BGN interviews actor Channing Tatum (Briggs) and director Reid Carolin for the MGM film Dog.
Dog is a buddy comedy that follows the misadventures of two former Army Rangers paired against their will on the road trip of a lifetime. Army Ranger Briggs (Channing Tatum) and Lulu (a Belgian Malinois dog) buckle into a 1984 Ford Bronco and race down the Pacific Coast in hopes of making it to a fellow soldier’s funeral on time. Along the way, they’ll drive each other completely crazy, break a small handful of laws, narrowly evade death, and learn to let down their guards in order to have a fighting chance of finding happiness.
Interviewer: Jeandra LeBeauf
Video Editor: Jamie Broadnax
Dog opens in theaters everywhere February 18.
Most of us can agree that making friends as an adult is hard. Beyond that, once you’ve established bonds that feel as though they could last, you’ve got to put in the work. I do think that sometimes it feels like you have to do a lot, and I also think, as Black women, we do that disproportionately because we pour so much of ourselves into people.
Friendships are like roller coasters — they can have highs, and they can have lows. Sometimes they are exhilarating, and other times they can be scary and frustrating. But if it’s truly with a person who is worth having in your life, you learn how to manage that ride.
I met my best friend in Mrs. Eads’ fourth-grade class at Greenwood Elementary. As we sat in class on the first day of school, Mrs. Eads called us one by one to her desk to give her our birth date. Shinita and I learned we had the same birthday — and the rest is history. We bonded over pigtails, Michael Jackson, and wearing matching outfits. We had a bond that was different from everyone else, and although we’ve had our ups and downs, it has been a friendship we have nurtured for over three decades.
Like children, Black women’s best-friend relationships begin with similarities and then graduate to loyalty, understanding, and dependability. Black women have an innate sisterhood no matter what we do. Friendships can also be very complicated, and, because of the kind of friends we are as Black women — we care, we want to take care of each other — it can get messy sometimes. That’s okay though. Mess can be cleaned up.
Every week, we see how Black women are portrayed on reality television, as if we fight all the time, lack kindness, backstab, and are incapable of having substantial friendships. It can be assumed we are all the same and act the same way. An article in the Bay State Banner asks, “Are these shows, although heavily scripted, presenting some of the realities of Black womanhood, or are they merely repackaging what America thinks of Black women (and men) and pulling an audience by confirming stereotypes?”
In a society that works so hard to bring Black women down, we have to be able to depend on one another for support and encouragement. The assumption that we can’t be friends is biased and ignores the fact that we have beautiful friendships with one another.
We can celebrate each other, motivate, and tell it like it is in a genuine way. The representation in the media should show more of the fact that we can accept each other and are willing to forgive each other for any mistakes that might be caused through the friendship. Sometimes friendships grow apart, for any number of reasons. What I have found is that often those friendships come back around and are stronger and better than they were before.
We’re oftentimes told that as Black women, we’re all we have. This has been shown as we’re navigating through a global pandemic and social movements. Time and time again, Black women show they are the backbone of society. Not just as mothers and caregivers, but teachers, friends, organizers, and human beings who deserve love, support, honor, and equality. In a world where there’s one crisis after another, it’s important to remember that we’re not just on this earth to give support but to receive it as well.
The terms “women empowerment” and “sisterhood” are seen almost every day on social media. To be honest, it’s been my experience that these are just trending hashtags that provide women with more fluff than substance. I’ve attended conferences that claim to empower women. However, it was just a waste of my time and money to eat cookies and chant affirmations. Really?
Ahyiana Angel, the host of the Switch Pivot or Quit podcast, did an episode about the “underbelly” of women’s empowerment. She and guest Amber L. Wright discuss what it takes to truly empower other women, and where we are falling short. It’s an eye-opening discussion about their experiences with attending conferences and leaving feeling taken advantage of.
In a Medium article written during the height of the pandemic in 2020, it asks the question, “Why don’t we treat each other according to what we claim to believe?” Women empowerment is often seen as something to hashtag, instead of something to be done in real life.
Sisterhood to me means having a circle of like-minded women around you who support you. As for empowerment, I consider it to be when you’re validated and encouraged and you provide that same thing to other women so that we all can go through life with more confidence and without concern we’re being judged. Both are very important for Black women.
Over the years, we’ve had television shows such as Girlfriends and Living Single, as well as Harlem, Run the World, First Wives Club, Insecure, and Sistas, which all follow best friends as they navigate through life, love, and careers. These shows give us a positive demonstration of the meaning of sisterhood for Black women.
Sisterhood is and has always been my lifeline when I need to remember who I am and why I even exist in this world. It’s less of a want and more of a need for reassurance. The bonds I have with my sister-friends sustain me when everything else fails. They tell me the truth and not just what I want to hear. They are my girls, my ride-or-dies, my besties. Knowing that there are women out there who constantly have my back whether I win or lose is one of the most empowering feelings I’ve ever experienced.
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Time to get active...shout out to Youtube favorite, Mediocre Tutorials, and Reviews! Check out the latest episode of Afronerd Radio's Mid Week in Review broadcast airing this Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern on the BTalk 100 platform. Your Uru armored AFROnerdist hosts will be lending their detective skills for the following (mid) weekly topics: Hat tip to frequent supporter, film historian, Sergio Mims for tweeting us about the growing popularity and interest in Ghanaian hand-drawn movie posters; a few topics that we failed to address from the past Grindhouse show-Marvel slyly critiques rival, DC's Phantom Zone prison; and then in more comic publisher rivalry news-a DC artist gets accused of "tracing" or plagiarizing a Marvel illustrator's previous work:
Dburt has been enjoying the streaming version of the Reacher action-drama series originally started by Tom Cruise and now that role has been assumed by actor, Alan Ritchson (Smallville, Titans); more Peacemaker and Book of Boba Fett news (the finale); dating guru and one of the more popular YouTuber's in the Black manosphere space not only appeared with Nicki Minaj in an interview one week but apparently has set up a tete-a-tete in a forthcoming video with rapper, Future:
New on the black horror front is a short film from the UK entitled, Night Bus and we have our thoughts:
As we approach Super Bowl weekend, we will discuss the Brian Flores versus NFL racism claims and lawsuit and lastly, Dburt took a look at HBO's new Gilded Age period TV series and was intrigued how late 19th-century Blackness was being portrayed.
One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF
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