the strut

I know what it is - Cliff Curtis ain't got the strut.

There's a rolling shoulder hip action that the homies got while they shuffle along in their baggies - you can see it in American Me or in my classroom. I could never do it right - though when I mimic everyone recognizes - but I can see it in an instant.

And again, I ain't hatin on Maoris, but Cliff Curtis ain't got the strut at all. So THEY NEED TO STOP FUCKING CASTING HIM AS A MEXICAN!

Just saw Training Day (thanks to Michele's large DVD collection) and it was very good. Good triumphs over evil - and I will watch ANYTHING with Denzel. I would watch hours of toothpaste commercials with Denzel. His charisma is amazing.

And I ain't hatin on Cliff Curtis - I mean, he's fairly convincing as a gangbanger and he ain't a bad actor. But when he walked across the room in Training Day, the lack of accurate strut just bitchslapped me.

I never thought of myself as an expert, but I been breakin cholo gangbangers since 2001, and that ain't nothin - especially the last five months. I know the signals, the signs, the movements. I can see when something's going on and who's with who. That's survival, cuz (what one kid insists on calling me recently, though I don't think he's a Crip). The peripherals let me in on the secrets and then the cholos don't fight me.

(Side note: some kid made some comment about corridos the other day during a discussion on literary terms and I said, yeah, like that. See, Lalo is a major narco-corridos fan and gave me lots of CD's to listen to and we were going to go to a corridos museum exhibition in AZ. And these new guys were like, "Ah, you don't know what corridos are," and I said, "Oh yeah. Ballads that used to be about historical revolutionary figures but now are more about drug running, and they're kinda like nortenas and use a lot of guitar and storytelling," and the few girls and the other guys loyal to me were like, "Yeah! Ha!" and I was like, "So, I pass your little Mexican test for the day? Can we move on?" and they were like, "Shit man, she's not just a stupid white bitch," and it was over, but I got more prestige in that moment than anything I could have done short of knifing somebody. Thanks to Lalo.)

The strut is what makes me able to tell the difference between an African and an African American in less than a stride. I can tell immediately on the camp any guy who's been to the US. Because that strut - well, I'm lucky I'm a white girl, but for lots of people especially brown males, it can be a matter of life and death.

So anyway, I just wanna give a major declaration to all Hollywood casting agents - when casting Mexicans, actually cast Mexicans. And to Cliff Curtis, you just gotta say chale, homes.

Um, and yeah, I know - I don't make a very good Quaker. Because I am of this world.