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I think we can all agree that this has (well, the past couple of weeks...hell maybe this year) has been a difficult one. Things have been said that cannot be undone - even on this website. People have showed their ass, and the phrase 'forgive and forget' seems to leave a bitter taste in our mouths.
A couple of days ago, I wrote a post on Serena Williams and Kanye West over on my blog. Before these two incidents of "bad behavior" there was Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst and later, last Monday night, "Tea Party" leader Mark Williams lost it on CNN when it was revealed that despite his consternation that people were calling the Tea Party organizations racist, seemed to think he was perfectly just in calling President Obama a Indonesian Muslim and a welfare thug (damn, you can go to Harvard on Welfare? Become the President of the United States? I gotta check that...).
But that's not racism, is it? Because white people can't be racist unless another white person says they are. Like President Jimmy Carter. And hell, even then a white person...or in this case, the White House can refute it and then we can all go back to our merry lives in denial and self-imposed ignorance. Free at last!
But some white folks don't like the fact that Carter shared his opinion. Here's a (very scary) comment from Hot Air:
This “racism” business is not off-the-cuff idiocy by a deranged anti-semite and supporter of terrorism, it is a planned and orchestrated campaigne to radicalize the American electorate and incite political violence.
By morphing political dissent into racism it makes hatred of political opponents not only acceptable but lauditory, thereby radicalizing democrats. It also provokes a strong backlash among dissenters, thereby radicalizing conservatives.
Violence is certain to follow.
The next demonstation in Washington will surely be larger and angrier than the last. Radicalized leftists will show up, shots will be fired and the ball will be rolling. Dissenters will be “enemies of the people” and everyday Democrats will cheer their incarceration. The American Republic will collapse as darkness descends on the continent.
Jimmy Carter knows exactly what he’s doing.
Mr. Obama nods in agreement.
Now, while Kanye - whom to be honest, nobody really cared about his previous media-whoring escapades, jumping on stages and pulling temper-tantrums when he didn't win awards, until he embarassed a white female country singer. He did not pull a racist act (even though some opinions will differ) and people were justifiably annoyed, but I was still disappointed when a number of hashtags appeared on Twitter, such as #Kaynenigger and #Kayne_is_nigger. So, let me get this straight...it's not okay for a black or person of color to accuse people of racism but it's okay to do it yourself? On the other hand, there was a swift action by primarily black Twitters to block all attempts at these people from "friending" them.
Yesterday, a man was arrested after he allegedly beat a black woman in front of her daughter a restaurant, calling her a "black nigger bitch" for um...asking the man to 'watch it' when he opened a door to a restaurant, nearly hitting her daughter. I just watched CNN and Rick Sanchez interviewed her, and - yes, I know, he is doing his job - actually asked her if she thought he punched and kicked her because she was black.
As part of the Toronto International Film Festival, I attended the Gala screening of The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and my bad week got worse. Sure, I saw Nicolas Cage in the flesh - he's taller than I imagined, and more importantly, I saw Director Werner Hertzog whom I greatly admir(ed), as I had caught a few of his films.
But the movie? It was awful. Bad acting, weak writing and while Hertzog applied his signature weird 'artistic' touches in the form of hallucinations of Iguanas (don't ask) it didn't work. It was instead confusing and lame. However, a bad movie is a bad movie, but what bothered me was the audience response to the scenes of blatant racial stereotyping.
Granted, I walked in knowing that when you are doing a film on New Orleans, you are bound to see things that you don't really want to see, but what I was disappointed was the uproarious laughter when the stereotypical images of black people came on the screen.
