short notes:
will brady's ruminations
will brady's ruminations
2007-02-08
controversy
...or not? Of late, a possibly former preacher named Charles Kripp has been making a fuss as Shirley Q. Liquor, an obese black woman reputedly "the mother of 19 chilluns."
I first caught word of this performer's act in the Hartford Advocate, which reported that people found it offensive, even racist, for a white man to go black face and play the role of a black welfare mother.
My gut reaction was to offer critical invectives, yet at the same time I wondered if I wasn't falling into the trap of casting aspersions and calling for CD-burnings of someone whom I'd never even listened to before.
So I went Shirley Q Liquor's website and took the time to hear out [if you would] Ms. Liquor's comedic rants.
I also googled both Shirley and Charley Kripp and got an odd range of material. Not surprising, there were many sites or articles, that spoke of boycotting Ms. Liquor/Kripp's performances. Racist, sexist, "...too much like a latter day minstrel show..." some of his critics say.
And, had I taken only one of his website entries to listen to, I might very well have thought the same.
Then I noticed RuPaul, another famous drag performer, coming to Shirley's defense. This gives me pause. But the real head truner was the curiously sensitive little monologue about homosexicals, making comparisons to American Blacks "not having any clear identity" to go by, and I have begun to think about Ms. Liquor in a different light.
From that point of view, I began to think of all the times that comedian Eddie Murphy has gotten away by portraying so many fat black big- breasted mammas that, and have begun to wonder how much serious thought might actualy going on to produce the act. Some counterintuitive stuff, whereby one mocks the stereotype only to try to get others to recognize the falseness of the stereotype itself. Is there anybody out there who can recall an outcry of protests about Mr. Murphy and his constantly negatively depicting African American women? I don't know of any.
I began to recall the stack of 45 rpm records that my father had of Redd Foxx. These were filled with self-depreciating humor that was used as a foil to come across with some gallows humor and some sly social comment. But Foxx was more genius and original and, frankly, underground. I don't get that from Kripp's few online featurettes.
So I don't know what to think.
I dunno. Maybe I'll have to clandestinely go to a performance in order to watch and learn more. Until then, I suppose my approach to assessment would, by necessitiy, be one of the men behind the gun. Just to find out and, as Ms. Liquor says, "To each they's own. I learned that from the Bible. Either that or the Enquirer."
...or not? Of late, a possibly former preacher named Charles Kripp has been making a fuss as Shirley Q. Liquor, an obese black woman reputedly "the mother of 19 chilluns."I first caught word of this performer's act in the Hartford Advocate, which reported that people found it offensive, even racist, for a white man to go black face and play the role of a black welfare mother.
My gut reaction was to offer critical invectives, yet at the same time I wondered if I wasn't falling into the trap of casting aspersions and calling for CD-burnings of someone whom I'd never even listened to before.
So I went Shirley Q Liquor's website and took the time to hear out [if you would] Ms. Liquor's comedic rants.I also googled both Shirley and Charley Kripp and got an odd range of material. Not surprising, there were many sites or articles, that spoke of boycotting Ms. Liquor/Kripp's performances. Racist, sexist, "...too much like a latter day minstrel show..." some of his critics say.
And, had I taken only one of his website entries to listen to, I might very well have thought the same.
Then I noticed RuPaul, another famous drag performer, coming to Shirley's defense. This gives me pause. But the real head truner was the curiously sensitive little monologue about homosexicals, making comparisons to American Blacks "not having any clear identity" to go by, and I have begun to think about Ms. Liquor in a different light.
From that point of view, I began to think of all the times that comedian Eddie Murphy has gotten away by portraying so many fat black big- breasted mammas that, and have begun to wonder how much serious thought might actualy going on to produce the act. Some counterintuitive stuff, whereby one mocks the stereotype only to try to get others to recognize the falseness of the stereotype itself. Is there anybody out there who can recall an outcry of protests about Mr. Murphy and his constantly negatively depicting African American women? I don't know of any.
I began to recall the stack of 45 rpm records that my father had of Redd Foxx. These were filled with self-depreciating humor that was used as a foil to come across with some gallows humor and some sly social comment. But Foxx was more genius and original and, frankly, underground. I don't get that from Kripp's few online featurettes.
So I don't know what to think.
I dunno. Maybe I'll have to clandestinely go to a performance in order to watch and learn more. Until then, I suppose my approach to assessment would, by necessitiy, be one of the men behind the gun. Just to find out and, as Ms. Liquor says, "To each they's own. I learned that from the Bible. Either that or the Enquirer."
UPDATE: The owner of Hartford's gay club Chez Est announced yesterday that the club was cancelling Shirley Q. Liquor's engagement.
Labels: comedians, drag queens, race-bating, stereotypes
¶ 00:22 0 comments
2006-05-05
immigration | borders
For what it's worth, this is where I stand on immigration ~ legal, illegal or otherwise. I believe that borders create false barriers of privilege. That they allow for some [such as comfortable, well-fed, over pampered spoit brats with privilege and a grossly distorted sense of entitlement] to believe they are actually better than others and somehow blessed to be given more of the jackpot than most 
other people. You know, the Newt Gingriches, the Paul Wolfowitzes, Rush Limbaughs, Ken Lays, Bushies and all the screaming syncophants that have made Rupert Murdoch's family billionaires as they falsify the truth and call it news.
I believe that as long as there exist some illusory Londons whose streets are paved with gold, then others, less well heeled, shall make an effort to get to improve thier own odds at getting richer. Why shouldn't they?
Let's face it, if we go back far enough, geneologically speaking, we're all immigrants, even [well, maybe especially] yahoos like the free agent vigilantes who call themselves the Minutemen. Not content to suffer from historic amnesia about white boy privateers stealing land and natural resources from Native Peoples in the western hemisphere [they probably didn't read the same history books that George W Bush didn't read] they get on the case of ridding America's shores of ferrign speakin immigrants... [and to hell with how much the iceberg lettuce costs next year] when they need to learn that all of us, as humans, are in this planetary mess together.
A sad fact that, until the majority recognize that borders only cause problems for everyone, exepct the rich and hyper-rich, then those borders shall, stupidly, remain.
Do I think dropping the borders can be done across the planet painlessly? Hell, no! But we gotta start somewhere. And, much as I am loathe to admit it, the big boys of globalization have helped the tearing down the border process. If we are all lucky, our new planetary borderless society will be the downfall of the Walmart and ExxonMobil people. Corporations, after all, being merely individuals like the rest of us.
other people. You know, the Newt Gingriches, the Paul Wolfowitzes, Rush Limbaughs, Ken Lays, Bushies and all the screaming syncophants that have made Rupert Murdoch's family billionaires as they falsify the truth and call it news.I believe that as long as there exist some illusory Londons whose streets are paved with gold, then others, less well heeled, shall make an effort to get to improve thier own odds at getting richer. Why shouldn't they?
Let's face it, if we go back far enough, geneologically speaking, we're all immigrants, even [well, maybe especially] yahoos like the free agent vigilantes who call themselves the Minutemen. Not content to suffer from historic amnesia about white boy privateers stealing land and natural resources from Native Peoples in the western hemisphere [they probably didn't read the same history books that George W Bush didn't read] they get on the case of ridding America's shores of ferrign speakin immigrants... [and to hell with how much the iceberg lettuce costs next year] when they need to learn that all of us, as humans, are in this planetary mess together.
A sad fact that, until the majority recognize that borders only cause problems for everyone, exepct the rich and hyper-rich, then those borders shall, stupidly, remain.
Do I think dropping the borders can be done across the planet painlessly? Hell, no! But we gotta start somewhere. And, much as I am loathe to admit it, the big boys of globalization have helped the tearing down the border process. If we are all lucky, our new planetary borderless society will be the downfall of the Walmart and ExxonMobil people. Corporations, after all, being merely individuals like the rest of us.
THANKS TO: Love and Rage for finding the t-shirt |
Labels: anti-hate, immigration, race-bating, racism
¶ 00:48 0 comments
