racial discrimination

A nation built with African slaves inaugurates an African-American President.

A nation driven by culture wars born out of the Vietnam era moves into hope for more pragmatic, if still partisan, politics.

A nation fallen into the darkness of torture, of "collateral damage" of hundreds of thousands of lives, of ends justifying any means returns to an age of striving for the highest of American ideals.

A nation seduced by the fantasies popularized by Ronald Reagan, that markets are God, that government is evil, that global warming is a myth, that liberalism is out to destroy America, a nation almost paralyzed with the shock of the revealed lie of those fantasies -- a long nightmare, really -- returns to a reality-based vision of the world.

A nation coming off of one of the more ugly racist federal elections puts a black man into office.

Barack Obama is a pragmatic progressive whose intellect brings us hope that his leadership can guide the cumbersome bureaucracy and conflicting interests and influences into actions that make sense, based on reason.

It was truly audacious two years ago to believe this could happen. It took a lot of hope and the hard work of millions, and the faith of many more. But here it has happened.

Barack Obama is about to become President.

How unlikely.

How amazing.

The world is astonished. Today America returns to the light.

Take a good look at that photo right above this sentence. Chris Brown and T-Pain are physically and sexually objectifying this young black woman, and thus, reduce her to eye candy and perpetuating stereotypes about black women. To prove everything is mutual, the video director even had this woman smiling like that is the sort of thing a woman wants. Step right up black ladies! You're going to be featured in a video where everyone is going to look at your ass. If you're black, then it's almost certain we'll stereotype you for having a big ol' butt!

The problem does not stop there. Over the course of pop music history black women have consistently been objectified. If there are women in a hip-hop video, and the lead singers are men, one can almost be certain that a display of the female anatomy will be just what the doctor ordered.

Even before hip-hop emerged, black women's bodies have been objectified. In The rebirth of the booty: America's obsession with my big black ass., student writer Amber Williams discusses mainstream America's obsession with big black ass:

Black women have been objectified as sex objects ever since their voluptuous bodies were seen as a welcome change to the bony figures of European women to whom the male settlers were accustomed. When African women arrived in America via a "free cruise" through the middle passage with their large posteriors, it was assumed that they were sex-craving, savage beasts. The view of black women as sexual predators is still seen today in both the entertainment industry and society at large.

The primary female characters were Alice (Milla Jovovich), Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), Betty (Ashanti), and K-Mart (Spencer Locke). The first image one sees at the beginning of the film is Alice half naked on the bottom of a shower stall. This is an example of physical and sexual objectification. There is a pattern of horror, suspense, and action movies where at some point in the film a woman or several women are sexually vulnerable and / or physically objectified. It is as if these film makers are saying, "We can have a woman with a lead role as long as she looks sexy doing it. We need to make sure we see some skin somewhere."

Particularly disappointing was the racial stereotyping of Betty. As soon as L.J. (Mike Epps) is hurt by one of the infected, nurse Betty comes to the rescue. 99.9% of the healing was a lot of flirting between the two characters. After the flirting was over with, Betty takes her exit, but not without a 3 second camera shot of her butt as she waved it side to side for the camera. I wonder if the director said to Ashanti, "Move your ass from side to side like that ... oh no, like that ... yeah, that looks sexier." Of all the female characters, Betty was the most objectified character. This is a typical "Sapphire" black female stereotype that goes back to the slavery era in the U.S.:

Sapphire, the wise-cracking, balls-crushing, emasculating woman, is usually shown with her hands on her hips and her head thrown back as she lets everyone know she is in charge. [source]