It is that time of year again and, all things considered, I
suppose you have to acknowledge there was progress made by America designating
February as Black History Month. It only took 50 years to graduate from “Negro
Week.” This first commemoration was set up in the month of February to honor
the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. I like to believe the
expansion of the week to a full month was to honor the birthday of Martin
Luther King, Jr., and not (as some might say) because February is always the
shortest month of the year.
In keeping with “the season” Hulu is releasing The United
States Vs. Billie Holiday, while Da 5 Bloods from director Spike Lee
is on Netflix, along with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Malcom &
Marie. Amazon is presenting Regina King’s somewhat disappointing directorial
debut, One Night in Miami (and while you are at it, see Ms. King’s
considerable acting “chops” in the previously recommended very
excellent/off-center HBO limited series Watchman which has the Tulsa,
Oklahoma massacre of a hundred years ago supplying context). Judas and the
Black Messiah can also be found on HBO.
There is a gaggle of Spike Lee movies being featured, and if
you haven’t seen Do the Right Thing, Malcom X, the documentary Four
Little Girls, or BlacKKKlansman, you owe it to yourself to do so. And,
as to retrospective viewing, check out director Steve McQueen (not the blonde
guy in the green Mustang… the other one) and view 12 Years a Slave, as
well as his series for Amazon, Small Axe.
If you are up to it, you might want to run through some of
the racist material blacks have had to endure at virtually each and every trip to
a movie and you might want to begin with the granddaddy of them all (Birth
of a Nation). You could then matriculate to one of the most
successful films of all time (Gone with the Wind), but the reality is
you can see almost any Hollywood film ever made, and with only a modicum of
sensitivity to the subject, readily “get” the stereotyping that is so much a
part of what most of us call “The American Dream.”
Before COVID it would have been an interesting February
exercise to go out to a movie several times with the mental “fix” of doing all
you could to see the movie… any movie… while imagining you are a Black
American. Maybe next year.
This all brings me around to something I am currently reading…
and now commending to you: CASTE, by Isabel Wilkerson. It is both
important and impressive. Please read it before you even think, let alone say
out loud, something like “this has nothing to do with me…no one in my family
ever owned slaves.”
Most of the readers of this piece will be white like me. I
can therefore say, with some sense of assurance, that you should read CASTE.
It will go a long way to enhancing your understanding of the world.
A link to the best article I have read in years, is pasted
below. I urge you to click on the link and to read How Slavery Sowed the
Seeds of American Collapse. This is truly an important piece. Here is that
link:
We come now to the section known as self-serving puffery. What I have been watching of late is my old television series…no, not Cagney & Lacey, but rather The Trials of Rosie O’Neill. It has just been re-released and I most heartily and unabashedly commend it to you. It is 30 years old, but the issues we covered are still fresh, the dialogue still smart, and my wife…the fabulous Sharon Gless, ladies, and gentlemen…is drop dead beautiful and the clothes we had designed for her should have become a line all their own. There are 34 episodes and only a couple of stinkers in the group. Episode 15 in the first season is a complete hoot with Rosie and her pals (Tyne Daly and Carole King) gathering with others for a fictional high school reunion. It is a standalone, fun episode. The triptych we made in the second season with RJ Wagner is damn good television as well. Dawn Prestwich & Nichole Yorkin, who wrote, and executive produced The Killing (now available on Netflix) got their career start on this series, and Carol Mendelsohn, the creator of the unbelievably successful NCIS series on CBS, was a big part of our season two staff of writers.
Along with Daly, King and RJ, other guest performers
included Helen Hunt, Brenda Vaccaro, and Ed Asner. The ensemble surrounding
Sharon in the title role, includes Ron Rifkin, the late Georgann Johnson,
Dorian Harewood, Lisa Banes and Lisa Rieffel…all wonderful additions to any
series. The most amazing thing (at least to me) is that Sharon is watching them
with me and having a great time doing so. Ms Gless is one of those actors who NEVER
watch themselves on screen. She has made an exception for this show and is
happy she has.
The Trials of Rosie O’Neill is circa 1990-91 and can
be viewed on Apple TV and/or Amazon Prime. I like the former better than the
latter and, by way of explanation, David Handman, my son-in-law for the past
three decades was (before he became “My Prince”) one of the editors on the series.
He explained to me, “Apple TV displays a much sharper image than Amazon
Prime which is especially helpful for analog shows like ‘Rosie O’Neill.’” I
am not all that sure I know an analog from any other kind of fireplace fuel,
but I do know (at least on my TV) that there is a qualitative difference
between what I am seeing/hearing twix Apple TV and Amazon Prime that makes the
former the Apple for my eye.
For those of you who like streaming best… use the following
link for THE ARCHIVE:
https://www.thearchive.tv/shows/trials-rosie-oneill
However you watch it, enjoy!
Barney Rosenzweig
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