Meltingpot News: Hollywood Crazy, Chinese American Activists, + Multiculti Love

Hello Meltingpot Community,

It’s Wednesday so it’s time to share some Meltingpot news you can use. Well, maybe not use exactly, but at least feel in the know about where cultures are connecting, clashing and creating something new. And, yes, the impeachment hearings continue today. Yes, the democratic debates are going down this evening. Yes, Syracuse University is being targeted by white supremacists. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to the stories that will uplift, inform and celebrate the manifestation of cultural connections and the improvement of the lives of people of color locally and globally.

So, without further ado:

Five Meltingpot News Stories for Midweek

File this Under Crazy: The crazy story coming out of Hollywood today is that Julia Roberts was once suggested to play Harriet Tubman in the Harriet biopic. Reportedly, a studio exec believed that because Tubman lived so long ago, nobody would remember she was Black?! I still can’t wrap my mind around that one, but I’m glad it never came to pass. *smh*

Playwright Larissa Fasthorse is Sorry not Sorry for Ruining Your Thanksgiving: Native American playwright, Larissa Fasthorse has written her most commercially successful play yet – The Thanksgiving Play – and it’s all about challenging the Thanksgiving myth. Fasthorse uses humor in her play to get her message across that Thanksgiving is damaging lie and she’s winning audiences and changing minds in the process.

Women Voters Owe a Thank You to Chinese American, Mabel Lee: America is so guilty of whitewashing its own history, but that doesn’t mean people of color weren’t on the front lines of almost every significant societal change. Perfect example is the story of Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, a Chinese American woman who fought tirelessly for the right for women to vote in the early 1900s. Sadly, even after the 19th amendment was passed, Lee still wasn’t allowed to vote because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Thankfully, Lee’s story and contributions to women’s suffrage will not be forgotten because the Chinatown post office in Manhattan was just renamed in her honor.

Fingers Crossed for The Other Americans: Tonight is the big night in the book world. That’s right, the National Book Awards will be announced tonight and I have fingers and toes crossed that Laila Lalami, author of our fall Book Club pick, The Other Americans, will win for fiction. Stay tuned!

A Multicultural Love Story Just ‘Cause: When a white girl and a Nigerian boy meet in a high school in Memphis and then reconnect post college, what happens? Spoiler alert: Real Love.