Race Is A Dish Best Served Ho
By Bob Parks (04/16/07)
Couldn't resist the title... I'm going to try and move on from this Don Imus race issue. It's old and has been subjected to all of the most faulty of arguments from the most flawed of participants. I have been asked about the subject, both privately and publicly, and now I'm going to get the last word.
I was asked what would I do if my daughter were on the Rutgers basketball team at the time of the insult. I must admit, I had to think on that one. I must also admit to watching clips of the team press conference with confusion, as although this was a "team" thing, why were the white players there? Surely Imus' words weren't meant for them.
Of course, they had to be there, but it was still odd.
As I'm bringing my daughter up a conservative young woman, I would have told her than no old man's words could undo the accomplishments of her great season. I would tell her that words (outside of mine and her mother's) don't have the power to hurt unless she lets them. With that, I would ask her to tell her coach and team that she was sitting out any further public appearances with the other players regarding the Imus controversy .
It wouldn't take long for those who profess to be the most tolerant and inclusive amongst us to launch on her. She would experience the kind of hate emails I received after being questioned by Carol Costello on CNN. She would receive the "progressive" epithets I receive today on my YouTube videos. She would see very quickly that Imus was not the racist in this whole episode. The real racists are the ones who have seen fit to hyphen people in our nation, except themselves.
My father sometimes asked, "Do bears sh*t in the woods?" I never really understood what that had to do with anything, but now that I'm older, I do understand what he may have been "asking".
If Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were to boycott some company and NBC blew off the press release and did not attend, would anyone know it happened? Of course not, but the media has selected (not elected) these men to be the accepted face and spokesmen for Black folk, they have seized this power to decide what is "racist" or nor, and what to do about it if so.
As the media now knows, they played a dangerous game when they gave the Reverends a place in the discussion, and it came back and bit them. Sharpton has pledged that the Imus annihilation is only the beginning, and in some lame attempt to distance themselves, the very liberals who got in line to be on his show now are calling Imus a conservative, thus linking him to their racial template.
However, the American people despite the warnings and dismay of the liberal left, are common-sensical. They know the difference between reality and fiction. If they didn't, a whole lot of liberals would have explaining to do, and would probably have to have their resumes at the ready.
By the way, should Howard Stern be removed from television for finding amusement in the language butchery of his reporter Stuttering John? Will Jesse and Al attempt to censor Michael McDonald for whitewashing Motown…?
While I was at Fox in the early 90's, a new show came in for us to create a sales presentation. The name of the show was "Roc", a story about a black family. After watching the pilot episode, I was asked by the producer to create a main title graphic in which the name Roc was to look like it was scribbled and the capital "R" written backwards.
It was a delicate situation to say the least, but as I was one of only three black people in my division, I felt it was my responsibility to speak up. I told the producer that creating a graphic as ordered would give the appearance that the main character Roc was a retard. Something like the movie "Charly" where the main title graphic appeared to be written by a child while the movie's main character was a mentally handicapped adult.
I was given free reign to create the graphic for Roc and I decided ROC, using Times Roman caps was a dignified, and graphically clean way to go. That logo was used until the Art Department later that season, added a more "ethnic" touch.
But that's an example of an innocent suggestion that by today's Sharpton / Jackson standards, could be taken in a whole new light.
How easy is it to be unintentionally insensitive…?
Norman Lear created Archie Bunker as the very racist Republican he believed existed. However, Bunker was the character loved by most. Does that mean the "All in the Family" audience was racist? No. It illustrated the common sense the American people possess, as they do know reality from fiction.
In fact, after "All in the Family" ended, Archie got a spin-off with that annoying little girl. Did the Meathead get his own show? Hell no, and Lear must have pulling what little hair he had left, out.
Jive-walking George Jefferson and the clueless whites on "The Jeffersons" could have been considered offensive today. Bud Yorkin's dyn-o-mite stereotypes of the Chicago projects in "Good Times", complete with the biggest lipped brother in Los Angeles surely would not have escaped scrutiny.
Those untrasensitive monitoring show "Kung Fu" would be outraged today because of the lead character casting of a Carradine instead of a Chang.
World Wrestling Entertainment would offend some not because of the violence, including violence against big-breasted women, but because it is written and produced for what elitists consider one of the lowest elements in our society: the pick-up truck driving, pregnant and bare foot, Billy Bob-toothed, Budweiser drinking, yee-ha, white trash element that's too stupid to know that wrestling is scripted and fake.
Some could be offended by fat jokes, and some even picketed the movie "Shallow Hal" without seeing it and absorbing the true intent of its message. Jesse and Al would have a field day going after the depictions of blacks on shows like Saturday Night Live or Mad TV…?
Why wasn't "In Living Color" taken off the air after the first clearly homophobic "Men On…" segment? Anyone out there remember what may have been the first Super Bowl halftime show not on the same channel as the game? It was on Fox starring Dwayne Edwards (Damon Wayans) and Antoine Marryweather (David Alan Griers)….
Antoine (explaining football to Dwayne): Ok, now, you're going to be the center. So take this ball, bend over and I'm going to walk up right behind you and put my hands between your legs.
Dwayne: Oooh! I think I may have played this game before!
The Hollywood elite routinely makes fun about rural folk. You know, stupid, women smoking, holding a baby, and eight kids running around her. Dumb men spitting chew on the dirt where the kids play.
It seems the only questionable incident Media Matters is concerned with is Rush Limbaugh's use of the phrase "Halfrican American" which was out there long before Rush used it. Let us not forget that in as early as December 2005, Byron Crawford on his hip-hop blog wrote in his "Hollywood's 10 Hottest Black Actresses"….
Megan Good. Loved her in.. . whatever it was she was in.
Gabrielle Union. I like my cheerleaders like I like my coffee…
Joy Bryant. Fiddy's girlfriend in Get Rich or Die Tryin'.
Halle Berry. The perennial standard bearer, even if she is only a Halfrican American.
Kerry Washington. Has obviously got some Indian in her family.
Sanaa Lathan. Love and Basketball = so underrated.
Aisha Tyler. Hotter than the rest of these chicks, but not really an actress.
Rosario Dawson. Might be part black. Nice rack anyway.
kd-aubert-friday-after-next.jpg "KD Aubert". I don't know who this is, really.
Queen Latifah. You know us brothers like 'em thick!
Crawford is black so he can say whatever he wants. Fiddy-Cent and almost every rapper can use the words nigga, ho, whitey, bitch, as well as the seven words you can't say on television, and that's called urban expression. Hell, even white writers in Hollywood can use those words in their "fiction" and not have to fear smelling Sharpton's hair gel before he comes around the corner.
As most of the writers in Hollywood are white, are most of the negative images of blacks the result of careless racism? Who knows, but I do know this: Those writers exploit every stereotype that shows blacks in the negative light for their livelihood. We will never see a show on Nickelodeon starring a black child who doesn't have dumb parents, gets good grades in school, and is considered hip because of it.
Instead those writers give us "Pimp Your Ride", any faire on MTV, and after all that, Imus…?
How far back do we go for cleansing? Tell you what; if you want Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson patrolling what you see and hear in the media, fine. They may be Democrats, but they are now loose cannons and despite what they say, will never go after Jay-Z and P. Diddy.
Despite the prodding, Sharpton and Jackson will never apologize for the damage they have done to people's lives. They are without remorse and hardly the Godly messengers they claim. They will seek revenge based on the very racial problems they will encourage just to perpetuate their own relevance.
They will go after any commentator, actor, anchor, reporter, or anyone else with a name and money. They won't care who they take down. What's a forty-year career, and a liberal one at that? Tomorrow it could be anyone who thinks no one is listening, and as long as they keep putting cameras and mics in front of their faces, Jesse and Al will continue to stalk them like a shark following a blood trail.
Race is a dish best served cold, and if you don't like it, change the channel.
Original: http://blackandright.mensnewsdaily.com/2007/04/16/race-is-a-dish-best-served-ho/
Author's Note: Just finished watching "Borat" on DVD. It was probably the most juvenile and offensive movie I have ever seen, and some of it was very funny.
Jesse? Al…?
(Printer friendly version) Email: Bob Parks
