Lizzie Mae is a creation of Azie Mira Duncan, a former living history character at Mount Vernon; George Washington’s former home. Her character is a composite of several different women who actually served the Washington family. The questions were real.

Watch it. Then watch the second episode. Then go to her website. Her insights on race, especially during the period immediately following Obama’s first inauguration, are telling.

The Butler- a movie that has been likened to Forest Gump for its ham fisted handling of race and the civil rights movement – is still raking in tons of money at the box office. Meanwhile, Russell Simmons and a smelly cadre of not-funny actors and actress have pretty much been shunned from the internet for depicting Harriet Tubman as a big, blackmailing, master seducing prostitute. You would really think that we were absolutely incapable of handling our struggle with any level of nuance.
Ask a Slave manages to find humor in a subject that is totally not funny at all. It reminds me of Damali Ayo’s defunct, Rent a Negro project. I’m loving it.

I wrote about the Butler before, here.