BTW, I think it’s completely natural for 5 year-old kids to be interested in eachothers differences, and want to touch things like different looking hair, so long as their isn’t a double standard it’s cool. Black 5 year-olds probably touch blondes’ hair too? I have no idea.
But deliberately sidestepping an issue and exhibiting a level of tone-deafness that borders on trolling isn’t? It’s not as if several people haven’t already carefully explained how and why he’s wrong, so how exactly do you let intentional obtuseness slide? Continuing to treat it as sincere ignorance is the real insult to one’s intelligence.
There are several things here that are problematic in this post which I won’t get into now. Suffice to say, I don’t agree with your assessment and this is not the thread to discuss it.
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I ask this as someone who has only skimmed this thread, but has anyone mentioned the fact the fact his daughter is one of the few people of color in her private school is in itself suggestive of a systemic racism? Of course there is no explicit prohibition against black people at this school. But the fact that centuries of economic privation and discrimination – still ongoing – has been a structural barrier to African-Americans attaining the wealth to receive private education (which in turn leads to more opportunities for wealth in the form of connections, better education, et cetera). You can say that the kids are touching her hair just because it is “different”, but why is it recognizes as different in the first place? This is what people mean by calling it an example of racism, in the sense that it exists as part of a network of sociological phenomena that are interconnected and thus hard to disentangle. Analyzing racism as a problem of inner subjectivity avoids the greater problem at hand.
Isamu, I initially completely shared your impression that despite what Bell said he was not blaming individuals. Reading his reaction to the cafe incident I am not so sure, but assuming so I stand by my initial reaction that he made the point very poorly.
To clarify, no I did not recommend talking to the teacher. I included it on the list of possible actions that I could come up with. I am sure more brainstorming would come up with more … like teaching all children to respond to unwanted touching with a loud “PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH MY PRIVATE BODY!” … What are the possibilities and what are the likely results of those actions? Not fair for me to say which action is worth what outcome. My guess was that the one chosen by Bell, over his initial impulse, was likely the best one. No doubt what action is the best one balancing cost of doing vs long term gain is going to vary by every specific circumstance.
FWIW one of my sons was in Japan for four years and I heard the same thing from him. His language ability was no doubt not as good as yours but same that he was on more than one occasion clearly established to be able to speak Japanese in a basic fashion and that the Japanese-American person with him could not and nevertheless it was the Japanese-American person addressed.
Bone, I agree with what this, but I think you would benefit from the excellent sociological documentary Good Hair (Chris Rock).
If someone had also created a film documenting the role of butt holes in American racialized culture, then your overall argument would have more merit.
Yes, there are, ahem, films that, ahem, touch on these themes…but I wouldn’t quite call them documentaries per se… 
Ruken, I think you would enjoy/get a lot out of this film as well (maybe you have access to Netflix or the like). It certainly opened my eyes.
Yeah it’s funny at first but gets tiresome really quickly. 
I agree. Not for me to say either. But he certainly did get people talking didn’t he? 
If he he’d taken any other action would it have been as effective? I doubt it.
And I have to ask - do you think he said what he said because he was being in some way a bit precious or because he was really frustrated?
Well my impression is that either he’s honestly frustrated or his whole public persona is his being “precious”.
Now I admit I have limited experience with his material. I went to that talk promoting his book and began reading it (as buying a copy was part of the price of admission) but I found the first chapter’s writing style to be essentially unreadable (possibly an attempt to capture his stand-up performance style with all short sentences, many beginning with “But” and “And”) and thus did not get far. I might pick it back up and see if he better as he goes or if I can adapt to the style.
Nevertheless my impression based on what I’ve seen is that he is not trying to be precious. Trying to be funny, yes, but not precious.
Extending that my impression is that his priority is being a comic and that looking at identity issues and -isms, expressing his honest frustrations, is the schtick he’s found works for him and has found him an audience, much much more than that he is using his comic schtick as a tool in service of the raising understanding of the issues. And that is fair but leaves me with a sense of missed opportunity.
That’s just my impression of course.