Make that 1 and 2, but I do agree with you.

I don’t care if he seemed like a cool guy or not. This man AMBUSHED (and killed) a cop’s daughter and her fiance that were sitting in a car, and AMBUSHED (one died and the other injured) two LAPD police officers that were also sitting in their car at a light. He then killed another cop and injured another. After it was all said and done there were four dead and four injured. He threatened to murder cops and their families. And why? Not because he was beaten, or his family was in danger, or some other life threatening injustice, but because he was fired…rightly or not. He was given the opportunity numerous times to turn himself in, but he choose not to so he could continue with his mission. This man deserved what he received and none of you can justify the horrific acts that he performed. He performed cowardly acts (ambushing) in the name of his justice and he will get no sympathy from me. Oh, but the LAPD is corrupt, he was a victim, conspiracy…blah,blah,blah. Many times life isn’t fair, get over it. And get off the LAPD’s back. Yeah, there are some bad apples, but name a state that doesn’t have a few. I live in Cali now, but spent some time in Houston and Cali ain’t got nothing on them. Louisiana, NY… I could go on.

I think you misunderstood what I wrote. I am not pretending it’s not there. I lived in Houston for a couple of years and it was quite prevalent on BOTH sides, so by your logic I was having ‘current struggles’ as well. I choose not to feed in to it and tried to view people on a person to person basis. Some were good and some were not. Nobody is trying to erase your history (don’t we all have a history?) or see you as invisible. I personally find other cultures fascinating.  I guess that you are from a small town with a statement like ‘a predominately white community’, but I happen to live in a large city where the ‘white’ population is definitely the minority-41% (Houston was as well-47%) and I have no problem with that. If your town is so bad that you are constantly being reminded about your race ( “It’s very easy for a white person to forget about race because they’re not constantly being reminded of it.”) then for heavens sake move or find peace and strength with in yourself and be the better person.  I am not asking for race to be invisible, but rather tolerant of others and then racism will eventually be eliminated.

Racism will always be around as long as people of ANY race see others by their skin color and perceived stereotypes and not as fellow human beings.  Statements like “Certain movies are difficult for me to watch in the vicinity of white people”, “it’s hard to look at the ancestors of those who made that history, sitting quietly alongside them in a theater”, “I sensed a gleeful nostalgia in the air as if all the elderly white folks around me couldn’t help but think, “Those were the days.”, and “that makes the audience laugh at the simple negro” are not helpful when your last sentence is “simply served as a reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same”. You do not mention the town you live in, but your statement “As expected, I was the only black person in the audience” leads one to believe that all the rest were white. Were there no Asian Americans, Latin Americans, or any other ethnicity in the theatre?  I sense your pain (and anger?), but I believe that we, as human beings, have made good (not great) strides in making this a UNITED States for all. Yes, there is much that still needs to be done. It started with previous generations and the work will continue for some time, but I have faith in humanity. When we continue to see others as Whites, Asians, Latins, African Americans, or whatever, and not as fellow human beings the healing slows and we do not move forward in achieving the goal. Having said all that, I do accept some of your other arguments about the movie, but it is a Tarantino movie and since you saw Inglorious Basterds it could not have been that much of a shock.