EJO at Fayetteville State University on December 1
ejowebmistress shared this article with her Yahoo group and graciously gave me permission to post it here. More later.
Olmos gives lesson in life
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
Almost from the start, Edward James Olmos told his audience, “I don’t know very much.”
Then the 58-year-old actor and social activist proceeded to give the crowd of about 200 Thursday night at Fayetteville State University’s J.W. Seabrook Auditorium a cultural history lesson. And not one told from the more widely accepted, European-based, white perspective.
“This country is still teaching European history that is annihilating our future,” he said. “If we’re not in the history books, we never existed.”
“There’s no such thing as the Latino race,” he said, “and there’s no such thing as the African race. And you folks with master’s degrees know it. There’s only one race, and that’s the human race.”
Olmos, who is perhaps best known for his role as the sullen police lieutenant Martin Castillo on television’s “Miami Vice,” urged those in attendance at his freewheeling lecture to study people of different cultures because “the future is diversity.”
Olmos, who grew up in east Los Angeles, is Mexican-American. Or Chicano, as he said, before defining the term for the crowd as a person of Mexican descent. “It’s tough being Mexican in this country,” he said. “It’s tough being anything in this country.”
Olmos’ talk in the newly renovated Seabrook Auditorium was the second installment in the Chancellor’s Distinguished Speaker Series. His stage appearance was delayed for more than an hour past the original scheduled time. Notices posted at the front entrance of the building attributed it “to flight schedules.”
The day before, Olmos said, he had worked for 14 hours in Vancouver, Canada, on his latest television series, the Sci Fi Channel’s remake of “Battlestar Galactica.”
He walked onstage to the percussive jolt of the “Theme From ‘Miami Vice,’ ” dressed dapper in a dark double-breasted jacket, dark slacks and comfortable black shirt. Though he rambled during his comments, he rambled with purpose, sprinkling a serious history lesson that pointed to Africa as “the root of humanity” with lots of humor and even moments of Red Skelton-like pantomime.
“If you’re a Caucasian sitting there and you don’t like your African roots, you don’t like me,” he said with a wide grin.
Along the way, Olmos plugged “Battlestar Galactica,” saying that the program “is all about us.” And he spoke of an upcoming movie he has directed called “Walkout,” which revisits his Oscar-nominated turn in 1988 as a dedicated math teacher in the motion-picture “Stand and Deliver.” For the upcoming project, he plays a high school teacher in east Los Angeles in 1968. It tells the story of the birth of the Chicano civil-rights movement.
Olmos said his comments have caused controversy over the years. “This is the finest country in the world to be able to speak the way we’re speaking.”
But he questioned the lasting image of Jesus, which he said traditionally depicts Christ as white rather than a dark-skinned Jew. And he questioned why so few Americans with African, Hispanic and Asian descent are studied in this country’s history books.
“Did you know that there were Mexicans who fought for both sides in the Civil War?” he said. “That’s how screwed up we are. It’s not in the history books.”
“How do you change that?” he asked.
“You educate. You educate the kids.”
Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at futchm@fayettevillenc.com
Olmos gives lesson in life
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
Almost from the start, Edward James Olmos told his audience, “I don’t know very much.”
Then the 58-year-old actor and social activist proceeded to give the crowd of about 200 Thursday night at Fayetteville State University’s J.W. Seabrook Auditorium a cultural history lesson. And not one told from the more widely accepted, European-based, white perspective.
“This country is still teaching European history that is annihilating our future,” he said. “If we’re not in the history books, we never existed.”
“There’s no such thing as the Latino race,” he said, “and there’s no such thing as the African race. And you folks with master’s degrees know it. There’s only one race, and that’s the human race.”
Olmos, who is perhaps best known for his role as the sullen police lieutenant Martin Castillo on television’s “Miami Vice,” urged those in attendance at his freewheeling lecture to study people of different cultures because “the future is diversity.”
Olmos, who grew up in east Los Angeles, is Mexican-American. Or Chicano, as he said, before defining the term for the crowd as a person of Mexican descent. “It’s tough being Mexican in this country,” he said. “It’s tough being anything in this country.”
Olmos’ talk in the newly renovated Seabrook Auditorium was the second installment in the Chancellor’s Distinguished Speaker Series. His stage appearance was delayed for more than an hour past the original scheduled time. Notices posted at the front entrance of the building attributed it “to flight schedules.”
The day before, Olmos said, he had worked for 14 hours in Vancouver, Canada, on his latest television series, the Sci Fi Channel’s remake of “Battlestar Galactica.”
He walked onstage to the percussive jolt of the “Theme From ‘Miami Vice,’ ” dressed dapper in a dark double-breasted jacket, dark slacks and comfortable black shirt. Though he rambled during his comments, he rambled with purpose, sprinkling a serious history lesson that pointed to Africa as “the root of humanity” with lots of humor and even moments of Red Skelton-like pantomime.
“If you’re a Caucasian sitting there and you don’t like your African roots, you don’t like me,” he said with a wide grin.
Along the way, Olmos plugged “Battlestar Galactica,” saying that the program “is all about us.” And he spoke of an upcoming movie he has directed called “Walkout,” which revisits his Oscar-nominated turn in 1988 as a dedicated math teacher in the motion-picture “Stand and Deliver.” For the upcoming project, he plays a high school teacher in east Los Angeles in 1968. It tells the story of the birth of the Chicano civil-rights movement.
Olmos said his comments have caused controversy over the years. “This is the finest country in the world to be able to speak the way we’re speaking.”
But he questioned the lasting image of Jesus, which he said traditionally depicts Christ as white rather than a dark-skinned Jew. And he questioned why so few Americans with African, Hispanic and Asian descent are studied in this country’s history books.
“Did you know that there were Mexicans who fought for both sides in the Civil War?” he said. “That’s how screwed up we are. It’s not in the history books.”
“How do you change that?” he asked.
“You educate. You educate the kids.”
Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at futchm@fayettevillenc.com