"What if I got on stage and I said, 'Yeah, black people are like this. Muslims are like that.' You'd probably call me a racist, wouldn't you?"
And I say, "Yeah, yeah, I would. You should never do that. That's bad for your health."
| Jokes.com | ||||
| Kumail Nanjiani - Hey Kumar | ||||
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"This is about perspective, okay. [Straight white male Haley Barbour] simply can't have the same perspective of a black person who was living it daily, you know. And that's a major problem that we're having in America nowadays. People who are not a part of certain groups and minorities decide they can talk about that concerns those groups and minorities as if they know what they're talking about."
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Suspicious Behavior on Cinco de Mayo | ||||
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A racially-tinged advertising decision has gone awry for the movie "Couples Retreat."
Marketers of the Vince Vaughn comedy, which stars four couples in a tropical paradise, removed black actors Faizon Love and Kali Hawk from the promotional poster used in the United Kingdom after the U.S. version used all four couples. In response to outrage over the move, a Universal spokesman said the altered poster aimed "to simplify the poster to actors who are most [recognizable] in international markets."
While Love and Hawk aren't generally as well known as the film's other six stars, it's still a questionable motive. As noted in a 2007 New York Times article, American films with black stars typically struggle in the overseas market. According to the article, Will Smith, the undisputed king of the American box office, ranks no better than twelfth when it comes to ticket sales internationally. Simply put, said industry watcher James Ulmer, "The international marketplace is still fairly racist."
However, there's good news for those who believe the removal of Love and Hawk from the UK poster was racist: Universal issued a statement regretting any offense it caused, and the studio has scrapped all plans to use the modified poster in other overseas markets.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
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"In America, white is neutral. Now, for years, Band-Aids [sic] came in only one color: white person. It's standard person color. In fact, it is so standard, that when I was a kid, in Crayola boxes, it was the color called 'flesh.' Now most Americans accept this [Stephen points to the back of his white person colored hand] as neutral without thinking about it. And that is why the decisions made by all those white Justices were not affected by their experiences. Because their life experiences were neutral . . .
Now I'm sure Asians are neutral in Asia. And Africans are neutral in Africa. And Hispanics are neutral in Hispanica. But folks, it doesn't work here."
"Slavery was evil, there's no question about that. But you know what? If it hadn't happened, where would you be right now? If your ancestors hadn't come over here for whatever reason, where would you be right now? You'd be floating down a river in Rwanda in pieces. Or maybe you'd be chased down by machete-wielding Janjaweed militia in the Sudan. Or starving under Robert Mugabe.
"Hey, ingrates. Get on your knees. Kiss the American dirt beneath you. And, please, shut up."
- Jim Quinn, from the June 24 edition of Clear Channel's The War Room with Quinn and Rose
or, This post made me giggle and crystallized my disappointment in Justin Timberlake.
The Race™-Approved White Guys [Humor], by AJ Plaid and Fiqah.
[ . . . ] in an effort to make sure such a pop-culture faux-pas don’t happen again, we’ve composed a list of white guys who are deemed The Race™-sanctioned—any Black female performer can be seen with these white performers and know she’s doing right by Us™. Our criteria:
- We know they’ve dated, are dating, are married to, have and/or have babies by Black women. (Having Black or Black biracial daughters, adopted or biological, is an added bonus. ‘Cause, as some of us wanna believe, if the white guy can touch/sex up/adopt/father a sistah, they can not possibly be…well, you know the rhetoric.)
- They can actually have performing-arts skills. (This leaves out Kevin “K-Fed” Federline.)
- They’re famous in their own right. (This kinda sorta leaves out Gabriel Aubry. Some early men-watchers know him as a model. But many more know him for siring Halle Berry’s baby. If you don’t believe us, say Aubry’s name and “model.” Then say Aubry’s name and “Halle Berry’s baby’s daddy.” Record the results.)
- We get the 6th Sense* that they’ve been with sistahs but aren’t talking about it.
- We sistahs have sensed the sexual tension between these dudes and the sistahs on-screen.
- They’re not Justin Timberlake.
How did we communicate before Barack Obama? Oh yeah, through television.
Talk About Race? Relax, It’s O.K., by Sarah Kershaw, New York Times via Jezebel.
. . . over the last few months, both Mr. Rice and Ms. Knox, who live in Washington, have been struck by the slight easing of these examples of what psychologists describe as "interracial anxiety" between blacks and whites. That is because there is a now an omnipresent icebreaker: Barack Obama.
"There’s a more readily accessible conduit into the conversation about race if it begins with Barack Obama," said Mr. Rice, the executive director of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials — International, a professional law enforcement group. "In my experience over the last few months, it’s easier because it’ll begin with who he is, the differences between his parents, what he had to deal with." . . .
. . . "Before Obama, there was always this thing — 'He's a black doctor,'" Mr. Jackson said. “But now I’m going to be a physician who also happens to be black. That’s become the perception now, which is really nice." . . .
. . . On the morning after the election, Kristin Rothballer, 36, who lives in San Francisco, kissed her female partner goodbye on the train while commuting to work. A black woman who sat down next to her turned and said she was sorry that Proposition 8, the amendment to ban gay marriage in the state, looked like it was going to pass.
"We grabbed hands," Ms. Rothballer recalled. "And I said, 'Well, I really want to congratulate you because we have a black president and that’s amazing.'"
"Our conversation then almost became about the fact that we were having the conversation," she said.
Something moved her to apologize to the black woman for slavery. [Readers, do not do this.]
"For two strangers riding a train to Oakland to have that conversation about race, it wouldn't have been possible if Obama hadn't been elected," she said. 'I always felt open with my colleagues, but to say to a stranger on the train, 'Hey, I’m sorry about slavery,' that just doesn’t happen."
(Reference at 4:53.)
In case the video goes away, Russell Peters informs the Def Comedy Jam audience that some white guy (and his friends) in Boston calls black people "Mondays." Why? "'Cause nobody likes Mondays."
Which leads me to this article from Feministe: But some of my best friends are Canadian!, by Jill.
How about these racists stop coming up with labels like "urban" or "well-mannered" or "tall" to discriminate against black people, and instead use that wasted energy to better themselves and get a job?
