Rantings About Hollywood From a Southern Perspective

Press Play for “The Storm”

October 11, 2017 by Wyllisa Bennett Leave a Comment

Hey ya’ll!

I’m interrupting your reading experience to bring you a musical selection by Eminem. It’s a rap video, called “The Storm,” which aired last night on the BET Hip Hop Awards. Although I’m not a big fan of Eminem’s work, he totally ethered Donald Trump in this freestyle rap video. I’m lovin’ it. It’s good to see White privilege used for the greater good. We’re all in this together. #Resist

Oh, Slim Shady’s shade was good.

I appreciate you @Eminem ✊🏾 pic.twitter.com/nwavBwsOkQ

— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) October 11, 2017

“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
— the NRA

You Just Might Be a Terrorist If …

October 5, 2017 by Wyllisa Bennett Leave a Comment

*updated* pic.twitter.com/tKAGxdTPYc

— ♛ℳelgeta Sama (@OGMelo_) October 2, 2017

#LasVegasShooting

On Monday, Oct. 2nd, around 5:45 a.m., I woke up and headed to the bathroom, grabbing my iPhone to check all my notifications. (I love me some notifications!!) Along with my notifications, there were a series of text messages from a cable news producer who wanted one of my clients on HLN’s “Across America With Carole Costelle.” Just when I thought it might be another police shooting of an unarmed African American, notifications from CNN were popping up as “news alerts” of a Las Vegas mass shooting.

By the time I brushed my teeth and turned on the tv, folks on cable news were reporting “Deadliest Mass Shoot in American History.” Apparently, another White man, loaded with guns, fired into a crowd of people enjoying an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas. As of today, 59 (including the killer) are dead, and about 500 people were injured.

Who Is the ‘Lone Wolf?’

The shooter: Stephen Paddock. With meticulous planning, he made it rain in Sin City with bullets from the 32^nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas strip. And when his reign of terror was apparently coming to an end, he killed himself. As I continued to watch the news, anchors, reporters, commentators kept referring to Paddock as a “lone wolf,” and trying to paint this rosy picture of him not fitting the “typical” profile of a gunman.

He’s not a “lone wolf,” he’s a f*cking terrorist. And apparently, I wasn’t alone in my thoughts. Scrolling through tweets on Black Twitter, it became pretty obvious about my issue with the news coverage: White privilege strikes again! Well, if it walks like a duck, shoots like a duck, it’s a TERRORIST!

I know. I know. It’s difficult for some to digest that domestic terrorism can be found at the hands of a White man. Yet, it’s sooooo easy to believe that a Black man or teen or anybody in a hoodie can be a criminal. If the shooter was Black, Muslim or an immigrant, all hell would have broken loose in America. Heads would roll! Donald Trump would be tweeting his fingernails off about the gunman. If you think he doesn’t care about Puerto Rico now, if the Las Vegas shooter was a person of color, that hurricane-ravaged island would be an afterthought to him. Instead, Paddock was “a lone wolf.” **sigh**

If it walks like a duck; shoots like a duck; IT’S A TERRORIST! Can we put this #whiteprivilege aside & call it what it is? #stephencpaddock

— Wyllisa Bennett (@WyllisaBennett) October 2, 2017

I could go on, but I think columnist Shaun King conveys my sentiments in his piece, titled “The White Privilege of the “Lone Wolf’ Shooter.” I laughed when I saw a game of “White Terrorist Bingo” posted on Twitter.

ANNOUNCEMENT: My Byline Is Back!

September 28, 2017 by Wyllisa Bennett 2 Comments

I’m so excited that I’ve been tapped as the new entertainment columnist for the California Crusader News.

By Wyllisa R. Bennett

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had the gift of gab. Growing up in Burlington, North Carolina, family members always accused me of talking too loud or talking too much. “Tone it down,” they would always say, in an effort to curtail my unladylike ways. Because not only do I talk loud, but I laugh even louder. And for many years, I tried to edit my behavior in an effort to be the perfect, well-mannered, cultured Southern lady.

But then one day, I had an AHA moment: I. Can’t. Tone. It. Down. I’ve tried. Lord, knows, I’ve tried, but I just can’t do it. I have a really big personality, a booming voice, and I have a lot to say … every day! The older I get, the more I realize that it just can’t contained it. Either people will “get me” or they won’t.

I have to admit, I have a split personality. As a Southerner, I still respect the culture and adhere to some of the social graces I was raised on; but now that I’m a California girl, I’ve also integrated other habits from my adoptive homeland. I speak less with a Southern accent than I use to; lean a little more to the left than ever before; and I spend less time in church, and more time at the beach.

I’M ROOTING FOR EVERYBODY BLACK!

September 21, 2017 by Wyllisa Bennett 4 Comments

Photo courtesy of BlackFilm.com via Facebook.

Celebrities say the darndest things.

I love it when celebrities are candid, and say things off the cuff. I wondered who would be so bold as to say what everyone in Black America was thinking while watching the Emmys.

Well, that award goes to actress Issa Rae, the star of HBO’s critically-acclaimed tv show “Insecure.” She echoed the sentiments of probably every Black person who stayed up to watch the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night. When asked her favorite picks on the red carpet of Emmy night, she candidly remarked, “I’m rooting for everybody Black!” I just cracked up when I heard that. Didn’t you?! I mean, I think the same thing when I’m watching “Family Feud.”

.@IssaRae at the #Emmys: “I’m rooting for everybody black” (WATCH) https://t.co/YYfzvUXIpK pic.twitter.com/aH9SX4XlLO

— Variety (@Variety) September 19, 2017

Let me be clear: Just because I’m pro-Black, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want other folks to win. I’m glad actress Elizabeth Moss finally took home an Emmy for her role in Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I think she should have won one for the role of Peggy Olson on “Mad Men,” but I was excited that she nabbed the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series … IF of course, Viola Davis didn’t win. Moss was my second choice. I love her work, along with other nominated actors like Nicole Kidman, Robin Wright, Felicity Huffman, Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, and Ellie Kemper as well as Liev Scheiber, Kevin Spacey, Milo Ventimiglia, Jeffrey Tambor, and Robert De Niro – just to name a few.

“Last time I was down South, I walked into this restaurant, and this White waitress came up to me and said, ‘We don’t serve colored people here.’ I said, ‘That’s all right, I don’t eat colored people. Being me a whole fried chicken.'”
– a joke by Dick Gregory

REST IN POWER! DICK GREGORY

September 15, 2017 by Wyllisa Bennett Leave a Comment

R.I.P.
1932-2017

#StayWoke

In a full circle moment, I had a chance to meet the legendary comedian and social activist Dick Gregory not once, but twice in my lifetime.

He was a pioneering comic of the 1960s who used his racially-charged comedy to bring attention to racism and social justice. Before there was Kevin Hart, Chris Rock, and Eddie Murphy, there was Dick Gregory. He kicked the door open as one of the first crossover comedians, and was the first Black comic to sit on the couch of the “Tonight Show” with Jack Parr. He also became an outspoken activist for the Civil Rights Movement, and used his brand of comedy for social and political activism. He marched. He protested. He staged hunger strikes. Gregory was a comedic lightening rod! In 2015, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

A warrior to the very end, award-winning director Ava DuVernay shared one of his final posts, encouraging all of us to #StayWoke.

You taught us and loved us. Thank you, #DickGregory. pic.twitter.com/uYytZ3PIKy

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 20, 2017

UPDATE:

TV One live streamed the memorial services of Dick Gregory. View it here.

https://tvone.tv/dick-gregory-funeral-coverage/

Press Play for “The Storm”