Now comes Paris Hilton making racist comments. Is she, and people like her, a "racist"? Does she believe that black people have genetic factors that limit their abilities in comparison to others? Does she seek to deny any rights to black people?
Or, in some cases, does she merely employ this sort of language simply to say whatever will most offend the targets of her derision? "[She] vents about a run-in with a woman at the party, whom she describes as a “f*ckin’ hoodlum, broke, poor bitch from like, Compton – public school bitch.” And: "A male friend who dances in between them was referred to as a 'faggot' by both Hilton sisters."
And in other circumstances does she merely emulate the cartoon antics of hyper-popular R&B/Rap video morons? "Paris approaches the camera and laughs, 'We’re like two niggers.'”
In other words, how much should we be concerned by this? I have not witnessed this sort of conduct by honkies in the past 20 years. Had I witnessed this I would have been shocked and very upset, and would probably have made sure to say something that I thought would have equally shocked and upset the person making these comments. In the grand scheme of things, though, I think the best response in today's USA is to not get too worked up about an idiot like this.
I think that Paris Hilton is a detestable, talentless idiot who would be nothing without an inherited fortune (though without that fortune, maybe she would have developed into a decent person), and I hope that this development ruins her. Perhaps these comments indicate prevailing views of super-rich vacuous sluts; how much do they indicate the views of decent, respectable Americans who are honkies?
2007-02-02
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5 comments:
Paul, for the hundreth time, focusing on self improvement and putting an ignorant racist in their place are mutually exclusive.
If there were any blacks present when she uttered this slur, they should have slapped the crap out of her.
But of course there were no blacks present.
She wouldn't have said it.
Paris Hilton is an ignorant idiot. Her comment shows her stupidity.
What continues to surprise me, though I suppose at this point it shouln't, is tht Paul feins shock and dismay over the continued existence of such ignorance. Paris is just like those college students at Tarleton, UConn and Clemson. She just has more money.
All of those kids have been brought up to believe that the antics of Black folks is comedic and humorous. Why is this the case? Because the white folks who run the media allow more ignorant, minstrelish behavior to be portrayed than they do intelligent, thought-provoking Blacks on television and in the movies.
I just read an article about Eric Monte, the Black writer who created George and Louise Jefferson and Good Times. He fought tooth and nail with Norman Lear and the other writers on All in The Family and Good Times to ensure that positive Black images were portrayed by his characters. He quit his job as the only Black writer on Good Times when his Cooley High became a hit movie. Monte says he was tired of arguing every day at work over trivial shit because the white writers only wanted to portray minstrel Black characters.
White men control the corporate structure that determines what is seen and heard as American culture. Despite a growing number of exceptions, Blacks are still shown as gangstas, pimps, hoes, buffoons and mandingos (athletes).
This is what white people think Black people are. In many instances, because this is the primary exposure they are given, a lot of Blacks think this is what Black people are.
Call it what you want, Paul. I call it racism.
I call it racism also, Nadir. Your story about Monte -- well known to me, concerning a sentinel film in my life ("Cooley High") -- is a few decades old. Flipping channels today versus the 1970s is very different. The news channels very often have a black anchor "sending it over to" a black correspondent. A few channels cater entirely to black audiences with a variety of shows, even some non-mistrial shows. A good chuck of the programming featuring blacks appears via black programmers, directors, and producers.
As I assume you know, black audiences are devouring stupid black shows; they love them. No longer can we hold white folks totally responsible for the dumb black shows. Meanwhile, unlike in Monte's day, lots of non-stupid shows feature blacks, and even many black shows are non-stupid.
Last night I watched a net-flix film that I reckon just about nobody's ever heard of, "Feast for All Saints", featuring nearly an entire black cast. It was great. Approximately zero black folks bothered to watch it. Try to get a ticket for the next "Big Mama's House" installment; you won't be fighting with white folks, though, for a ticket. (Remember the time we went to go see a smart film at a black theater, and they bumped it for an extra screening of that Tyler Perry minstralry?)
I haven't seen "Feast of All Saints" which is based on an Anne Rice novel. Yes, it had a Black cast. I remember when it came out because I knew about the book.
I can honestly say that I never saw a trailer for the movie on television. I never saw a review. The only reason I knew about it was because I know about Rice.
So that means it wasn't marketed to Black folks. If we didn't know about it, we wouldn't go see it.
The minstrel garbage is what is marketed to us. I blame Bob Johnson of BET for this as well. He could have changed that, but chose to reinforce those stereotypes.
Black news anchors help, but not much when white news directors lead with crime stories about Blacks while ignoring stories about white crime or positive Black folks.
McDonald's has proven that if you give people junk food, they will consume it. The same is true with the brain. Americans are much happier with intellectual junk food than with real substance.
Your statement is that the market should be king. That's why we have a bunch of fat, lazy stupid muhphukas in this country. Or skinny, stupid rich kids like Paris Hilton who is a star because she is rich and who doesn't have any brains or talent at all.
Nadir: I put a note on Akanke's netflix about Feast for All Saints. It consumes two DVDs, and I am confident that you guys will like it. It is amazing, and I must credit Ann Rice for doing the story right. The only criticism that I have is that its only depiction of voodoo is not only negative, but negative to the extreme.
My studies indicate that voodoo deserves a great deal of admiration. I am sure that some voodoos were horrible people, but many more used it as a cover for abolitionist and underground railroad activities, as well as merely implementation of various African pagan religions, combined of course with catholicism.
In her story all of the placage relationships turned out horrible, and that's cool since that was the norm. But many worked well for both parties, and in some cases better for the black woman than for the honkey man. The famous voodoo priestess Marie Lavuou, for example, refused to enter anything but a real marriage, causing her white suitor to have his official "race" changed to "free man of color", and they lived together as husband and wife. In another famous case (involving the father of jazz originator M. Gottschaulk) the white man kept going bankrupt while his black mistress gained so much wealth that she bailed out him (and his white family) a number of times.
What I love about Feast (in addition to satisfying all the elements of good cinema) is that the black characters are all very rounded, many having negative and positive attributes. Some become full villains, others commit evil acts for understandable reasons and then repent, and many victims assert themselves and take control. The ending contains all black characters, and they have taken control of the situation. I doubt that whites occupy more than 10% of the film, and none of the major roles.
It is amazing.
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