The headline in the NY Daily News: "Man in 'SCREAM' Mask shoots two in Washington Heights following night of Halloween mayhem."
AND
"Five shot - including a 14 year-old boy - and three stabbed."
Meanwhile in broad daylight, Al Roker and the gang put on their Halloween outfits.
Er, wait a minute, Al.
YOU are the guy who declared it "is a terrible person to even suggest that it is Ok for a white person to go as a black character for Halloween." Thus, your co-worker Ms. Kelly was FIRED from her, what, $15 MILLION a year job?
Anyone out there want to lose their job, even a $15,000 a year one, because of one sentence? Kelly didn't actually dress up in blackface.
Meanwhile:
OH.
He's Christopher Lloyd from a stupid sci-fi comedy. Only Christopher Lloyd is white.
Wuttup, homey?
“I’m going to say this one last time, but the folks who get it, understand and the ones who DON’T, won’t,” America's weatherman tweeted:
“I can be Doc Brown, and I wear the outfit and wig and not change my skin color if you’re white, you can be President Obama if you want. Just don’t color your skin!”
OH?
Is that why Fred Armisen, a mixed race guy, was forced to STOP playing Obama on "Saturday Night Live?" He was replaced by Jay Pharoah, who is 100$ black. Except...Obama is NOT 100% black. Obamama's mama was WHITE.
Gee. It gets confusing, Al. Doesn't it?
OK, you don't need an NBC weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
It blows out your ass. It blows out your mouth. Yours and everybody's. EVERYBODY has some opinion on what IS or ISN'T OK.
Larry Wilmore, once a "Comedy Central" late-night comedian, said to Obama, "Barry! You did it, my nigga!"
This wasn't said the day after the election, in the midst of excitement and joy. It was years and years later. BUT, as a few black guys said when they "schooled" Bill Maher, it's OK for a black to say "Nigga." Know wuttum sayin'?
This isn't an official rule, though. Is it? Is there a "Little Black Book of Rules and Regulations?" Who would write it? Most black people dont like NIGGA and they don't like NIGGER. You know, just as there are Italians who cringed when Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra called each other "Wop" and "Guinea" on stage. Or made fun of Sammy Davis Jr. all in fun. Sammy doubled over in mock laughter and helplessness. Actually, in retrospect, he felt that was the wrong reaction.
ANYWAY...
Let's briefly talk about the shades of gray here. Is it OK for a Halloween white boy to dress up in a plastic "Black Panther" super-hero mask? Hmmm. Was it ok for a woman who "identified" as Black, and went to a tanning salon, to walk around being Black? Nope, she got fired. Had she identified as MALE, cut her hair short, worn men's clothing, etc., she could've used the men's room. No problem. Hmmm.
Should white OR black people dress up in Native American costumes and Pilgrim costumes, to recall the days when these two ethnic groups sat down for Thanksgiving? Guess not. White and black people are NOT the red people. And probably none of them are actual descendants of the Pilgrims, either. FOR SHAME!
Recently, straight actors and actresses have been banned from playing transgender roles. How dare somebody who is ACTING not BE what they are pretending to be?
Come to think of it, Boris Karloff's skin wasn't really green when he played Frankenstein's monster. He wasn't really dead, either.
Somehow, Al Roker, who was much funnier when he was fat (oops, is that fat shaming or fat praising) is now sourly making up rules to live by for other people. He's part of the witch-hunt mob, isn't he? He didn't say, "Wait a minute, I didn't say FIRE Kelly," did he? But maybe he just didn't like Megyn Kelly because she was a bitch. (No, no, that's anti-woman.)
When I was a kid, little black kids wore the same cheap stupid Woolworths masks most kids did. If they chose to be BATMAN or SUPERMAN, did any white weatherman shout "NO" at them? Of course not.
What's wrong with a black kid wanting to dress up as Superman, back when it was George Reeves everybody knew, or Christopher Reeves, or any others. Or when Adam West was Batman or Michael Keaton.
Is Al Roker saying that the Wayans Brothers were disgusting and racist and wrong for making an ENTIRE MOVIE where they dressed as WHITE WOMEN and made fun of WHITE WOMEN?
Say, Al, do you think we should ban re-runs of "Mary Tyler Moore Show" episodes because Valerie Harper played a Jewish woman and ISN'T ONE? Oh, and definitely ban "RHODA" from syndication, too? It could happen. We have people howling with anger about these things. Johnny Depp barely got to play Tonto in that bad "Lone Ranger" movie, but insisted there was Native American blood somewhere in his druggy veins.
Some in America (and other parts of the semi-free world) say "Be what you want to be." Enjoy your fantasy. Live out your dreams. "IMAGINE..." And on Halloween, people imagine they are psycho killers, ghouls, and fiends. Nobody's saying, "Don't DO that."
The operative phrase is always "...as long as it doesn't hurt somebody else." Too much. I mean, insult comedy is very popular, and racist and sexist language in RAP is very popular, and Donald Trump's name-calling tweets are very popular.
Obviously anyone actually going out in blackface on Halloween risks the instant scorn and disgust of other people. Just ask Ted Danson, who appeared in blackface at a roast for his then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg. Goldberg thought it was funny. Others didn't. If this happened NOW, Danson would never work again.
So, Roker dressed up as a white guy from "Back to the Future." Maybe in the future, he won't be so quick to run his mouth if Fred Armisen plays Obama again. Maybe he'll say "it's ok," if a white Santa Claus appears in a department store in a black neighborhood. Maybe he'll say that some dumb blonde (oops, how offensive) opening a dialogue about whether blackface at Halloween is ok or not, should not automatically be fired. SHADES OF GRAY.
In fact, do we even spell it GRAY? Billy Joel didn't.
I quote from his song:
Shades of grey wherever I go
The more I find out the less that I know
Black and white is how it should be
But shades of grey are the colors I see....
Save us all from arrogant men, and all the causes they're for
I won't be righteous again.
I'm not that sure anymore.
Al Roker is sure. But maybe he's just a bit self-righteous and arrogant sometimes?
Shades of Gray.
Shades of Grey.
No comments:
Post a Comment