the ones cultural sensitivity left behind: GOP edition

current republican party chairman michael steele, who's generally not one of the more irritating conservative blowhards, had an interview with chris sliwa on abc radio. now, if you've been following steele the past few weeks since he was christened with his new title by his GOP peers, you've no doubt been hearing a lot of crazy shit (bling bling in the stimulus?)

but this one...i don't know about this. the interview is focused on the party's so-called "hip-hop strategy". here's an excerpt i found striking, via ben smith's blog on politico.

sliwa asks steele about louisiana governor bobby jindal, who gave an extremely patronizing rebuttal to barack obama's address to congress last week:

SLIWA: now, using a little bit of that street terminology, are you giving him any slum love, michael? ... because he is — when guys look at him and young women look at him — they say oh, that's the slumdog millionaire, governor.

STEELE: i love it. (inaudible) ... some slum love out to my buddy. governor bobby jindal is doing a friggin' awesome job in his state.

*coughs*

this is ridiculous on so many levels, but let's try to point out a few.

first, who in the hell is referring to bobby jindal as the 'slumdog millionaire' governor? i don't really see how that works. oh wait ... he's of indian descent and the movie is about (gasp) people from india! and all indian people must be exactly alike!

in my personal experience (and i'm sure in the experience of many others) this just doesn't jibe. cultural heritage is something that should be appreciated, but it doesn't trump personal individuality. furthermore, jindal will never be a little cutie like dev patel.

plus, bobby jindal wasn't raised in the slums. he said so himself. didn't they catch his opening anecdote? perhaps chris mattthews' prescient comment before jindal began speaking prompted sliwa and steele to tune out.

(it's fair to note that jindal expanded on his narrative this past weekend on '60 minutes'. thanks to MM for giving me the highlights. it's easy to see that bobby jindal is what happens when assimilation goes horrifically wrong.)

not to be outdone, ann coulter decided to get in on the racist fun! she wrote a response to jindal's rebuttal adding in parentheses at the end of one paragraph:

wasn't bobby great in 'slumdog millionaire'?

so ann coulter only knows JUST ONE indian movie (we know her uptight ass hasn't seen 'kama sutra') and JUST ONE indian person. since her feeble brain is capable of making only the most narrow of associations, we can see how she arrived at such an imbecilic conclusion.

poor GOP. it appears their collective ignorance could be their undoing. we shall see.

ta-nehisi coates and the good folks at racialicious also have interesting takes on these comments.

if it smells like a chicken, and tastes like a chicken

it's a well-known fact that african americans LOVE watermelon! well actually, not really any of the ones i know. hmmm, now that i really think about it, we can pretty much take it or leave it.

but apparently since the conventional wisdom suggests watermelon is like crack to black folks, the mayor of los alamitos, california sent around an email with a picture of the white house lawn converted into a watermelon patch. the title of the illustration was "no easter egg hunt this year". now before you protest, the mayor claims it was all in good fun!

[Mayor Dean] Grose confirmed to the AP that he sent the e-mail to [Local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus] Price and said he didn't mean to offend her. He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

wait, unaware! now i'm just confused. if it wasn't meant to be funny in that horrifically distorted racial way, than where's the joke? no seriously. i have to plead ignorance on this. i just don't see the email forwarding value in this unless it's meant to be offensively amusing to your racist friends.

i'm just trying to understand this crazy world of ours...

UPDATE: turns out mayor grose resigned his post after the furor following the email fiasco. he'll remain on the los alamitos city council (if anyone cares).

UPDATE 2: so it's over for dean grose. he's now resigned the council seat as well.

did they try to mammify nell carter?

i recall a conversation a few years back with one of my old friends. at some point, the talk turned toward the 80s sitcom "gimme a break" and we joked how the show's creators basically took the mammy caricature and tried to apply it to the modern day. it's worth noting that the talented nell carter unfortunately died from heart disease complicated by diabetes in 2003.

the weird thing was, my friend and i developed our theory completely independent of the ego trip crew, who've been known for hip-hop geekdom and racial comedy. in 2004, vh1 aired ego trip's "tv's illest minority moments", which was one of the most eye-opening specials ever. given vh1's current line-up, that's mind-blowing.

we had "miami vice" detective tubbs not-so-discreetly addressing his partner crockett as "cracker." we had willona from "good times" as being a credit to her race. it was definitely an hour's worth of cackling.

but it's not on dvd! what the hell? if you haven't seen it, just hope upon hope that vh1 airs it again. i saw it in '07, so it's possible. better than watching "flavor of love" season 3453.

'the day of the geechee is gone, boy'

i recently rented "a soldier's story" since i haven't seen it since high school.

as soon as it came via netflix, i popped it into the television and watched it with a fairly critical eye. i couldn't help but imagine how charles fuller's script must have looked in its original form as a stage production. i loved how military rank paralleled the social hierarchy between the characters. and the cusp of change presenting both racial shifts and great opportunities was an amazing theme that pretty much resonates today.

but then, i watched it again. and now i feel like i've disrespected one of the most poignant stories about african americans told within the past several decades.

first, adolph caesar. oh...my. sgt. waters is definitely a great character. his sneer bordered on perfection and his assholishness was so visceral. sgt. waters has also introduced me to my new favorite verb: yassuh-bossin'. yes, it's spelled I-N-apostrophe. i took the meaning out of context, but it seems to mean some sort of grovelling to caucasians.

let's use it in a sentence! sgt. waters addresses cj memphis after having framed him, leading to cj's imprisonment (asshole!):

see, the black race can't afford you no more. there used to be a time, we'd see someone like you singin', clownin', yassuh-bossin'... and we wouldn't do anything. folks liked that.

and now unfortunately, i can't hear that term without doubling over with laughter.

also, pfc. peterson played by denzel washington. you have to love his defiance. he admittedly referred to sgt. waters as "stoneass" and was challenged by waters to a bare-knuckle brawl after questioning the sergeant's allegiance to his people:

i'm going outside to wait for you, geechee. and when you come out ... i'm gonna whup your black southern ass.

adolph caesar fighting the much taller, younger denzel? once again, i couldn't contain my chuckling.

goodness, looking at this script, i thought of the worst thing yet: the "a soldier's story" drinking game. a shot of rum every time waters says "geechee."

time for me to take a harder look at the struggle, i guess. as i do that, take a look at this piece of the racial harmony i so wish we could achieve.

'the big black country of africa'

i heard that quote at a party during the waning days of my collegiate life. a few girls had taken to mocking prevailing notions in the US of africa being one huge land mass with relatively homogeneous people.

apparently someone at that party took the sarcasm quite literally and came up with this shit here. thanks to my pal DPB for spotting it.

wowzer. there are so many directions one can take with these invitations. hmmm, let's start with the salutation. 'unga gawa ooba (you're invited to a cook-out).' seriously, i'm hoping that's a literal translation and not some bastardized version of this woman's notion of an african language.

and the outfits! actually, my polynesian brethren might be taken aback by this as well. grass skirts appear to hide the shameful genitals of these "primitive" folks, and the woman modestly hides her mammary glands behind some sort of spandex-looking tube top.

elongated necks! exaggerated lips! asphalt complexions!

so here's a question: if this invitation were in possession of a person perceived to not be of african descent, would it be offensive?

awww, you cold as ice, reezy

oh aaron mcgruder. how i lived to victimize you with my lovemaking.

for those that know me, i'm an incredibly huge fan of 'the boondocks.' the comic strip was genius. the show is one of the most brilliantly offensive things ever.

but after reading this report, it'll be incrementally more difficult for mr mcgruder to get at this.

i'm not a big fan of african-americans trying to quantify the so-called "blackness" of others who identify as african-american. in a sense, it can hamper one's individuality. and detailing such a rubric is damn near impossible, given the myraid of factors one has to consider. but that's just me.

come along and ride on a fantastic voyage

Humanity. It's a beautiful thing.

I'd love to believe there's a universal thread that runs through all of us and that on a very deep level, there's quite a lot that we all have in common.

But damned if we're not so fixated on our divisions. Especially ones along the lines of ... hmmm, RACE.

Generally a contentious subject (and I'm sure the heated debate on such issues isn't completely misplaced), I aim to look at the "lighter" (no pun intended) side of race and point out the absurdities, contradictions and hysterical bits that oft go overlooked.

Am I trying to soften the tone on a topic wrought with collective pain and misunderstanding? Not really. I get why people become emotional when race is raised in discussion. But let's be real ... there's some truly weird racial shit out there.

Plus, after this happened ... and this ... AND THIS, this stuff is damn near everywhere.

Such an unprecedented event threw all the country's (possibly outdated) perceptions of race issues into a tizzy. So this is perfect time to start re-examining our notions of race, I think. Just so happens it's also the perfect time for me to showcase my extremely rusty writing skills, in case I wind up in the freelance market (it's just one component of a multi-faceted plan).

This is a space to spark discussion among progressive-minded folks of various backgrounds. Hopefully I'll be able to eek out enough time to present topics in depth so the two people who'll follow this can walk around dropping knowledge at cocktail parties.

Also, please keep the vitriol to a minimum. It makes me ... uncomfortable (*shudders*).

With that, welcome.