a few. Is there a real issue here that the producer needs to virtue signal “We will use only Hispanic actors in these Puerto Rican rolls…” Steve, maybe the problem is not the American people, but you and you friends needing to prove you’re not prejudice?
Brings up another example of “Do we really need this?” The country has a major inflation crisis, oil prices are exploding, the federal government is hampering our ability to produce energy, the budget is exploding and out of control, the Russian-Ukrainian War may explode to other nations, China is looking at the US as weak and indecisive, the retreat from Afghanistan was a disaster, the North Koreans are getting more aggressive, so what is the Congress worried about. Making lynching a federal crime.
House passes Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act with overwhelmingly bipartisan support
(CNN) — The House's overwhelming support of legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime directly addresses the history of racism and bigotry in the US, the bill's sponsor said.
Lawmakers passed the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act on Monday in a 422-3 majority. A similar bill was first introduced by Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois two years ago but was then blocked by the Senate in February 2020 following the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
Anti-lynching legislation is not a new proposal on the House floor. Rush said there have been more than 200 attempts to pass federal anti-lynching law.
Rush said in a statement that the anti-lynching legislation will prosecute lynching "when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime results in death or serious bodily injury." A perpetrator can receive a maximum of 30 years in prison under this act in addition to any other federal crimes the perpetrator might commit.
"Today is a day of enormous consequence for our nation," Rush said. "By passing my Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act, the House has sent a resounding message that our nation is finally reckoning with one of the darkest and most horrific periods of our history, and that we are morally and legally committed to changing course…"
Where to start with this stupidity? Lynching is already illegal. It’s called murder, and it’s illegal in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and all federal reservations (e.g. military bases).
Under this act, lynching is a “hate crime” punishable by up to thirty years in federal prison. The federal government (and the military) has the death penalty for murder. Also 27 states have capital punishment for murder. Does Mr. Rush expect us to take a corpse and put it into a federal prison for 30 years after they are dead? (Sorry, I should not give this moron any ideas!)
Is lynching a real issue these days? Since 1950, there have been a total of twelve lynchings in the US (More black men will be murdered in Chicago, LA, or Houston over any given weekend in the US). The last documented lynching of a black man occurred in 1981. Two white men hanged a black man in Mobile AL. They were caught, charged, tried, convicted, and the primary murderer was executed in 1997. Of interest, the Southern Poverty Law Center used this crime as a basis to sue the KKK and bankrupted the organization.
The only crime that approaches a lynching sinch this is arguably the June 1998 murder of James Byrd in Jasper TX. Byrd was kidnapped, assaulted, his ankles were chained to a pickup hitch, and he was dragged three miles to his death. After the three suspects were arrested, the Texas Legislature appropriated one million dollars to Jasper County to pay for three capital murder trials. Of the three murders, two were sentenced to death (Both have since been executed), one to life in prison. Again the question, how does an anti-lynching law help the cause of justice here?
This eyewash makes me recall something from Ronald Reagan. He reportedly said his greatest mistake as governor of the (former) state of California is signing off on full time state legislators. Texas has a part time legislature, it meets every two years for one-hundred forty days (And a consensus is it would be better if it met every one-hundred forty years for two days), its members are paid $15,000 a year (Plus per-diem when the Legislature is in session), as well as staff/office cost. So these people must have “real” jobs. If you want to see that happens when you have legislators with nothing to do? Look at DC, New York, and the People’s Democratic Republic of Kalifornia.
Back to the Congress and it’s job. The House of Representatives has one function in life. To pass a budget by April 15th. It has not (under both Democratic and GOP control) executed that function since 2011. But it can find time for eyewash like this. With the world going off a cliff like it is, Joe, Nancy and Chuck are rearranging the deck chairs, and Kamala is fiddling and cackling away.
God help us all.
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