Harry Connick gets his Ghetto Pass--or rather just renews it. A hundred dark-eyed, Nubian princesses await him in heaven--or rather just state-side
On another note, I thought of Silvio Berlusconi watching this. Something should be said for the differences in American sensibilities. But that aside, I see this sort of thing and I actually feel bad for the offender. I find it hard to mad at Berlusconi, in the way I find it hard to be mad at a petulant child. In truth, I'm taken by pity--it's like watching a dude, who thinks he's funny, repeatedly make an ass of himself.
That's how I felt watching this--I felt bad for the dudes in blackface. It's like on some level these people are just walking around with a sign that says, "Look at me, I'm ignorant!" It's really sad.
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I still haven't forgotten Harry Connick Jr's role in the recovery during Hurricane Katrina and he deserves much props for this.
They had bee doing that routine for 20 years? Christ. Forget about it being offensive. They weren't funny, or good. And did the screen flash something that said a tribute to "Mark" Jackson? The point guard?
I've like Harry Connick ever since he was in Cheers. He represented really well there.
Harry's gotten a lot of play over this one but folks should remember that this is the same man who(with friends like Wynton Marsalis) started an integrated parade for Mardi Gras -- something different for 1990's New Orleans. And he made it into the city before the feds did after Katrina hit because he probably knows some short cuts. In short, the man obviously has friends who aren't exactly like him and the media finds his recent behavior fascinating. Anybody would stand up against something that hurts their friends so I don't know how many pats on the back Harry deserves for doing what any decent human being would do. I know that this is an anomaly after the summer of hate, but still.
TNC, your ability to find this behavior funny in the year 2009 is remarkably kind of you. Because of the internet and the speed with which one can learn about American stereotypes, I just don't believe that they intended this 100% as a joke. And as Australians, they know all about stereotypes of Aboriginal people so I can't give them a "they're just ignorant" pass because that doesn't cover the maliciousness of parading around in blackface.
I'm not surprised that Connick Jr. said something. I just like the way he said it. He might not deserve a cookie, but he does deserve a pat on the back because he represented our country well, and didn't come off as patronizing to the audience.
Also, I don't think TNC said he found it funny. Just that he felt pity.
Harry Connick, Jr. been done had a ghetto pass. I bet after a few drinks, you couldn't tell the difference between his voice and Lil Wayne's. I'm still confused/amazed by his spot-on Jesse Jackson impression.
Seriously, he represented America as most of us want it to be, not how it actually is right now--that takes balls, I think. We all know that "Red Faces" could have been done in somewhere in the US last week and we just didn't hear about it.
And screw feeling sorry for those idiots. They did this twenty years ago, and it wasn't cool then, either.
I had a really weird reaction to it, because at first it seemed like a subversive parody--what if you mocked white people imitating black people by doing "Michael Jackson" as if he were a 100-year-old minstrel show character? But then when the MJ "impersonator" came out, it was clear that it was simply a wildly unfunny drunken party routine that these guys had the bad sense to do on national television twice.
The idea that the U.S. has some unique cultural sensitivity about this is frankly scary. I've gotten the same excuse from German friends concerning the preponderance of bone-through-the-nose-"African" cartoon characters over there. Do you really have to be American to understand why that's offensive?
Apparently. All those dudes were Doctors. That doesn't mean they're not idiots in a different sense of the word, but they are educated.
Several of them are Indian.
Nobody gets a pass based on ignorance here. For anyone who calls this "just a joke", as I've read many times in the papers here in Sydney since this happened: OK fine, what's the joke then? What is it about what they did that was meant to be so funny? Spell it out for us, please.
And here's another thing. The guys who performed this act have admitted that they talked with the producers before they went on the air about whether this was appropriate. Amazingly, the producers said yes. And even more amazingly, these six educated fools didn't have the good sense to stop and say "If I have to ask..."
Ridiculous. I try not to let clowns like these idiots and the people supporting them get to me these days. I've got bigger race issues on my plate and I think we all do. I moved to Australia because the woman I married is a white Australian and as we get ready to start a family, issues of institutionalised racism concern me far more than rank ignorance or even overt bigotry. But the rub there is that stuff like this helps enable the system because it's so dehumanising. And the even bigger rub is that, as many on this blog have touched on, we've somehow created an atmosphere in which there are no racists, anywhere, ever (thanks TNC for that one. Nice) because the only image of a racist that fits in the minds of most white people is of a KKK member or some other raving lunatic.
So how do we fight "The Jackson Jive" but still make people see and acknowledge far more subtle -- and more dangerous -- examples of dehumanisation and institutionalised bigotry?
I don't know. Somebody tell me. Please.
Jesus. I can't believe some white people still find this kind of thing funny.
This line is hilarious btw: "A hundred dark-eyed, Nubian princesses await him in heaven--or rather just state-side."
Harry deserves that and more. He is super cool.
It's like every time I forget how much I dig the man, he does something to remind me. Handsome, anti-racist Southern gent who speaks like a Hot Boy? Sign this dark-eyed Nubian princess up!
I tried to keep his overall fineness out of my first post, lest I appear shallow. But you are quite right--he's one of those guys that a lot of ladies, uh, like.
And being able to represent the best principles of your country in a calm, level-headed, dignified manner--reminds me of someone. More Americans like this, please.
Seriously, he represented America as most of us want it to be, not how it actually is right now--that takes balls, I think. - BabylonSista
Be the change you want to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi
And sometimes... it works!
NBC's Today Show covered it this morning. You can find it online. It should be noted that Connick wasn't the one who rang the gong; it was another judge who also didn't like the act. I give Connick credit for calmly explaining the problem with this. Another part of the NBC segment is that Harry Connick once appeared made up as a black preacher on MADtv. Race-baiters are already using that appearance to dismiss Connick's objection on the grounds that it's the same thing and Connick is a hypocrite. But it's clearly NOT the same thing.
For what it's worth, (I've never seen the skit) apparently Connick's agent is saying in news stories that in that skit Connick played a white Southern Baptist preacher opposite a black man playing a the black Southern Baptist minister, so the criticism would not be applicable in any case.
The onion continues to get peeled. Now, apparently, it's "racist" for a white Southerner to parody white Southerner if the parody can be considered unflattering. In that sense, Will Ferrell's G.W.B. is "racist" because he's mocking traits that some Southern whites apparently consider integral to their personhood--ignorance, disfluency, machismo.
There is no identity relating to victimhood these guys don't covet. I'm looking forward to hearing how it's "homophobic" to pick on Republic senators for their extramarital affairs with women.
I watched the skit in question and if Harry was impersonating a Black southern preacher, then said Black southern preacher was surely "passing." No one could say honestly that Harry was impersonating a Black man.
Eh, this kind of thing is perfectly acceptable in Australia, at least with the majority of the population. We're talking about a country that points to the massive alcoholism problem among their aboriginal population as reason to defund the aboriginal schools and ban the sale of booze to anyone with brown skin. America's got issues with race (to put it lightly), Canada's got issues with the 'native' population, but Australia is just outright broken on this.
To be fair I don't think is quite the case that this kind of thing is perfectly acceptable in Australia though I wouldn't deny there is a population there that would see this as political correctness run amok. There actually is a general agreement this went too far and the hosts are being criticized.
True Aboriginal were treated poorly and in some ways even worse than the native Americans (e.g. the Lost Generation) but unlike the US which has yet to officially apologize for slavery the current Prime Minister and Parliament did issue a formal apology to the Aboriginals (yes jobs are better than an apology). No doubt there there are great sins and no doubt much progress needs to be made but I think it is a bit unfair to say they are outright broken on this.
Also remember that even post Prohibition, Federal Law prohibited the sale of alcohol to Native Americans until the 1950's so is hardly unique to Australia.
The U.S. House and Senate have both passed resolutions apologizing for slavery and segregation (in 2008 and 2009). A number of states have as well. While I'm not aware of a U.S. president issuing a formal apology, Bill Clinton did so informally in 1998 while touring Africa and a number of presidents have visited sites related to the slave trade (most recently, President Obama at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana).
I lived in Australia for 3 years. No, this kind of thing is not acceptable there.
National politicians still refer to the aboriginal population as "Abos" and get reelected. It's more acceptable than most Australians would care to admit.
Lefebre seems, to put it politely, uncontaminated with actual knowledge of conditions in Australia.
It is the case that some communities have restrictions on alochol consumption but the suggestion that there is a blanket ban on the sale of "booze to anyone with brown skin" is fantasy. I wonder if Lefebre has actually been to some of these communities - the difference between dry and wet outstations is phenomenal.
I'd be interested to know a bit more about these politicans who are re-elected after referring to Aboriginals as "abos" (for the benefit of Australian readers, formerly acceptable, now considered very offensive although perhaps not to the level of "nigger"). I'd be astonished if this is the case in 2009 but stand to be corrected.
And Berlusconi acts the fool on purpose, that dude is a canny bastard of a politician and businessman. Make the country laugh at you so they don't notice when you pick their wallet. Probably learned it from Bush.
Ha. Tell that to the Rossoneri on the business part.
Good on Harry Connick for calling them on it and not being afraid of offending his hosts. That said, Oz isn't the US, so the good doctors and the idiot producers of the show were being ignorant(in the truest sense of the word) instead of being malicious. Racist nonetheless, but reduces the magnitude of the offense in my opinion. As a black man who has been overseas, you can't assume foreigners know are up on American sensitivities. No, having Americans TV on blast all over the world isn't really helpful in transmitting what is acceptable cross racial behavior. The internet isn't much help either. God, I hope they don't get BET in Australia.
A different side of the man - He was on Letterman's show a couple of weeks ago. I am ashamed to say I had never heard him sing before. (go ahead - pile on. I usually listen to alternative and sometimes classical) I was watching with my 18 year old daughter and we were both blown away by his music. This story plus his work in NOLA - the awesome music is proverbial icing on the cake.
The un-funniness of those guys is Olympic.
They won't be in blackface, but the next time we see these guys will be on the Fox News Network. Maybe even "Good Morning America." Their 15 minutes starts now.
hey all,
I live down under these days, have for going on 3 years now. Sydney area. As you might expect, this has been a popular topic of discussion lately. I have to say that the reactions to the incident have had far more impact on me than the actual incident (although I am getting tired of seeing the black face images in screen grabs of that video above every link to a related story. enough already!).
To say that the general populous is leaning one way or the other on this seems false, based on public opinion pouring into radio shows and newspapers. That's hardly scientific, i know, but my less-than-casual observation sees it about 50/50 between being appalled at the skit and being appalled that anyone could possibly have a problem w/the skit. Some have called Americans "precious" for wasting time being offended by this.
Harry Connick Jr came up smelling like a rose here for many reasons, but most of all because all he had to do here was be himself. He wasn't trying to do the right thing or be politically correct. He just came correct naturally because that's what's in him.
On a tangent: Monty Python had the guys in blackface all the time. I remember once Eric Idle playing a Butler named "Uncle Tom" and speaking in a caricatured black American accent circa 1870 that, thanks to his englishness, turned into some weird accent never heard before or since on this earth. Now, Monty Python was 35 years ago and maybe Monty Python was doing it in the super-duper reverse under subversive way that some commenter above was talking about... but it sure didn't seem that way when I was watching it.
(Note: I am not in any way comparing the funnyness of these guys to Monty Python.)
Most American really have no idea how backwards Australia is. We hear about women wearing thongs and going topless at the beach and think it must be a sundrenched bastion of tolerance. Sadly, not so.
@ Ta-Nehisi
"I find it hard to mad at Berlusconi, in the way I find it hard to be mad at a petulant child. In truth, I'm taken by pity--it's like watching a dude, who thinks he's funny, repeatedly make an ass of himself."
I sometimes feel the same way.
And then I remember that guy who would embaress a frat party is in charge of an entire country.