Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

Two examples today. The first comes from a Spike Lee interview in Playboy. You can read about it here.

Key bit: “I just imagine hearing some country-and-Western song over a loudspeaker at NASCAR: 'Hang them n-- up high! Hang them n-- up high!' I'm not going to no NASCAR,” Lee vows in the August issue of Playboy.

I’m confused. I thought Spike Lee was against stereotyping groups and applying individual characteristics to large numbers of people. However, further review shows he wasn’t wearing RCL’s, Mr. Dymally’s or otherwise. Reports indicate it is actually his skill as a filmmaker that allows him to “imagine” things like this. But how can I respect Lee or his films when he has shown himself to be a racist and a bigot? The mote. The beam. Blah blah blah.

Then we have poor Nader, who went to an exciting meeting, which I heard about here. As the editorial “We” noted, even without the F-word, pointing out the whiteness of Nader seems strange. Congressman Watt somehow determined that him telling Nader not to run is an example of an “arrogant white man telling us what we can do.”

Use your imagination, my little angels. If whites had been saying these sorts of things about African-Americans, figurative bolts of lightning would have blasted down on them from all over. Just ask Trent Lott.

So what can us crackers do? What defense or recourse do we have? Well, when faced with a problem, one guide for action might be to look at others who have had similar problems. Let’s see, can I think of anyone in the world, attacks against whom are downplayed or ignored, and whose restrained efforts at self defense are condemned? All I can think of are the Jews. And that would make African-Americans comparable to Palestinian terrorists. Ooops. No. I can’t say something like that. It’s unfair, bigoted, and stereotypical. What’s more, I’m not allowed to say something like that. After all, I’m not an African-American like Spike Lee or Congressman Watt.