Trouble in Paradise (Part One)

A healthy sign, indeed.

Of Chris Rock’s stint as Oscar emcee this past weekend, La Shawn writes:

Rock is his own man and what he says or does is no reflection on me. But I’m embarrassed by his behavior, his very persona, nonetheless. His antics are the sort that should make a mother bow her head in shame that she’d raised such a fool. [SNIP]

Under Hollywood’s de facto affirmative action policy, this is what they come up with. Such behavior would be unacceptable for anyone else, but when a black big-mouth does it, people snicker. They’re not really laughing with him; they’re laughing at him, but he’s too busy clowning to the know the difference.

They couldn’t find a dignified black person, one who exuded grace and charm, for the occasion? Or one who wouldn’t dream of playing to the stereotype of the ignorant Negro in a monkey suit, loud and obnoxious, profanity spewing out of his mouth?

And Solomon responds:

Yes, he's obviously a reflection on you. Why? Cause you demonized him because of his blackness! Your embarrassed because he is black and you are black. Like Chris Rock is "bringing down the race".

Well, guess what? They’re both right. Wait! Don’t accuse me of not wanting to tick off two people whom I consider on-line friends just yet. ;-) A while back I wrote this:

[A Jewish lady] mentioned a familiar phenomenon. She said that when she hears a news report of a human misbehavior, she always hopes that said human isn’t Jewish. Well, guess what? Every single time that some nitwit kills a bunch of people, rapes anyone, or just generally screws up, nearly every black person I know will say to self: “Please don’t let that fool be black.” (Too often, our hopes are in vain.)

So when a public figure who happens to be black repeatedly demonstrates that she is just really not that smart and really not that nice, black people cringe, even rugged individualists like yours truly. We do this because we know that there are still some who erroneously hold black people like [US Representative Sheila]Jackson Lee [D-TX] up as an example of our alleged across-the-board inferiority and incompetence.

It’s a fine line that the black individualist walks, especially in his/her own mind: part idealism and part realism. On one hand, we want to be accepted for own personal merits and justly derided for our own personal character-flaws, without having to deal with the “you people” accusation. On the other hand, we know that many of our fortunes ride on perception in the minds of others, based on the behavior of those who share our skin color. Thus, when we see black people exhibiting behavior of which we disapprove—especially in front of millions of people—there’s a part of the black individualist that wants to shout, “hey, that ain’t me!” nonetheless.

But Cobb, channeling that other Solomon, has hope for the future:

There will soon come a day in American history when it will be clear that everything blacks promised each other and the world will come to pass and simultaneously become irrelevant. There will soon come a day when the actual Negro Problem will be forgotten. It will be renamed and redefined of course. Some minority within the minority will claim the stage and continue to shout while the overwhelming majority will have gone home. But all of the symbols and signs of struggle will seem odd, clunky and distant - like what fingers look like after a day of picking cotton. Like the adjective 'cotton-picking'.

When that day comes, the ability for people to represent black desire will be indistinguishable from their ability to represent human desire. It will be the day everyone recognizes blackfolks as humans. Today, there are lots of folks on both sides of the color line who can't, because that fixed thing that is Black, that Negro Problem, still substitutes for the actual real complexities of actual real people.

Comments

[Fred Schoeneman]

Interesting thoughts.

f

[Joatmoaf]

I know you`re well read and well versed, so I`m just wondering, have you read this article by Deroy Murdock?

Even if a person weren`t conservative and took the politics out of it, the list of accomplishments of blacks in American society is impressive to say the least.
It also lays out some of the uphill battles that were encountered along the way.

I did a post on it a couple of days ago, but the article itself is much better.

[teal marie]

Cobb is so wise. That future day he speaks of is right here in your readership. We do accept you on your excellent merits. In my case your merits are: Military experience, first and foremost. Conservative Adult Female, expects her guests to behave. Hip, lots of inside info. Humor, well, I've always liked your sass.
Deride you for your "flaws"? With your permission? That bothers me and I don't like to see it. But that's your business.
I didn't watch the Oscars, reruns of C.S.I were on Spike channel. >:-)>

[DarkStar]

Nice post.

[baldilocks]

TM: Where ya been, girl?

Darkstar: Thank you, sir. :-)

[Steve H.]

Rock slays me, but he's flawed because he hasn't outgrown his liberalism. Yet.

He can be funny without being dirty or offensive.

[DarkStar]

but he's flawed because he hasn't outgrown his liberalism.

The problem with the use of liberal and conservative is that most people throwing around the labels, have no clue what they are throwing about.

Other than being in show business, what gives you the impression that Rock is a liberal?

[Lambert]

Don't worry Juliette, for every Sheila Jackson-Lee there's a Patty Murray and a Barbara Boxer. I don't think any race has a corner on the 'dumb' market.

[teal marie]

I've been watching C.S.I. I cant get enough and there's another episode in 4 minutes.
Actually I'm trying really hard to be a good president for my neighborhood improvement association. This means I have to follow local politics and its one shocking revelation after another. I had NO idea! Its like national politics distilled. Exhilarating and disillusioning at the same time. If that's a word,
BTW I watched La Shawn on MSNBC today. She did great. I wondered if you have been approached. Military angle plus female blogger. I'd like to see that, even if I happen to accidently clap eyes on Ron Jr.

[Meep]

This reminds me of a passage in the Dickens novel, =Our Mutual Friend=. A Jewish character, Mr. Riah, is talking to a friend about why he quit his job with a debt broker... I'm paraphrasing (I don't know where I put my copy): "It's not the same with us Jews as other people. When a Turk or a Greek does wrong, people say 'That is a bad Turk.' or 'That is a bad Greek.', but not so with us Jews."

Now, Dickens writes this long after his novel =Oliver Twist=, where he was taken aback by the reaction of his Jewish friends to the character Fagin. Dickens uses grotesques heavily in all his novels, but he did not realize that people might generalize from one Jewish character to all Jews. And so Riah was created to balance his earlier portrait of Fagin. Unfortunately, Dickens goes as overboard with good characters as with evil ones -- Riah is unnaturally good. I think you can compare that to various movies where various minority groups are represented by characters that are unwaveringly saintly.

[Carridine]

From my youth, I recognized the one-way character of those "you people" accusations. They were negative, designed to criticize and back-bite.

I mean, we never heard "You blacks, always going around serving as Secretary of State!" or "You blacks, making whites and blacks alike laugh about 'Noah' and then earning a Doctorate in Education!"

Me? I swore off 'you people' a long time ago. Gimme humans any day, instead of 'you people'. :)

[Solomon]

Your right, it is a fine line that the black individualist walks. But Chris Rock just doesn't look like a minstel to me. One thing about slogging through the cesspool of humanity, as I did in a gang, you see the stark realities of person in vivid detail. You see the light when it is shown in someone. And Chris Rock has that light. He is being genuine, not foolish.

I hate how we are so quick to label. I spent half of my life labeling, reacting to those labels violently, and look where it landed me: bleeding to death in some funky alley and luckily being saved (but ended in prison anyways). Strong labels on a person that hasn't exhibited the behavior is wrong.

[DarkStar]

Chris Rock ain't a liberal. You can tell that by his commentary in his stand up routine.

But it's easier to not think and put a label on it, than to stop and think, even for a minute.

[baldilocks]

Agreed, Darkstar. Rock's abortion schtick--taken so drastically out of context by many--and his black misbehavior routines show that he's not afraid to tackle uncomfortable subjects or have different views than those that might be termed 'liberal.'

As for his anti-Bush routines at the Oscars, I didn't see them. But I suspect that, as a professional comedian, he knew his audience. One question: was the routine funny?

But, funny or not, poking fun at presidents has a long tradition. Rock took a couple of jabs at liberals too, including Tim Robbins, as I noted in my Oscar post. I tuned in when he was giving props to the troops. I clapped.

[LibraryLady]

Believe me, I understand. I am from Lebanon, although I left in 1967 when I was 17, and everytime there is some terrorist activity, I die a thousand deaths. When the Oklahoma City bombing happened, I heard it on my car radio and had to pull over, I was so sure it was a stupid Arab terrorist, not a home grown guy. On Sept 11, I wanted to die. My husband was an Army officer for 30 years and I worried everytime he had a security clearance, that my background would hurt him. Sometimes it seems we can't be judged just on who we are.

[baldilocks]

Thanks, LibraryLady, for giving us some perspective.