A lot of people are uncomfortable with it because they’re worried other people will think they are racist. Are “we” so afraid of that? Eh. Some people are and some aren’t. I’ve never heard of anyone being called a racist for saying ‘oh, you’re looking for John? He’s the black gentleman wearing a white shirt, and his cubicle is on the left side of the room just past the coffee machine.’
For those who haven’t seen it:
Exerpt from The Office Diversity Day episode- Chris Rock routine relevant part begins at 1:50.
As a black person, it doesn’t bother me when people refer to a person’s race even if it isn’t entirely pertinent to the story. However, if the character in your “story” is the bad guy and you mention his or her race, I might feel differently. If you get a car accident or have a rude encounter with the cashier at K-Mart, what does it matter that the person was black/white/Asian/Hispanic?
I once hit a parked car. Instead of stopping the 15-passenger van I was driving, thus preventing the flow of traffic, I swung around the block and parked it in the parking deck and ran as fast as I could back to the scene. When I returned, someone had left a note on the windshield saying a “An African American woman driving a van just hit your car.” I let out a laugh, but it kind of pissed me off. Just what was the owner of the car supposed to do with that bit of knowledge? Go to the police with the note so that they could put out a APB on a generic black woman driving a van (minivan? conversion van? 15-passenger van emblazened with the school’s name?) Without the plate number or at least a description of the vehicle, the note and the mentioning of my race were both pointless.
Kind of the way I feel when I see Jeffrey Dahmer referred to as a “homosexual cannibal”, probably. Yeah… if he’d only been one or the other we could have handled it, but it was the combination of the two that sent him to prison.
Mike Goldberg: Forrest Griffin in the red trunks. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the black trunks.*
Joe Rogan: Why don’t they ever just say Quinton is the black guy?
*Wasn’t Quinton/Griffin where he pointed this out, but I couldn’t remember exactly who was fighting at the time. It was probably some undercard.
A small anecdote, if I may. When my son was in 1st grade, he came home one day and told us all about his best friend Jeremy. My wife at the time was a teacher’s aid, but couldn’t remember who Jeremy was. When she asked, my son said: “You know: he wears a purple shirt.” This was of no help, of course. On her next day in class, she asked the teacher to point out Jeremy to her. He was the only black child in the room. Too sad that that sort of innocence is gone so quickly.
White people don’t cite Ellis Cose or Cornell West simply because they never heard of them.
More people know about Chris Rock. That’s why he’s talked about more.
I don’t think “that sort of innocence” exists at all, or has ever existed. Kids can be goddamn mean, sadistic, prejudiced little bastards, and this is a straight up fact of life.
haha, you must one of the most uptight persons I have ever seen. Relax those sphincter muscles buddy…
That was actually funnier than when Chris Rock did it.
Please don’t make personal comments about other posters in Great Debates.
Also, Cornell West is kind of a doofus.
Yes, but they don’t necessarily arrive that way. Hatred is taught, whether by parents or other kids. He just hadn’t been told yet that he was supposed to hate people of color.
Which doofosity at least gives him name recognition, unlike Ellis Cose whom I’ve never heard of.
Turns out, Cose writes stuff on dead trees that get ground up and pressed into sheets.
I’d wager a good percentage of black people outside of academia haven’t either. More people of all colors would probably recognize Cornell West from The Matrix sequel than from all of his scholarly/academic writings and lectures and talk show appearances combined, and for me I’ll admit that Ellis Cose is a name I know but would have to google for exactly who he is/what he’s done.
Forgot to mention earlier: that was The Daily Show’s Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore as the speaker.
The fact that young children don’t automatically identify people by race-based physical differences to the extent that adults do doesn’t mean that children are sinless little angels.
It just means that they haven’t yet been conditioned to weight characteristics like skin color so much more heavily than other aspects of appearance in determining what somebody looks like. For kids, being the only kid in the room with dark skin is really not automatically more distinctive or noticeable than being the only kid in the room with a purple shirt.
(That’s not to say that children are oblivious to racial differences in appearance or can’t detect them, just that they don’t automatically prioritize them in describing people.)
Anecdotally, I think otherwise. In fact, my respect for him doubled after that. I do however realize what you are referring to – something similar happened when Prince refused to be Prince. No one really took time to look into the details and intrinsic lack of fair and just dealings - the event was only good for late night talk show jokes.
I have a different theory and it has to do with those who are creating the market of “socially irresponsible” comedy in which – I think – they presume about the target audience preferences – which is white. And it’s not just comedy, it’s pop music, most notably hip hop. I personally refuse to participate in that market but most people do, mostly because they think that if it’s on TV, it’s allowed. And nowadays, image is everything.
On top of that, Chappelle is a bad example - he is black and a Muslim. Just like Malcolm X. Who, I think, pretty eloquently described what happens to people whose history is destroyed - someone else gets to write your future. Think about it, one of the most influential persons – not just black American but in the World – who lived in last century and if you take his, or book about him, from library you get tagged.
I just think that there are two black American solitudes - one in the market created for white American consumption and another, independent, unknown, self-sufficient and, I think, happier. What is being discussed here is a typical white consumer perception but the stress is not on “white” but the “consumer”.
But, I digress…
Frankly I think Rock and Wilmore say a lot more sensible things about race, wrapped up in comedy, than Cornell West and his academic ilk ever seem to (in much the same way that Jon Stewart and TDS crew say more sensible things about politics and the media than the “serious” media do).
West is an occasional guest on Bill Maher’s show and he just babbles and chortles and calls everyone “brother”. Hopefully he’s more on-point in other venues.