Articles

NBA All-Star Game: White Men Can't Root

Posted in News Page Stories

by Buzz Bissinger
February 17, 2011 | 11:04pm

No one wants to acknowledge why the NBA is losing popularity. Buzz Bissinger on why white fans have trouble getting excited about African-American athletes.

My editor thinks I should write something about professional basketball. The timing is certainly right—the National Basketball Association’s All-Star extravaganza starts today in Los Angeles, culminating in the All-Star game on Sunday night.

Hollywood’s Whiteout

Posted in News Page Stories

February 11, 2011
By Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott

CRAMMED into this year’s field of 10 best picture Oscar nominees are British aristocrats, Volvo-driving Los Angeles lesbians, a flock of swans, a gaggle of Harvard computer geeks, clans of Massachusetts fighters and Missouri meth dealers, as well as 19th-century bounty hunters, dream detectives and animated toys. It’s a fairly diverse selection in terms of genre, topic, sensibility, style and ambition. But it’s also more racially homogenous — more white — than the 10 films that were up for best picture in 1940, when Hattie McDaniel became the first black American to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in“Gone With the Wind.” In view of recent history the whiteness of the 2011 Academy Awards is a little blinding.

Spike Lee Interview, Part 1: On the Knicks

Posted in News Page Stories

By Jared Zwerling
February 7, 2011

The Lakers may have actor Jack Nicholson sitting courtside, but the Knicks have filmmakerSpike Lee, who has set the bar high for a celebrity sports fan. He doesn't only go to nearly every home game; he shows up wearing a game-worn Knicks jersey. He doesn't only sit down and clap after a made basket; he routinely stands up and talks to the opposing team's players. In fact, his legendary interaction with Reggie Miller was partly the focus of one of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentaries, "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks." Finally, how many celebrity fans show up in the paper for reportedly helping their team bid for a superstar player (New York Post)? Yes, that would be Carmelo Anthony.

The Lonely Messenger

Posted in News Page Stories

By: Dr. Dick Barnett

“I get weary, sick of trying, I’m tired of living, afraid of dying, but Old Man River, he just keep rolling along.”

As this ministerial show is sung, depicting the happy, confused, anguish, and tormented darkies in Emperor Jones and the racist characterization of Birth of a Nation, even as a new and scarce voice stepped forward.  Given the background of these rabid stereotypical films, Spike Lee has made his bones, not only as a great, and innovative visionary, in the medium of Hollywood, but as a vociferous supporter of the New York knicks and a visible staple at courtside, at Madison Sq. Garden, the world’s most famous arena.