La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for December 03, 2013

It’s all relative. If it makes money, they all will be In The Black.

They call it Race-Themed because it a film created to celebrate one particular race. Thor is about saving all of humanity. Weak point Lalo.

:-)

The conversation is larger than this comic. This comic strip is itself a comment on an article written in the USA Today. This article described “The Best Man Holiday” as a race-themed film. There was an uproar from people because it probably should have just been called a romantic comedy. Calling it a race-themed film isn’t untrue. Director, Malcolm D. Lee and Producer Spike Lee are well known for making race-themed films. This is nothing new. Even Lalo Alcaraz states it the second panel. They create films that celebrate and deal with issues specific to African Americans. This film deals mostly with relationships so it should have been called a romantic comedy. My point to Lalo and now you, is that a ‘theme’ is something that the author creates, not just something that occurs a lot in a created work.

It’s also a play on the fact that in the early days of recordings and radios, records by African-American artists were called “race records” and only marketed to that demographic.

yes, “race records” was the lable for black music until the 30s or 40s. country records were called “hillbilly records”. those lables were eventually replaced by “rhythm and blues” and “country and western”. the man who made up the original lables was asked to do it on the spot, and regreted not having a little time to think it over. Ralph Peer, maybe?