Monday, January 24, 2005
So . . . what are you gonna do about it . . . WHITEY?
I remember the real shock of OJ was not that he was let off . . . although that was a bit dispiriting, yes. It was really over the differences in the white-black reactions the country had. People seemed very taken aback by the strength and clarity of the distinctions.
Now I'm not one of those yapping heads who insists things are as bad today as when the KK were stringing people up on tree branches back in 1932. That opinion seems a bit irrational to me. But I don't think things will get a whole lot better for a while. I think it's kind of like the rebound of an ugly fight. At first there is a lot of silence, then a long period "holding period" of touchiness in which the two parties are too nervous about stepping on the other's toes to live normally (or at least the guilty party acts this way).
Here's my litmus test:
1.) Watch a rap video including any lyrics or imagery of guns, "bitches"*, getting said guns or "bitches", and any sort of discussion or presentation of what happens with said guns or "bitches".
*Feel free to replace "bitches" with any other derogatory reference to women.
2.) Imagine said video was conceived, produced, and directed all by white folk.
3.) Would the popular media jump all over the white folk for being racist, modern-version D.W. Griffiths who see black culture as nothing more than sex-crazed, money-obsessed, violent, subjugating thuggery?
If yes, we're still in the holding pattern.
Now I'm not one of those yapping heads who insists things are as bad today as when the KK were stringing people up on tree branches back in 1932. That opinion seems a bit irrational to me. But I don't think things will get a whole lot better for a while. I think it's kind of like the rebound of an ugly fight. At first there is a lot of silence, then a long period "holding period" of touchiness in which the two parties are too nervous about stepping on the other's toes to live normally (or at least the guilty party acts this way).
Here's my litmus test:
1.) Watch a rap video including any lyrics or imagery of guns, "bitches"*, getting said guns or "bitches", and any sort of discussion or presentation of what happens with said guns or "bitches".
*Feel free to replace "bitches" with any other derogatory reference to women.
2.) Imagine said video was conceived, produced, and directed all by white folk.
3.) Would the popular media jump all over the white folk for being racist, modern-version D.W. Griffiths who see black culture as nothing more than sex-crazed, money-obsessed, violent, subjugating thuggery?
If yes, we're still in the holding pattern.
