Even though Heavy Metal in Baghdad never hit the mainstream movie theatres, the documentary, released on DVD earlier this month, is already a hit.

The lead character on "In Plain Sight" should have been a black woman.   How's that for an opening line? But I'm serious.  She should have been a black woman.  Why do I say this?  Because after watching the pilot episode of "In Plain Sight" and several episodes since, I keep thinking:  what a bland show.  It's kind of like watching a show that's set in New York but was shot on the gritty streets of Toronto:  there's nothing special about it and it's obvious to anyone who's been there, it's not New York.

This week, just in time for the panel on which I will be speaking at BlogHer (Race and Gender: What are the lessons of 2008) the political universe goes and plops down a gift wrapped race and gender intersectionality political issue for me to blog.

Last week, BlogHer CE Lanaid's post raised the issue of racial biases among ethnic minorities in America: A former  professor of Indian-origin, who was unhappy that his son (then 19 years old with no college degree) had married an African-American woman, allegedly ordered his daughter-in-law to be killed. Lanaid's post has details about the case, so I'll skip those.

Yesterday, I was walking my dog with my cousin and some friends by the beach in an oceanside town north of Boston. We were walking three little white haired terriers, and when two men approached with two more little white dogs, my cousin exclaimed, "It must be white dog day at the beach."An older man walking his dog towards us stopped, smiled, and said, "Well, Obama Osama says white dogs are ok."I did a double take and stared at the man- and he sensed my shock and said, "see that's a joke, I was trying to make a joke."

Rene Marie Sings Black National Anthem Instead