Quote from a character in a novel about race-reassignment treatments, reviewed in the NYT here.
One day Kelly meets a familiar-looking black man. This turns out to be his old friend and bandmate Martin Lipkin, a Jewish guy who has undergone what he calls “racial reassignment surgery.” Inside, Martin always felt black.Alternatives to reading that novel:
1. Read "Black Like Me," the bestseller that seared America's conscience in the early 1960s.
2. Or — from the same era — read this short piece in Jet magazine:
3. Select something from Wikipedia's incredibly long "List of entertainers who performed in blackface." I picked Doris Day:
4. Listen to Lou Reed sing "I Wanna Be Black" one more time.
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36 comments:
I too want to be black, and collect my reparations.
Did I miss number 3?
Y read "Black Like Me" when I was a boy and it had a huge influence on me. Today, the author would be attacked as "inauthentic." No white man could ever understand Crack.
Black man either if he had any sense but that is another topic.
"Did I miss number 3?"
I had another one but it was taking me too long to find the links I needed. Sorry I failed to renumber and thanks for pointing it out.
Fixed.
I recommend George Schuyler's "Black No More," a science fiction/social satire novel published 1931 by a black writer of the Harlem Renaissance, about the impact of a medical treatment that makes black people appear white.
Another bone thrown.
To whom I wonder?
Lou Reed: always overrated.
"I recommend George Schuyler's "Black No More," a science fiction/social satire novel published 1931 by a black writer of the Harlem Renaissance, about the impact of a medical treatment that makes black people appear white."
Okay. I found it here and have added it to my Kindle.
This is similar to the additional item that I was looking for, which was something Derrick Bell wrote much more recently.
I recommend the South Park episode, "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina," in which Mr. Garrison undergoes sex-change surgery, Kyle gets a "negroplasty" (so he can play basketball), and Kyle's father gets a "dolphinoplasty..."
I found it here and have added it to my Kindle.
Cool. I hope you find it entertaining, or even provocative.
Gender and race are what we want to be, so I'm a black/Asian native American female.
Robert Downey Jr. played an actor in "Tropic Thunder" called Kirk Lazarus, an Oscar winning Australian method actor so committed to his craft he underwent "pigmentation alteration" surgery to darken his skin for his portrayal of the black character Sergeant Lincoln Osiris.
Well now I want to know what the fifth one would have been!
There's also Ursula Le Guin's SF novel, "The Lathe of Heaven," which contains a subplot in which everyone is converted into a composite race with light grey skin.
Gad, blackface seems so bizarre now doesn't it? Yet, not that long ago it was commonly thought in show biz that hell everyone likes a good 'ol minstrel show - ya can't miss!
What on earth went through their minds when they blacked up?
I'm convinced that my weary journey through life would have been considerably lessened if I were a dead ringer for Brad Pitt. (I just can't tell you how annoying it is to be always mistaken for Robert Redford).....Likewise, I feel I would have enjoyed sports a great deal more if I had some of Michael Jordan 's physical coordination.....My only real gifts were a durable back and good health. I suppose a white skin also gives me an edge in certain situations, but I never experienced it to be much of a trump card......There were minor aristocrats at Versailles who went through life resentful at the slights they endured at Court. But the fact was they lived far better than the other 95% of the population who lived at the subsistence level......I suppose I have a little less stress in my life than the average black, but that same black has far less stress in his life than the average Liberian or Haitian. Here at Versailles we should all count our blessings.
Robert Cook said...
Lou Reed: always overrated.
He had two good songs, which is two more than I'll ever have.
Drago,
"Another bone thrown.
To whom I wonder?"
That guy racists, like you, insist is "killing the comments!"
It's like a negative image of slavery:
Now poor Ann and Meade have to feel bad - in front of me - because of their shame some whites can't learn.
I get to make the sad eyes, assure them it's O.K., I understand, but - hey - at least the cancer didn't get to them, y'know? Freeman Hunt and her family were spared. Tg. There's others. We can make a new America, no problem. You'll see. And, with reparations, crime will go down and people will move so poverty won't be concentrated, etc. It'll be nice.
If we keep re-runs of Duck Dynasty on the air for the white supremacists, they should stay pretty "happy" as far as I can tell. Hell:
If they stay as clueless as usual, they might miss the whole hand-off from inattentive binge-watching,...
May I add to your racial reassignment literary list the superb South Park episode, season 9, episode 1, Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina, which mocks race, sex, sexuality, species, and anything else possible to reassign.
Census: Almost 10 Million Americans Changed Race
http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/Census-Changing-Race-10/2014/08/06/id/587315/?promo_code=164BF-1&utm_source=164BFGateHouse_Media&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1
"If we keep re-runs of Duck Dynasty on the air for the white supremacists, they should stay pretty "happy" as far as I can tell."
Crack is a work.
I was on the fence until the above quote. No-one says/believes such stereotypical, stupid things like that with a straight face.
I started looking through the Wikipedia listing. I saw Fred Allen's name, but it says something like "attribution needed"- in other words, they have no proof or record of it, but threw it in anyway. I read down to where it cited Eddie Cantor as "primarily blackface performer" and I shut it off. Whoever compiled that list is full of shit.
Crack: "It's like a negative image of slavery.."
LOL
You've already admitted to being totally cool with the enslavement of african girls in Africa by muslims.
You've already admitted to being totally cool with the enslavement of african in Africa by Africans
FIFY. He has no qualms with the ongoing slave trade in Africa.
Crack's biggest complaint about the ongoing muslim/black enslavement of blacks in africa is that he's not getting his fair share.
You just know that there were members of cracks ancestors who helped enslave blacks.
It's why crack spends so much time deflecting.
He knows he's guilty.
This deflection is a sickness really. Typical of many black oppressors of other peoples of color.
In fact, if you gave crack half a chance, he'd be cannibalistically chowing down on other africans like so many african leaders do.
Typical again. Sadly.
The only thing stopping crack from such activity here in the civilized west is that if he did do that he would be thrown in jail.
In Africa, if you're a black leader capable of munching on your political opponents, your likely to be elected president of the country.
I wonder what that tells us?
I remember in 2nd grade, my principal put on black face and emceed a minstrel show. 65 years later, it still gives me the creeps.
Read "Black Rednecks And White Liberals" by Professor Thomas Sowell.
I read Black Like Me as an assignment in the 6th grade. I had difficulty understanding some parts of it, like when men asked the author if he had a sister. I asked my teacher why it was bad to ask someone if they had a sister. He didn't give me a clear answer. It wasn't until years later that I realized the men were looking for a prostitute. A concept my 6th grade mind (thankfully) didn't comprehend.
Regarding "blackface". In 1960, when I was 17, my school put on a play called "The Last Mile", a prison story about death row inmates who take over the cell block (pretty dark for a high school drama club). One of the characters was a Black prisoner. It was central to the part that he be Black. But we had only two Blacks in our school at that time, both were too young and too small to play the role, and weren't interested anyway. So a white guy was cast, and put on dark make-up and (as I recall) hair dye. A couple of days before opening night, someone discovered that our State had a law against "blackface" performances. So were we breaking the law? The school consulted someone and the conclusion was that "blackface" meant the stereotyped Black minstrelsy make-up (such as modeled by Doris Day). It didn't prohibit legitimate use of make-up to portray a (as we then would have said) Negro. That still seems right to me. So the white actor, Stuart Whitman, in "Black Like Me" was not a "Blackface" performer, but Doris Day was. Louis Armstrong is a whole different category.
Eric, don't forget your Pigford settlement money.
And, with reparations, crime will go down and people will move so poverty won't be concentrated, etc. It'll be nice.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I've decided to identify with my cheekbones and go full Cherokee.
You white people need to face up to what you did to the native americans.
Pay me money. For all the land you stole. For hundreds of years of exploitation. For the Trail of Tears. Pay me now.
With reparations, crime will go down and people will move so poverty won't be concentrated, etc. It'll be nice. And if you don't pay up, my people will loot rob and rape you the same way you did us.
Down with the Palefaces!
I bet I can segway every thread into a lecture on how you "people" stole my land and owe me money.
Now pay up and go back to Europe and Africa.
I want to be white so I don't have to pay for things or repay bank loans. (And I want those free drinks on public transit.)
Eddie Murphy skit White like me.
http://www.metatube.com/en/videos/165662/WHITE-LIKE-ME/
"I've got a lot of friends. And we have a lot of makeup."
The Jet article is almost certainly faked. Not because there wasn't racism in 1960's London, but because the situations he recounts are laughably pat and predictable. It's almost like he read Black Like Me or something. And the guy looks like he's made up for a minstrel show. The magazine is fascinating, though. Where can I get a job as a Negro Specialist?
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