Reply #46: well geez whiz.... [View All]

[mythyc]

If Chris Rock said that Obama looked like Curious George, he'd get huge laughs.

If some cracker says it in a bar, it is a hate crime.

it's not so black and white as you're making it out to be.

First, no one's said anything about a hate crime, so you're being hyperbolic. this delfates the real issue in my opinion.

Second, Chris Rock would not say Obama looks like Curious George. Actually that's besides the point. Intent and context are everything. Were he to, Chris Rock is an established and well-respected and LEGITIMATE cultural and social commentator, particularly on matters of race. I'm not going into his credentials---that would be ridiculous and if you contest this we're on different pages. His intention would not be to make fun of, to express fear (I don't buy your argument above about the t-shirt maker's "which is absolutely disarming" comment--- it's in the tone, it's in the need to repeat, and it's in the absolutist way of dismissing even the possibility that people should be offended by this. do you have any black friends? play them the clip and tell them they don't have the right to hear that man fearing and deriding them), or to creat strife against the other. Maybe Norman's original intent wasn't either (gee, really, sell 100 t-shirts to be worn publicly all over Georgia?), but the moment he saw there was strife he not only refuse to acknowledge the offense he caused to others, but became more adamant that his point of view was not only the only right one, but the also the only one that mattered.

Third, a comedian on a stage does not equate to a cracker in a bar. I've read your other posts and know you're a reasonable person and thinker, and both logical and ethical for that matter, so either you're playing devil's advocate here or you're too insistent in your opinion to acknowledge the severe apples and oranges here. Besides the fact that this guy is the owner of this bar, and uses its message board outside to voice neoconservative taunts, he is not a professional comedian, and nor does he have a grain of cultural, social, political, or street cred to make this kind of statement equate anywhere in the same universe as the term "commentary" -- Chris Rock's domain. What you've done with your life measures immensely into the messages you make, the opinions you voice, and ESPECIALLY, how you publicize these. You want to argue on other grounds, like his ignorance, his superciliousness, his maladjusted sense of humor, his misplaced good intentions (donating the money), maybe even not as harmful intentions meant, you'd have a little bit of ground to stand on here, but there is no comparison to chris rock. none. it's an absolute fallacy to assert one, and i know your reasonable and conscientious enough to be above that.