June 29, 2008

"'My name is such a vanilla, white-girl American name,' said Ashley Holmes of Indianapolis..."

"... who changed her name online 'to show how little meaning "Hussein" really has.'"

She's one of those young Obama supporters who've adopted "Hussein" as their middle name.

I assume they see themselves as good-hearted and idealistic, but:

1. How did you become estranged from your own name, to regard it — as opposed to yourself — as vanilla, white, female, and American, and to think of that combination in a negative way?

2. Why do you think the name "Hussein" has little meaning and that people who have that name appreciate your demonstration that is has little meaning? You're propagating the idea that "Hussein" is a dirty word — associated only with Saddam Hussein — that ought to be deactivated by repetition, as opposed to an honorable name within a respected tradition.

IN THE COMMENTS: Pelkabo said:
Hilarious. The photo, and the entire story, are right out of "Stuff White People Like".

Don't these kids realize that what they're doing makes them appear even whiter?

So true. I added the link to SWPL.

MORE IN THE COMMENTS: XWL said:
My first thought at the photo atop the NYT article, 'That's totally Obambacrombie & Fitch'...

83 comments:

AllenS said...

I've been thinking about changing my first name, Allen, to Algonquin.

In memory of Algonquin J. Calhoun, who was a character in Amos and Andy, played by Johnny Lee .

AlgonquinS. I'll keep the middle name.

George M. Spencer said...

Those wacky teenagers!

Inshallah, they will engage in the traditional flagellation ritual of zanjeer zani for Ashura. Let us see them flail themselves with chains and knives.

I predict this will be big in midwestern fraternities.

(P.S....Does this mean the end of the baggy pants/exposed underwear fad?)

Kev said...

(the other kev)

Meh.

As dumb decisions go, it's easier to fix than the tramp stamp she probably already has.

AlgonquinS said...

What'd ya think?

Unknown said...

Well considering that half of your commenters think that Obama's middle name disqualifies him from being President, I admire what the kids are doing.

Let's face it - for bigot America, "Hussein" as a middle name is a deal-breaker. For those on the borderline of bigotry, the more they come across the name - the less it will be an issue for them.

And Ashley Holmes is a whitebread name. It's pretty obvious that her parents had zero creativity and were just followers.

Mrs. Davis said...

AlgonquinS,

Makes me want to sit down for an hours long lunch with you and Ann and all the regulars.

Ann Althouse said...

"And Ashley Holmes is a whitebread name It's pretty obvious that her parents had zero creativity and were just followers."

1. The last name is already determined. No reason to exhibit creativity there.

2. As for the first name: How much parental creativity should mark the new human being? Why should you impose your self-expression a baby individual? Ask all the Rainbows born of hippies if they like their name.

AllenS said...

I'm glad my middle name isn't town.

john said...

This phenomenon was last observed in the 1997-1998 period with the rush of name changes to Monica.

David Foster said...

Reminds me of this story from the Commanche conservative Bad Eagle (David Yeagley).

Daryl said...

#2 jumped out at me, as well. I thought liberals were supposed to be tolerant and sensitive to other cultures.

Just wait until his supporters find out that Obama really was registered as a Muslim when he was a student in Indonesia, and that he really did pray to Allah as a child . . .

I would have no problem with him if he was honest about it ("they tried to make me a Muslim, but it didn't stick"). Instead, we get lies from the Obama campaign and from major newspapers.

It's sad when emailed internet rumors have more credibility than articles in major newspapers. That's the natural result when journalists decide to take up a gatekeeping function instead of reporting facts.

Christy said...

I've always believed that if our name was undistinguished our challenge was to work hard to make it proud for the next generation.

The Grey Man said...

Actually, this young lady may be on to something.

I think I'll change my name to "Anybody Else" and get on the ballot for President in all 50 (or is it 57?) states.

Picture your ballot:

Barack Obama

John McCain

Anybody Else

I'll win in the biggest landslide in history.

David Pinto said...

My last name is Pinto, and I wanted to name a son Ford, but my wife wouldn't hear of it.

Cosmo said...

Answer to question #1 should be easy Ann, since our education system, entertainment industry and cultural institutions have spent decades inculcating this sort of self-loathing.

downtownboy: Your tiresome form of bigotry is no less offensive just because it happens to be fashionable in certain circles.

AlgonquinS said...

Let's get creative:

Ashley Holmes to--

Mortgaged Holmes
Foreclosed Holmes
Abandoned Holmes
Rented Holmes
and the best one:
downtown Holmes

Meade said...

I wonder if Ashley Hussein Holmes is any relation to Larry Hussein Holmes, the former heavy weight champion.

And will McCain supporters counter with, for instance, "Ann Sidney Althouse III?"

Crimso said...

"Let's face it - for bigot America, "Hussein" as a middle name is a deal-breaker."

His Marxism (however inauthentic it may seem to the "true" Marxists) and his apparent intention to serve Carter's second term are what breaks the deal. But I'm obviously racist, as I live in Tennessee.

Andrew X said...

These are children at play. Simple as that.

John Cunningham said...

A young woman growing up in Indy recently, if she went through public schools, has had 12 years of relentless indoctrination in the evils of America, the insanity of capitalism, and the filth of European culture. She has been taught that all cultures and religions are worth of respect and veneration, except American culture and Christianity. So a young Obama supporter has, in effect, already seen themselves, internally at least, as an "Hussein" or "Fatima."

otpu said...

To Naked Emperor:

Sorry, Sam Nunn-of-the-Above already tried it and it didn't work.

otpu

Ann Althouse said...

Actually, my own middle name is a man's last name. And my first name is extremely common as a middle name.

KCFleming said...

"How did you become estranged from your own name, to regard it ...as vanilla, white, female, and American, and to think of that combination in a negative way?"

Simple.
She attended American schools, and was taught by the anti-American left.
She watched anti-American movies made by the left.
She listened to anti-American songs sung by the left.
She read anti-American books written by the left.

Mission accomplished.

Better question is, how do so many people come out of that same cesspool with even a modicum of patriotism or sense of the very positive things that the US has accomplished in the world?

Nah. Better be like Michelle Obama and be proud of America for the first time in your lives.

MB said...

I thought the photo at the top of the article was the most interesting part. Three next to each other, two others slightly behind them...and to me it looks as though the groupings are based on attractiveness.

How they arrange themselves within their group tells me more about their values and maturity level than any of their quotations could have.

rhhardin said...

Your childhood street name is supposed to figure in, in creating a new name for yourself.

Fat Man said...

Hussein?

Insane!

john said...

Why do people here get so agitated about a group of Obama volunteers in a press release run in the NYT? None of these volunteers legally changed their names, but they certainly have created the appearance that they did, while stirring up a little weekend buzz for tAO*. Plus it gives the plantation bigots like DTL a convenient, if tired, jibe, and sets up a future excuse (bigoted Americans can't handle a black as president) if he loses in November.

*(their Annointed One)

Ron said...

Wouldn't Ashley Holmes be the potpourri-using niece of Sherlock Holmes? Not so much good for the detecting, but, hey, everything smells nice in her house!

Why not let people pick their own names as a Rite of Passage kind of thing? Maybe sell your name off, in a kind of branding! Marlboro Pop Tart -- that's a fine name, right?

paul a'barge said...

I'm thinking Ashley MUTT Holmes.

john said...

How do you do! Now you're gonna die!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xui3sLVgi7w

Pelkabo said...

Hilarious. The photo, and the entire story, are right out of "Stuff White People Like".

Don't these kids realize that what they're doing makes them appear even whiter?

Greg Toombs said...

I wanted to name my son Grant.

My wife disagreed, so we named him Alex. He says he likes it better, but we'll see.

I'm Full of Soup said...

The Dragnet theme comes to mind re Ashley Hussein Holmes.

It went like this...Dumb di dumb dumb.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Interesting that for examples of creativity/self-expression in naming babies, Ann jumps to the hippies.

"Ann" is derived from the Hebrew "hannah", which means "grace", not that she often displays the attitude conveyed by that namesake when it comes to perfectly innocuous decisions made on the part of others. Point being, that while her German forebears gave up on about half of their own common names (although certainly not for the reason that they would have been "whitebread") many that replaced them came from a foreign culture that was in no way their own, while simultaneously persecuting those of that culture who happened to live within in their midst. That is, while they weren't appropriating that culture's moral codes.

Observations like that kind of help put things into perspective when it comes to discussions as ridiculous as one that pokes fun at people for consciously contributing to removing the obvious stigma that accompanies Barack Obama's middle name.

Cedarford said...

'My name is such a vanilla, white-girl American name,' said Ashley Holmes of Indianapolis..."

"... who changed her name online 'to show how little meaning "Hussein" really has.'"


Bitch has to be blonde, not that all blondes are ignorant (see Blog Host), but it is such a blonde thing to do.

Obama was given the name as a specific Muslim middle name descriptor. In the Islamic world, as with Catholics, the middle name is important, it is a descriptor of religious identity. The Christian Orthodox departed and went away from saints as a name source to a signifier that the birth of the child was blessed by legitimate paternity, happening in the good graces of the Orthodox church. (Most Russians now understand the rest of the West tends to drop middle names in intros and are less touchy, but calling a Russian only by fore and surname is effectively calling him a bastard).

In the Arab Islamic world, there are plenty, or were until they were eradicated or cleansed - Christians or Jews with Arabic-Semite 1st names like Ibrihim, and last names in the "of a town or ancestor tribe" nature like bin Laden, al-Tikriti. But a middle name like Hussein is a dead giveaway that person was born Muslim. It has deep meaning.

And poor Ashley probably doesn't understand there is a strict line between male and female names in Islam, and no twits like her overseas ambling about in their hajibs or Burquas have a middle name of Hussein.

It gets funnier for the "We are All now Husseins!!" male dunces supporting Obama. Without his celebrity status, Muslims meeting some "Hussien Middle-named" liberals will presume the liberals were once Muslims and apparantly became Godless American apostates.

Muslims really hate apostates.

reader_iam said...

The very first thing I thought of was the auditorium/graduation scene in the movie "In & Out." Tried to find it online last night, but couldn't.

AllenS said...

Obama's middle name doesn't bother me at all. It does, however, seem to make him and his supporters uncomfortable to the point of not wanting anyone to mention it.

Chris said...

allens:

The name shouldn't make people uncomfortable at all, but FOX News is good at making people paranoid and think he may be a Muslim (not that his religion should matter in the first place). It's sad, really.

Elmer Stoup said...

Don't give your kid a stupid name!!

reader_iam said...

You'd think that with all the "Jesus's" running around in the world, we'd be awash in forgiveness, redemption and lovingkindness.

Wouldn't you?

Kyle said...

Allens, you make a poor point, given that we're discussing Obama supporters who go out of their way to incorporate his middle name into their names.

Another commenter, echoed by Ann, says the kids don't know they're making themselves appear more white. But who says the kids mind being white? That's your projection.

For instance, I don't see where Ashley complains about having a whitebread name. She just says her name is whitebread, and it certainly is. She's not trying to spruce up her name; she's trying to take the curse off "Hussein," which strikes me as a good project.

Why? Well, because a fellow puts out YouTube videos saying we can't have a president "with three Islamic names" and showing Obama's face morphing into that of Osama bin-Laden.

I mean, we can all agree that people shouldn't be prejudiced against Arabic names, right? No, maybe we can't all agree. Because, way at the top of the thread, we find george trying to turn the tables on the Obama kids by saying now they'll have to whip themselves "with chains and knives," as, in his view, all Muslims must.

Not a word from Ann about that, of course.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Cedarford's manichean, Muslims versus Christians worldview notwithstanding, such dualism does not seem to be where America or the world is headed, thankfully. The Greeks and Romans were so successful at taming the world specifically because they were tolerant of the cultures they conquered, and only mandated adherence to Greek or Roman cultural norms where they thought it absolutely essential. In return, instead of feeling constantly threatened or attacked, these cultures could be more easily pacified than they otherwise would have been, and ultimately sought to assimilate a surprising number of the practices of their conquerers' cultures into their own. This fact is evident when looks at how popular the name "Alexander" became, as did eventually a feminine variant, "Alexandra".

Cincinnatus said...

"Obama's middle name doesn't bother me at all. It does, however, seem to make him and his supporters uncomfortable to the point of not wanting anyone to mention it."

I believe you just hit the nail on the head there.

AllenS said...

Kyle,

I intended my comment to mountain urban legend. I should have addressed it to him. Two other commenters with fast fingers got in between his post and mine.

BJM said...

How long before a radical Imam seeking attention throws a fatwa on these dopes for dissing Islam?

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

It doesn't matter, Allen. I suspect Kyle and I are in agreement anyway. We seem to understand that although Obama's supporters don't think there should be anything wrong with his middle name, that doesn't mean that certain others, who might have voted for him, don't have some sort of "problem" with it. In fact, many do. That doesn't reflect poorly on these efforts by his supporters, but on the people who attach a stigma to it. Nonetheless, they still have to reach out to them and if what the story describes are attempts on their part to detach the stigma from his name, then more power to them.

Chip Ahoy said...

When the WTC collapsed the news stations ran the list of names in memorandum, it scrolled continuously for hours and could just as easily been a UN roll call. Watching that and reading the names left me impressed. This country is indeed an astounding mix. It even allows people named downtown penis breath.

Chip Ahoy said...

Incidentally, vanilla is a very complex flavor. It's a very poor descriptor for plain.

reader_iam said...

Given that a middle name causes such tizzy, I wonder how a presidential campaign debate in Dubai would grab people?

(Sorry. Couldn't resist.)

Chip Ahoy said...

If you take issue with Hussein wouldn't you also have a problem with Barak and with Obama? If you think people have a problem with foreign names in this country then you're too stupid to hold this conversation. Names of association, however are a different matter. I'd imagine a candidate named Nixon might have problem, presently, or one named Bush, and those names aren't particularly foreign. The problem you have with those supposedly lily white names would show where your own prejudices lie.

Chip Ahoy said...

I dare say, a candidate innocently unassociated with any previous prominent politician named, say, Rumsfeld or Cheney would find themselves prevented from ever being elected by our bigoted left. That right. I said it. By our bigoted left. The buddhist professor in the previous post proves what a problem that would be.

Ann Althouse said...

"Incidentally, vanilla is a very complex flavor. It's a very poor descriptor for plain."

Yes, and knowing that makes Ashley's quote especially poignant. She imagines that the things that define her are flavorless/colorless. She doesn't value either what she is or the culture represented by the name Hussein. Yet she thinks she is teaching a lesson to other people whom she sees as benighted. Since she's young, it's merely poignant and not genuinely pathetic.

a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...

Odd Ann, after a recent blogpost about 'seeing what Obama would do' though he had said something different, it seemed to me eerily Russian in it's attitude toward governance, 'the czar loves us' or 'Stalin knows' kind of thing, an autocratic kind of bent also reflected in an attitude toward notable leaders in a continent we can't name. It's going to be regressively non-Western if it occurs.

knox said...

Observations like that kind of help put things into perspective when it comes to discussions as ridiculous as one that pokes fun at people for consciously contributing to removing the obvious stigma that accompanies Barack Obama's middle name.

today's challenge: diagram this sentence

XWL said...

My first thought at the photo atop the NYT article, 'That's totally Obambacrombie & Fitch' (ignoring the obese young woman on the far right of the photo, A&F doesn't allow folks like that through their doors).

Sort of reminds me of this incident.

In delving into past Jodi Kantor articles, came across this 'open letter' from Rev. Wright to Ms. Kantor, which in light of more recent events, is unintentionally hilarious.

Salt Lick said...

Ashley -- Walk proud. It's no crime to be White and Nerdy.

Cedarford said...

MontantaUrbanLegend -

Cedarford's manichean, Muslims versus Christians worldview notwithstanding, such dualism does not seem to be where America or the world is headed, thankfully.

Given Islam's bloody borders, refusal of Muslims to assimilate in most countries they migrate to, and spread of militant Islam - wishful thinking on your part.

The Greeks and Romans were so successful at taming the world specifically because they were tolerant of the cultures they conquered, and only mandated adherence to Greek or Roman cultural norms where they thought it absolutely essential.

You clearly do not understand the history of Roman conquest, how conquered subjects were expected to follow Roman custom and law. Those that rebelled met most unpleasant fates, at times. The nature of Pax Romana.
As for the Greeks, they were hardly tolerant, being firmly convinced they had a far better culture and system of reasoning and civilization than the people they conquered. They pushed the Greek Way, just not with a sword as primary tool as was the "Muslim Way" or "Conquistador Way". They instead used force to restrain rebellion and opened up great prospects for natives who became "proper in orientation to the Greek civilization" to join the ruling elite. This was known as the "Hellenizing Impulse" and it was well documented in sorce writings. Act like a Greek, you move up in Hellenistic civilization - act like a Persian, or Syrian, or Hebrew - you will not rise in your life....


In return, instead of feeling constantly threatened or attacked, these cultures could be more easily pacified than they otherwise would have been, and ultimately sought to assimilate a surprising number of the practices of their conquerers' cultures into their own.

No, Alexander and his sucessors offered a good deal after they went in and thrashed serious ass. And while they preferred cooperative rule and compromise, the Hellenistic Kings and Alexander put down rebellion harshly and believed in enslavement and execution as much as the next despot, just not at Roman levels of crucifixion and genocide.

This fact is evident when looks at how popular the name "Alexander" became, as did eventually a feminine variant, "Alexandra".

Popularity of names means little in assessing how hostile or amicable a culture is to others, and the degree with which shared linguistic root names somehow reflect assimilation and common values.

blake said...

Since she's young, it's merely poignant and not genuinely pathetic.

If she's still "Hussein" in 20 years, it will have graduated to the pathetic.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who isn't Hussein at age 20 has no Hope. Anyone who's still Hussein at age 40 has no Change.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

"Given Islam's bloody borders, refusal of Muslims to assimilate in most countries they migrate to, and spread of militant Islam - wishful thinking on your part."

You are clearly not differentiating between the successful "assimilation" of Muslims in America and the less successful "assimilation" of Muslims in European countries here. Since there are many more European countries, you can obscure that distinction with terms like "most", but that doesn't mean such a distinction doesn't exist.

"You clearly do not understand the history of Roman conquest, how conquered subjects were expected to follow Roman custom and law. Those that rebelled met most unpleasant fates, at times. The nature of Pax Romana."

Custom and law is a fancy way of obscuring the fact that conquered subjects were, by and large, left alone to practice their own religions and adhere to other practices that were not deemed a threat to Roman custom. And where those practices were infused with local laws, but belonged to peoples deemed by Rome to be themselves "civilized", then the degree of autonomy granted was even greater.

"No, Alexander and his sucessors offered a good deal after they went in and thrashed serious ass. And while they preferred cooperative rule and compromise, the Hellenistic Kings and Alexander put down rebellion harshly and believed in enslavement and execution as much as the next despot, just not at Roman levels of crucifixion and genocide."

Here you go, once again, confusing political cooperation with respect for cultural practices. The fact that the Ptolemaic dynasty originally installed by and named after Alexander's military companion came to practice local Egyptian gods underscores this fact. Their most famous heir was Cleopatra, whose patron god was Isis.

"Popularity of names means little in assessing how hostile or amicable a culture is to others, and the degree with which shared linguistic root names somehow reflect assimilation and common values."

This is specious. First off, there is no agreement that the Macedonia that gave rise to Alexander was originally of Greek, let alone Indo-European origin. Second, the Mediterranean Semites he conquered and who eventually took to the practice of naming many of their children after him, spoke languages belonging to a completely different language family. That came about as a result of Hellenization, which was not a coercive process. Third, unless you know what "Alexander" supposedly meant in Koine Greek, there's no basis for laying out related roots that it would have replaced in Persian and Indian names, let alone Anatolian, etc.

Kirk Parker said...

"How much parental creativity should mark the new human being?"

Good question. Note that some European countries have lists of official names. Of course you can call your child anything you wish, but it can't go on the birth certificate if it's not on the official list.

Kirk Parker said...

"You are clearly not differentiating between the successful 'assimilation' of Muslims in America and the less successful 'assimilation' of Muslims in European countries here."

Didn't you leave out a "more" in front of the first "successful"? No one (maybe not even C4) would argue that we have less assimilation of Muslims than does Europe, but leaving out the comparative makes it sound like an assertion of complete success, which is not remotely plausible. (Just think of all the Sudden Jihad Syndrome incidents like the LAX El Al shooter, the Seattle Jewish center shooter, the guy back in NC or VA who rented a SUV and tried to drive over a bunch of his fellow students, and possibly even the Beltway "snipers".)

reader_iam said...

Meanwhile, Obama gets carded at the gym.

Palladian said...

"Incidentally, vanilla is a very complex flavor. It's a very poor descriptor for plain."

Exactly. Vanilla flavor is derived from the fruit of a tropical orchid, Vanilla planifolia. It only grows in places where the population is very brown and "diverse". The fruit of the plant as well as the seeds it contains are not white, but dark brown. Vanilla extracts contain dozens of different, complex substances.

It seems like Ashley Hussein Holmes needs to take some botany, chemistry and cooking courses instead of wasting her time on nonsense.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Ok Kirk. You can have your comparative: "more successfully assimilated".

blake said...

You know, she should've changed it to Ahsley Dupre Holmes.

And then gotten a tattoo.

Vero tutela valui possumus?

Anonymous said...

Ms. Ashley's reasoning seems to sum up liberalism: all things American and white are suspect, uncool, not worth defending.

As for Ms. Ashley's mind-numbing assertion that Hussein has "little meaning": the name Hussein is common among savages who wish to murder us (i.e., Muslims). That isn't conjecture or speculation. It is fact, although I suspect facts have little impact on the synapses in the Ashley brain.

If names have such little meaning, Ashley, may I suggest adopting "Ashley Hitler Holmes" ?

~ Sisyphus, www.tsfiles.wordpress.com

(A Juris Doctor and $2 will get you on the bus.)

Donna B. said...

I don't know what it says about me, but reading "Sara Beth Hussein Frumkin" just cracked me up.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Ashley Dupre Holmes! Good one Blake LOL.

Two nitwits named Ashley for the price of ???

former law student said...

Fellow old people, don't you remember this 50's meme? Forgive the turkish subtitles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOCsNrzlV2k

Slate's Juan Cole is wrong, btw. Barack [blessed one] is related to Hebrew Baruch [blessed one], not Hebrew Barak [lightning]. I made that mistake months ago.

Anonymous said...

I don't like, though, Pelkabo's comment that she sounds even whiter, which in turn makes him sound more obnoxious. Is "more whiter" bad? Not to me it isn't.

Kev said...

Greg Toombs said...

I wanted to name my son Grant.

Heh--good one. I have a friend with the last name of Walker who's an avid Star Wars fan. He swears up and down that his firstborn son will be given the name of Luke Sky. (I expect the future Mrs. Walker to soundly veto that idea...)

But I did go to college with a woman named Robyn Banks (seriously!), so anything's possible, I guess.

Pelkabo said...

I don't like, though, Pelkabo's comment that she sounds even whiter, which in turn makes him sound more obnoxious. Is "more whiter" bad? Not to me it isn't.

Each new post on Stuff White People Like attracts a hundred comments like yours from people who don't get the joke.

Here's a clue: they're making fun of a certain kind of attitude which, you have to admit, really is more common among white people.

Fen said...

they're making fun of a certain kind of attitude which, you have to admit, really is more common among white people.

Oh. They're just making a joke based on racial stereotypes. Why didn't you say so?

Anonymous said...

Oh!! The Unbearable Whiteness of Being!!

Roger J. said...

What a f##kig twit.

Knoxgirl: Is sentence diagramming even being taught these days? I still remember learing it from Mrs Zink, my 7th grade teacher. I thought it was more fun than Soduku.

As to the power of names: I have a friend who signs up for a restaurant table using the name Chuck Roast. The crowd reaction to the page for Mr. Chuck Roast makes it all worthwhile.

Pelkabo said...

Oh. They're just making a joke based on racial stereotypes. Why didn't you say so?

Did I forget to? Okay then, they're just making a joke based on racial stereotypes.

Is there something wrong with that? Are you implying that people like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Chris Rock are racist because a lot of their humor is based on poking fun at racial stereotypes? Funny, I don't see too many black people getting up and walking out of their concerts, even though probably 75% of the humor is about black racial stereotypes.

The funniest thing in the world has to be white people who play at being offended by humor that pokes fun at white people. Hey, we're going to get in on this victim thing too! Yeah, cause all those years that white folk have been oppressed by the man makes us sensitive to that kind of thing. Cry me a frickin river.

Fatmouse said...

"Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Chris Rock"

Did you notice that all those people are black?

75%? Hardly, maybe 50. The rest is directed towards whites. And let's list the white comedians that make fun of black stereotypes....


....


Double standard much?

howzerdo said...

Is Ashley a "white-girl" name? I think it was simply a popular choice 20-25 years ago. (Or is the "white-girl" part Holmes?) Among my undergraduates "Ashley" is one of the more common female names at the moment. Sometimes I have five (in a class of 30) with various spellings, and it is not uncommon for one or more of the Ashleys, Ashleighs, Ashlees, etc. to be African American, Latino or Asian.

Kev said...

I have a friend who signs up for a restaurant table using the name Chuck Roast. The crowd reaction to the page for Mr. Chuck Roast makes it all worthwhile.

One time in college, we had a very large group go to Bennigan's, and we left our reservation under the name of "Kegg." It was funny to hear the host call out, "Kegg, party of 12," and I'm sure it was even funnier to the other guests to see a big group of college kids materialize when that name was called.

Anonymous said...

First of all:
to all the haters, the fun makers, the unrighteous indignationers, the gigglers:
YOU LOST!!!! McLost'08!! McLost'08!! McLost'08!! McLost'08!! yah!!

Also:
you're deliberately distorting the Shakespearean point Ashley is making: "What's in a name?"

The attempts to make so much out of his middle name fits in nicely with the creationist tendencies most (but hopefully not all) of you have.
You see a thing (a complex universe, a middle name) and you immediately jump to a host of conclusions, without being bothered much by logic or facts.

Most reactions here I qualify as childish tantrum throwing, born out of a basic racist self-delusional belief that goes something like this: "Of course I think that black people are equal to white people, I just think that black aren't AS ready to lead as whites ..."


cosmo:
"tiresome form of bigotry is no less offensive just because it happens to be fashionable in certain circles."
1. what is he bigoted about? That Ashley Holmes is withbread? Gimme a break.
2. it's not bigotry if it's based in fact.
3. fighting your white bigotry (which is REAL fashionable in KKK circles) is NOT bigotry itself.

Calling white racists, racist is NOT racism. It's stating a fact.

blake said...

Wow, googleable really has its finger on the pulse here.

Anonymous said...

I'm just fed up with white victimhood: "Oooooh pity me, i'm white, I'm under attack from blacks who want a little less inequality! booohooo, now a man called hussein is taking my tax money!!! booohooo! but when it was used to kill just some more (500,000? Or just "hundreds of thousands"?) brown people in a far away land, I cheered and supported that tax move!!"

Statements that I love:
"Obama won JUST because he's black" (because black politicians have such an easy life, right?)
and
"They treat him like he's Jesus" (of course he is NOT, but after evil bush, he certainly SEEMS like a godsent ... ;)