The Aftermath

Expect more of this kind of racist mess over the next couple of weeks, months, the next 4 years. Trust me when I say that we are about to see exactly how much we are not in a so-called “post-racial” society. I’ve got nothing else to say. I’ll let the video speak for itself.

[Tip o' the hat: Villager]

You People Are Like Cellophane

It’s almost becoming laughable the extent that some will go to deny the agency of black people now that Barack Obama is poised to upset the natural order and become President of the United States. When I first heard that Colin Powell had endorsed Sen. Obama, I was pissed that I had to go to work because I wanted to hit up all of the Righty blogs to see which would be the first to claim that he did so out of racial solidarity . While I wasn’t able to catch one of the first, Republicans and other righty types have proven that they are as predictable as ever. There was at least one surprise, though. I was all set to head over to Michelle Malkin’s place to watch her screech “because he’s black!” and it turns out that she didn’t go there. Go Figure.

Now, this wouldn’t be a good post-racial society about to elect the first black President if there weren’t plenty of hanging imagery, stereotyping, and a little bit of proud racist language just for shits and giggles, but I hadn’t considered that these fools were just waiting for the moment to use some good ol’ fashioned blackface.

Yes, Gen. Colin Powell is now a traitor. And ooh gee! A blackfaced traitor at that! Nevermind that he’s endorsed plenty of white Republicans. Nevermind that he’s one of many white Republicans that are also endorsing Obama. Nevermind that the friggin Chicago Tribune, which has never in it’s existence endorsed a Democrat for President, endorsed Obama. No, Colin Powell is black, Obama is black, and so there can be no other reason that he would endorse Obama other than because they’re both black. And of course, no one is openly calling any of those white Republicans traitors. No, they’re all free thinkers exercising their free thinkedness.

Seriously, you people can’t be any more transparent.

Blackface in Kansas

Courtesy of The Witchita NAACP Blog

Sigh.

Kevin handles his business well, though, and the Mayor seems to now understand why his actions were problematic. Unfortunately, there are a lot of comments over there that show that some people just don’t get it and never will.

Let me just say this: using that stupid-ass movie White Chicks as an argument for why engaging in racist imagery like blackface is just A-Ok and LOL! OMG! Teh Funney! doesn’t cut it. For one, White Chicks was a stupid-ass movie and not funny in the least (well, I haven’t actually seen it, but I’m sure if I were masochistic enough to do so, I would hate it), and two, its just not the same thing. There is no well-documented history of whiteface being used as a method of subjugation. It’s just not there, so people, please stop with that bs, ok?

Made of Stupid

I’ve written about Chuck Knipp, the guy who does Shirley Q. Liquor before (I’d link, but that was the old Slant Truth now gone). Today, I came across a way too sympathetic Rolling Stone article from about a year ago on Knipp, by way of Professor Black Woman, with this bit of historical revisionism (emphasis mine):

Vocal critics of Knipp who are demanding he do just that — stop — all point to the similarities between his act and nineteenth-century minstrel shows. There may be comparison points, though not necessarily the ones Knipp’s detractors imagine. Though blackface minstrelsy is today seen as an example of America’s regrettable racist past, shelved in history between Klan lynchings and Jim Crow laws, minstrel shows were not purely racist. Like Knipp’s routines, they veered wildly from celebratory imitation to vicious ridicule.

Minstrel shows were not purely racist? Minstrel shows were sometimes celebratory imitation? Are you kidding me? Here’s a tip, Mr. David Holthouse: just because someone, somewhere claims “celebratory imitation” to justify their racist bullshit, that doesn’t make it so. Please do me a favor and STFU.

The Blackface Files Return

I’m not a fan of Sarah Silverman. I find her humor juvenile and often offensive. She will stoop to the lowest level possible to try and get a laugh. Yet I was still shocked to learn that last week’s episode of her show, titled “Face Wars,” went so low as to contain (oh yeah…you guessed it…the hip trend of last year hasn’t gone away yet) Silverman in blackface. Take a look:

Yep, she went there.

Now, I’m a big fan of comedy, especially subversive comedy, and so I understand that many comedians exploit stereotypes to get their point accross. Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Sacha Baron Cohen, among many others have all to varying degrees of success exploited racial/ethnic/religious stereotypes to get a point across. The difference, for me, is that they all exploited racial/ethnic/religious stereotypes in order to expose the ignorance of those stereotypes. In Silverman’s episode, it seems to me that she is revelling in stereotypes and trying to be as offensive as she possibly can. When I saw the bit where a black man is wearing a big nose and a t-shirt that reads “I love money” (the black man and Silverman attempt to switch places so that Silverman can prove that Jews have it worse than blacks, as if that’s a question worth asking) I almost threw my computer monitor out the window.¹ Really? Did she need to go there? If you haven’t seen the episode you probably don’t get where I’m going here, but in the context of the show it is nothing but offensive to me and serves no purpose other than to perpetuate the faux black/Jewish divide.

What really gets my goat about this episode is that it’s all played off as “starting a dialogue about race.” Um no. All I see is the worst stereotypes about black folks and Jewish folks being perpetuated with little to no actual commentary on why these stereotypes are messed up in the first place. It’s all shock. No commentary. And when it has all ended, she has painted herself as the most “open-minded.” To wit, this little supposedly funny bit from the show:

“What do we want?”

“The freedom to explore issues of race in American culture through the use of post-modern dramatic irony.”

“When do we want it?”

“We think it’s fairly obvious.”

That could be funny in a lot of comedic situations, but here, I find it all too telling.

1. For the full context here, you can watch the episode in ten parts here [↩]