The Racist Clemson Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day "African American Parody Parties" Outrage Part II: Racism vs Culturalism

Apparently "Paula Zahn Now," is CNN's Mountain Out of a Racial Mole Hill Watch. Its not really so much a news show, as it is a, lets scrape the bottom of the barrel to trump up some stories about how America is still a totally racist country, show. I'm not going to say that America ISN'T still a totally racist nation, because I'm sure large parts of fly-over-country actually are. But that's not really America. Its the Outback. Its the Amazon. If you starve to death in the Outback or get bitten by a tree viper in the Amazon, you could hardly have a show on CNN pretending to be outraged about it. I suppose I should concede that there are forms of racism and bigotry in every city in America, but I generally I think the playing field is pretty level.

****EDIT*** Here's a perfect example
Paula Zahn Now Promo

Anyway, without going into too much detail, I'll just say that every time I come across this Paula Zahn show, she's doing race stuff. The 1st audio bite that came out of my speakers today when I flipped through was a woman with so much make up on I couldn't tell if she was a pundit or a Barnum & Bailey act, saying, "this makes me ashamed to be white." They're admitting it on CNN now. What a shocking revelation people, white people feel really bad about bad stuff other bad white people did to otherwise good non-white people. This is news? Well I suppose it should be news that something so absurdly not-quite racist would make a white woman ashamed to be white. White guilt. Interrupt the regularly scheduled programs!

The thing about this show from the other random bits of it that I've seen, is that its so far not been stuff that's really that racist. It's kind of like, "oh my God, some kids racially stereotyped a depiction of some people somewhere."

"Oh my God, some senator from R-Tennessee is fighting to stop the removal of a confederate flag at the courthouse."

"Oh my God, some town in bumfuck has a mayor that arrested a black woman even though she didn't do anything." What an earth shattering proposal that small towns in Alabama actually have Southernerns running the goverment.


I'm not saying that of course the world wouldn't be a better place if it were truly color blind, because it probably would. I don't know however if things would be that interesting. XXX Horny Asian Sluts 5 wouldn't exist, for one. But I'm trying to come to a point. The distinction I wanted to draw today is that there is a difference between being racist and being culturalist. You really can't say that the majority of the parodies these Clemson kids enact are actually racially inherent. They are cultural motifs. Sure, there we're stuffed booties, but again, black culture, "has an affinity for large round buttocks and I cannot profer a falsehood, and few other brethern may deny such a fact, that when a gentlewoman strolls past with a diminutive waist and rotund object within close proximity to one's countenance, one gets sprung."

Thank you Sir-Mix-Prolific. The rest of these "offenses" or parodies perpetrated by white kids, have nothing to do with African genetics, and everything to do with African American Culture. You can call it "racism" or you can call it, "uh... pretty much the way things really are," to say that at least 51% of African American people that live in America, dress more like this:








Than like this:



Fuck, at least 51% of white kids dress more like that than like this.
So please don't call a parody of some retard with diamonds for teeth, a hub cab around his neck, multicolored denim shorts that start at the knees and end at the shoes, and a T-shirt that looks like a hoodless burka, RACISM. Its culturalism. Im not saying culturalism is okay or not okay, I'm just saying get your terminology straight because racism is a very loaded word. Parody and comedy in general is the best way to diffuse situations. Has Paula ever see the Chappelle Show for Christ sake? Or, sorry kiddies, In Living Color? I heard a story on NPR about a troupe of Israeli and Palestinian comedians who joke about the Arab/Israeli conflict and the successes and difficulties they encounter. They are doing it to bring peace, not to be fucking racist. One of their jokes:

So I was flying El Al and got up to go to the bathroom, and somebody was in it, but the door didn't say 'occupied,' it said 'disputed restroom territory.' A bad joke, but the point is that making light of stereotypes, which everyone knows are 98% true, can be healthy. I won't go so far as to say that what some of these kids did at these parties, dressing up in blackface being the most egregious, is healthy or condonable, but Paula Zahn, who really gives a fuck? Only people thatseemingly WANT there to be racial tension, like Jesse Jackson and apparently Paula Zahn. Anyone confortable with their sexuality or faith or racial disposition or whatever the category of parody may be, looks at these incident, smirks and goes, "What a bunch of morons. What's on the Comdy Central?"