Crazy Talk
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I hate white guilt. I really do. Adele Stan writes on TAPPED.
If you’re white in America, you’re probably at least racially prejudiced even if you never say anything racist. You’d have to have been raised in a bubble not to be.
Oh, come on. People are not racist simply because of their race. That’s actually kind of a racist thing to say. In my experience as a black American (all my life, ba-dum) of Carribean descent (whenever I go “home to Mom” on Christmas vacation, this is where I go – how kickass is that?) I’ve probably personally seen more racism from my fellow black people than white people. The idea that every white person should walk around with the legacy of Bull Connor on his or her back is ludicrous, no more than the idea that black people are automatically filled with virtue and sanctity because our ancestors were treated as subhuman (I don’t get to act like an ass simply because Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr. were on my team).
There’s enough racism and discrimination in the real world that we have no reason to heap on the imaginary stuff too.
(Also, Adele is wrong about Seinfeld – the funniest comedy ever – was never homophobic. In fact, Seinfeld made fun of Jerry and George’s latent homophobia all the time – "not that there’s anything wrong with that". And I know I’m an outlier for being a black guy who loves Seinfeld, but it’s about a single guy who loves cereal and Superman and cracks jokes. Besides the white thing and the daily diet of supermodels, and the Jewish thing – I am Seinfeld)
17 Responses to “Crazy Talk”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
That was a very smart piece of writing. I think moments like the Kramer melt-down serve to create–through the internet and other media–cultural red lines. Adele is making a sociological point about the content of our souls. The fact that almost no one on the internet or television has defended what Kramer said, proves at least that public racial attitudes have changed for the better. 60 years ago that tirade would have been acceptable and expected coming from the mouth of a southern senator.
I heard Seinfeld was dating Jessica Alba.
Great thoughts, Oliver. Every culture has its history and its stereo-types. If I say ‘I’m a proud caucasian anglo-canadian’ it does not translate in any way, shape or form to ‘and therefore I am superior to every other culture or ethnicity’. And yet that’s become an implied in many circles (although some want it to be that way due to a warped sense of media leverage and empowerment). No white guilt here…we’re all in this life together. Besides, I’ve worked extremely hard to counter the perception that caucasians aren’t funky. ‘Kramer’ lost it and now he’s gonna have to live with it; whites have to apologize for it about as much as blacks have to apologize for OJ, or Muslim’s apologize for bin Laden.
Michael Richards may have been on some kind of drug – cocaine or pain killers I’d speculate by his rageous behavior – and was very aggitated by the black hecklers. I believe he went after the one word that he knew would shut them down. I don’t believe he’s “racist” at all. Just not very good at dealing with hecklers…
Wow. An American black guy who thinks like I do. See, I always knew growing up in a black-majority town as a kid would have its impact on me.
But more seriously, I was thinking about this issue for the same reasons as everyone else, and I realized that black people from other countries tend not to offend my white racist sensibilities. The whole issue of color, for me, is just an alert for the real issue which is cultural backwardness.
I’m not saying I appreciate the CNN-ization of the world, nor the rising hegemony of laissez-faire capitalist sensibilities. I believe that the notion of picture-taking as a means of “stealing spirit,” which is prevalent among the African continent’s indigenous peoples, has some validity at some level of my perspective. I’d hate to see that kind of heart-level awareness disappear beneath the boot of anglo-saxony.
I am also offended by those members of my family who equate the acquisition of “culture” with moving from a single-wide to a double-wide, or from a trailer park to a spot of land fouled by similarly equipped four-wheeled habitats. But my relatives can fool me sometimes because they can dress up and blend in. Black folks, and folks who have to wear their ethnicity on their sleeves, can’t do that. I always know what to look for and when to press, “record.”
I found myself angry at my fellow rednecks who joked that the Katrina victims who were housed in our town were all leaving to Dallas because there weren’t any jobs up there. My one day in one shelter — around noon — showed me that a majority of the victims of the disaster were elderly blacks and black women with children.
But the statistics do not lie. Crime increased whereever these people hung their mardi-gras beads.
At least, that’s what I’ve heard from the anglo-saxonist controlled media. And I must admit I would be suspicious of apologists who want to blame cultural putridness on living in squallor. The majority of the world lives in squallor, thanks in no small part to American hegemony, and the vast majority of those folks don’t give me a case of the creeps when I see them walking around either here or inside their own home towns.
There was, and is, a better way to deal with the problem of cultural backwardness than to simply allow a disaster to wash the problem farther upstream. Cheap has its appeal — don’t get me wrong — but cheap can be more offensive and cause more damage than doing things in a value-added manner.
Making quality public education widely available to all citizens, and compulsory for children, is a good beginning. The only reason Reagan ended that little experiment was because it was working — and with a ballooning global population, his constituency wouldn’t tolerate everyone becoming aware of just how vacuous and vicious the global elites can be. Educated people might rise up in actual numbers and make the 1960′s look like the trip to Summer camp that it was. I would gleefully take up arms with persons of any color whose first task was to publically execute Rupert Murdoch. Or to drop-kick the entire Bush Administration, clad in only their boxers, into the Sunni Triangle of Iraq and film the whole “fraternity prank” for posterity.
Yes, I am a racist. But I detest irresponsible wealth even more.
Jah-may-con are ya then. Some of my “resettled” kin went out to Jah-may-ca and some went to Eastern Shore MD. I am downline from the Choptank crew.
Michael Richard’s riff aside,(it had a Pryor overload to it.)we are in a much better state than the Turko-Kurd, Nihon-Korean-Ainu, and the Indic Guyana-rest of the world divide.
I am looking forward to a “Fresh Prince of 1600″ era. Ya’ll’s just as much Anglo/Brit and any anybody elses – coulda been mocha – shinny something … And besides, ya always get a by for that sweet highland lilt that issues from your Caribbean heart. Not you, Olli. It’s in your heart but I am sure that when you go home, the first thing out of their mouths is, Oliver, (see there, the Cromwellian diaspora) “Ya’ don’t talk right.”
Believe me, the Anglos have gained more from the Afro-Scots-Irish-Gallic-Ibero infusion than they deserve.
Lantern Bearer
Actually, the genius of the ‘The Outing’ episode is that not only did it poke fun at those with latent homophobia, it also poked fun at the people who get insulted when somebody emotionally denies that they are gay. That’s what the “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” line was doing.
There was another episode where Kramer refused to wear an AIDS ribbon for an AIDS charity walk. It was great because it poked fun at people who think wearing a ribbon is a meaningful contribution to finding a cure for AIDS.
I’m kind of puzzled at what the behavior of Michael Richards has to do with the television show he appeared on.
I agree with every point Oliver made (shocking, I know), including the Seinfeld love.
It’s the best sitcom ever and both me and my best friend (both black) are avid fans.
And who EVER think Seinfeld was homophobic?
I’m kind of puzzled at what the behavior of Michael Richards has to do with the television show he appeared on.
In the best case scenario, nothing at all.
But can you watch The Naked Gun and look at OJ Simpson only as Frank Drebin’s hapless partner, or do you also see the Ford Bronco and years of sociopathology thereafter?
Seinfeld was OK, but The Simpsons is the best sitcom ever.
I watched both the YouTube rant and the apology on the Letterman show. I honestly don’t know how to feel about Michael Richards. Part of me feels sorry for him and part of me equates him to Mel Gibson, whom I do not feel a shred of empathy for.
I do think he is normally a very funny guy but I also think a professional comic ought to be able to handle hecklers better than that. I couldn’t, for example, picture one of those guys from “Whose Line Is This, Anyway” losing it like that. I just know they (any one of them) would shred the hecklers without resorting to anything commonly offensive, and have them laughing about it too.
I cringe when black people in low-paying jobs call me “sir.” It doesn’t just go against my egalitarian beliefs, it makes me remember when blacks were REQUIRED TO call whites by such terms of respect. I guess I do carry some form of white guilt around each day.
Nice blog.
My ancestry is 3/4 Eastern Eurpoean Jews and 1/4 Norwegian Lutheran (and boy, were my maternal grandmother’s parents pissed when they found out who she was marrying.)
When I was eight years old, my dad got remarried to a black woman (and boy, were his parents pissed when the found out who he was marrying) my stepmom now for 32 years. It is neither here nor there that I like her better than I like my dad.
In any case, growing up in a mixed-race family has always made me a bit of an outsider where race and ethnicity are concerned. I maybe tend to notice subtle racism more than most “white” people. But in being something of an adopted insider in a black family as well, – and the subsequent ease with which I have filled my life with a multi-cultural array of friends and lovers – I have learned that no one group has cornered the market on ignorance or racism or homophobia or general hostility toward the perceived “other.”
One hope for a more rational and inclusive culture lies in the growing generation of multiracial humans now proliferating across the planet. My youngest (half) brother is one. Here’s hoping that they teach us all a thing or two about humanity.
Come on. How can you put up with that????
Look, there is absolutely no excuse for that type of behavior. What is all this crap of white guilt? Is this somehow generating sympathy for whites? There should be white guilt. That is how we pay for our bad deeds. And it continues today.
I always make an effort to treat those I think are commonly misunderstood better than I would those which fit in with the popular anglo culture. There is no doubt a double standard when dealing with people of different class and the class can be easily viewed under the line of race.
Period.
NotBuyingIt, that’s just insulting frankly. You don’t need to act with deference to blacks because of something some long lost ancestor did. It’s ridiculous and childish.
I learned a long long time ago, on the west side of chicago, the north side of chicago, New Orleans, sw texas and lilly white VT, that trash comes in all colors.
Let’s see if I can fit in to this conversation. I am an active white anti-racist, who thinks guilt is a useless emotion, but also thinks that all white people who are recognized as such (whiteness being not biological or genetic but a social status) have some unearned privilege which they need to be aware of.
I know this sounds like rhetoric. You can see one kind of discussion along these lines at http://www.repartationsthecure.org
, where you will find a group of white people who support reparations for the descendants of African slaves. I don’t think we are guiltridden freaks any more than I thought I was a cowardly Saddam loving freak for opposing the Iraq war before it started.
Check out what Harriet Beecher Stowe said in the introduction to the 1878 edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin:
“There was a class of abolitionists in Cincinnati and the neighboring regions, but they were unfashionable persons and few in number …. they were regarded as a species of moral monomaniacs, who in the consideration of one class of interests and wrongs, had lost sight of all proportion and all good judgment……People who took the side of justice and humanity in those days had to count the cost and pay the price of their devotion.”
And it’s not a question of acting with deference to the past (though that’s not always a bad thing) but acting with awareness of what is really happening in the present.
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