Stepping out of the comfort zone

I recently went to view a house and unfortunately couldn't find it. I did, however, come across a wonderful example of suburbian childhood racism. A group of children did not have a problem expressing their oh so enlightened views about my skin colour. My initial reaction was to reach out and smack the one closest to me (not one child was over the age 12--there were about 5 in total). But considering the fact that it was already night time, I was a stranger in the area-- I was in their territory, plus kids and teenagers seem to be getting more and more violent (or maybe that's just the tabloid media blowing things out of proportion as usual--and then again maybe not) and I could get into a lot of unneccessary trouble for hitting a child, I decided that the best option was to give them the finger and walk back into civilisation. But I was really angry by the time I got to my stop. Maybe I've become too insulated by my experiences with covert adult racism, but this was ugly. The fact that the words were coming out of the mouths of children made it even more nasty. I wonder what their parents are like.

The thought has crossed my mind that maybe I should give Social Services a call just to see what happens.
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I had read that it was going to happen, but recently heard that A. Jolie will be playing a mixed-race woman in her next role. The following is my own 2 cents on the subject:

The race of the actress playing this role does matter. How many black/mixed-race actresses are seen in the leading role in ANY Hollywood film? Now how many do you come across as the "sassy"/"streetwise"/"nurturing mama-like" role? Waaaaaay too many. Yes, contrary to what it might seem, black and mixed-race actresses are capable of expressing a range of emotions/characters. When a role comes up that requires depth and complexity (as opposed to the stereotypical "girrrl"!) then we cheer to see her on the big screen. As a black woman I'd like to think that Hollywood is capable of dipping it's little toe in the 21st century. So when a white actress "takes" one of the FEW roles available to black(there are many light-skinned black women who could qualify)/mixed-race actresses, then you do have to ask yourself, WTF is going ON???!!! And the fact that Marianne Pearl did not have a problem handing her story to Ms. Jolie made me pause...

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On to something more pleasant; I hope this is still available to view, because it is simple and beautiful.



(just in case: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=7bdb323664c4979c78f41f4d39588d06.665845&cache=1&fr=fpman-link4)