I ran across that this morning because the Jessica Krug story (see previous post) got me thinking about the old movie "Soul Man," which I've never seen, but remember very well, because it was about affirmative action in law school, in which a white guy misidentifies himself as black so he can qualify for a black-only scholarship at Harvard Law School. The movie is named after the old Sam and Dave song, and Sam participated in that remake with Lou Reed — known for, among other things, the song "I Wanna Be Black"* — of the already-old song.
The use of blackface in the movie was criticized at the time, most notably by Spike Lee. The actress Rae Dawn Chong, who played the main character's love interest, said: "It was only controversial because Spike Lee made a thing of it. He'd never seen the movie and he just jumped all over it... If you watch the movie, it's really making white people look stupid… I always tried to be an actor who was doing a part that was a character versus what I call 'blackting,' or playing my race, because I knew that I would fail because I was mixed. I was the black actor for sure, but I didn't lead with my epidermis, and that offended people like Spike Lee, I think."
Anyway, it has always been a terrible idea for a white person to adopt a black identity to get ahead within higher education. That was a subject of a Hollywood movie in 1986. It's amazing that real people so recently have attempted this sort of fraud. Jessica Krug has outed herself (perhaps because she would have been outed by others), but it makes you wonder how many other people are out there who've furthered their careers by pretending to be black.
I'm writing this post mostly because I was struck by the racial healing acted out in that music video — as if getting white people to sing "I'm a soul man" could bring us all together. To quote another Lou Reed song: You know, those were different times.
__________________
* Listen to the song "I Wanna Be Black" here. Read the lyrics, here. They're quite shockingly racist, but the key line, for comprehension purposes is, "Oh, I don't wanna be a fucked up/Middle class college student no more." The annotation at the lyrics link says:
"This song [is] described by Ann Powers as 'a proto-rap unspooling of racist stereotypes that makes fun of white hipsters by forcing a deep wallow in ignorance.' Though racist, this song attempts to be a satire of bored young white men in America and their attitudes and beliefs around black men. Whether it passes Poe’s Law or not, is up for debate."What's Poe's Law? Wikipedia says:
"Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied."I guess you "pass" Poe's Law when you're clear enough that you are not the thing you are parodying. So, Lou Reed was singing all these racist things but then he let us know that he's really making fun of the "fucked-up, middle class [white] college student" who fantasizes about acquiring a black identity.
"I Wanna Be Black" is from the album "Street Hassle," released in 1978.
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68 comments:
"It's amazing the real people so recently have attempted this sort of fraud." --AA
If by "amazing" you mean, it is so eminently logical that real people have taken advantage of racial favoritism, then you are correct. But as Elizabeth Warren did so 30+ years ago, it isn't just recently, either.
Why can’t Liz Warren and Ralph Northampton do this song as a duet?
I don't get what's wrong with pretending to be black. That anybody cares is the inexplicable thing.
I think it was George Carlin that used to do a bit in which he explains that white guys adopt black guy mannerisms to look and be cool, and that black guys never adopt white guy mannerisms because that would definitely not be cool.
"I didn't lead with my epidermis". Nice. I've never seen that phrase before.
It played on the HBO loop for a time so my friends and I watched it multiple times. Like many 80's movies aimed at youth, plot was a scaffold, the racial premise was far secondary to the goofy jokes, male bonding and playing through the motions of a love interest.
The only joke I recall was when the Cambridge landlord/buttsteak guy told the guys something like said, no drugs, no smoking, no damage, no pets, then cut to the roommate smoking a joint smashing a hammer through the wall as he yells I think we should get an ocelot!
Apparently ocelot jokes stick to me...
Having to relive this otherwise forgettable movie is one more data point of the regression of human society.
"Soul Man" was a pretty good parody of Affirmative Action. Ae soon as the kid starts school there are others trying to get him on the basketball team, because you know....
Animal House made the "white boys acting cool" using Black music very clear back in my teen years. That historic movie deserves a mention in your post for its accurate depiction of racial interactions on a college campus back in the day.
So, are the Blues Brothers cancelled yet?
So, Lou Reed was singing all these racist things, but then he let us know that he's really making fun of the "fucked-up, middle class [white] college student" who fantasizes about acquiring a black identity.
Reed fantasizes about a fucked-up, middle class [white] college student because Reed had adolescent panic attacks, was unpopular and his father was a Jewish accountant.
They're coming for you, Van Morrison!
Wiki: "His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping."
IOW, Reed was that fucked-up, middle class white college student.
I thought Thomas Sowell and Ben Carson were pretending to be black.
I didn't lead with my epidermis
What did she lead with? Ew.
I’ve never watched it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the movie was probably insensitive and stupid. However, it was also made in the last period when racial harmony was indeed making great strides and it seemed, at least, that we were on the cusp of real progress. The sequels, Crack Wars Man and BLM Loot, Burn, & Murder Man suggest somewhat less promise and that the Democrats are not going to give up their vicious exploitation of Blacks without a fight.
Any post with a Rae Dawn Chong reference gets a thumbs up from me.
Keep it up, Althouse!
According to Joe, if you're voting for Biden then you are black.
"it is so eminently logical that real people have taken advantage of racial favoritism, then you are correct."
Any time opportunities are created for dishonest people, dishonest people will flow to them like water.
"Apparently ocelot jokes stick to me..."
See "Honey West."
I'm a man of English and Scots Irish ancestry, so white, I can go from pink to lobster red under extended exposure of the sun. What's more, I'm not ashamed of my "whiteness". Nevertheless, singers such as Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and Smokey Robinson reach me with their emotive performances. No one, no matter what color, should be ashamed of who God made them to be. An alien from another planet would be perplexed why these intelligent bipeds can't get along with each other; we would be apparently superficially different, yet obviously the same species. Also, cultural appropriation as a social crime is bullshit.
It was black boys who patronized jazz in the beginning, and made it go mainstream. Then with each new style, like Bebop.
Then circa 1955 my brother was buying up all these black R&B records. Crude, funky stuff. No idea where he'd beard it.
When he came back from the navy at 21 he had a stack of jazz albums. Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Yusef Lateef, black only.
Then came rap, and white boys again.
Why are they like that?
Back to the Future also celebrated white kids, this time high schoolers, culturally appropriating Black music for their own licentious school dance. I'm sure there are many other movies where black musicians add their coolth to the dopey white kids.
Heck, let's include Some Lke It Hot, to get the Transgendered included in how musicians act as influencers in movies. As Osgood says at the end, "Well, nobody's perfect."
How to square a circle...
Identify as a different gender=good
Identify as a different skin color=bad
But as Elizabeth Warren did so 30+ years ago, it isn't just recently, either.
Which reminds me of fake Amerindian Ward Churchill, "He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1990 until 2007." He also faked his military record, some research and plagiarized artwork, specifically this picture for sale on eBay.
It was definitely more acceptable to show black and white people having fun together in the 1980s. People weren't offended by every little thing. Now the Democrats and the media have driven Americans apart by race, just as they did in the Jim Crow south. It's disgusting.
Anyway, it has always been a terrible idea for a white person to adopt a black identity to get ahead within higher education.
But it’s okay to adopt a Cherokee identity, right? Or is that merely Democrat politician privilege?
How do we know White priveledge doesn't exist?
There are more White people pretending to be Black than there are Black people pretending to be White. Bi-racial people almost reflexively identify as Black and not White.
Motown was a great musical era sadly replaced by rap and hip-hop.
Anyone here remember "Black Like Me". This was a book written back in the early sixties. The writer, a white man, put on black face and traveled through the south. The book was a big best seller. As I remember, he had many harrowing experiences when he lived life as a black man down south. I guess it's okay to imitate Blackness in order to suffer, but it's wrong to imitate Blackness in order to pretend to suffer or, even worse, to get ahead......Disraeli converted from a non-practicing Jew to a non-practicing Anglican. It wasn't exactly a crisis of faith. He never denied his Jewish heritage, and he never actively worked against Jewish interests. He was, however, resolutely anti-Catholic. That's partially how he got to be Prime Minister. Those damned true believers in the Oxford Movement always ended up going Papist. No risk of that with a cynic... I think in England in the 19th century the anti-Catholic bias was more pronounced and certainly more publicly celebrated than anti-semitism. Disraeli was inauthentic but not quite a phony. He used bias to surmount bias.
William said...
Anyone here remember "Black Like Me". This was a book written back in the early sixties.
I read it at the time it came out. I think it was the late 50s, though.
This was stupid, but not offensive, and at times funny.
"Any time opportunities are created for dishonest people, dishonest people will flow to them like water." --Rory
Yes, definitely. Maybe Althouse was putting her emphasis on the "recently" aspect. That would assume that a movie made as comedy in 1986 would have rendered null any similar fraudulence since that moment.
That is an optimistic assessment of human nature and intelligence, though. Some of the recent cases are born since "Soul Man" and may never have received its wisdom. Of course, academic administrators are infinitely wise, so I am not sure what their excuse is.
Sam Moore had a great voice, and it seemed effortless.
William @ 9:15 AM: "...Black Like Me." Yes, I read that. IIRC, the author suffered serious health problems from the stuff he ingested to turn his skin darker. He really did end up sacrificing a lot to run the experiment and return with the data. Big surprise, we learn that prejudice was very real.
Running the experiment today is much easier: just declare yourself to be whatever you want. I myself, though the progeny of Welsh miners and Mayflower settlers, am morally certain that I am about half-Nigerian or maybe Bantu. Unfortunately I sunburn just as easily as "JMW Turner" claims to do, and my innate skill with a basketball has yet to emerge. But dammit, I am black and I deserve some reparations.
The film Black Like Me (1964) starred James Whitmore in blackface. It inspired Watermelon Man (1970) which starred Godrey Cambridge in whiteface.
Blackface is the stylized makeup used in minstrel shows. Criticism of people who donned actual blackface was based on the racial bigotry of the minstrel shows. The term has been debased to allow a way of criticizing anyone who uses makeup to darken their skin. Recall that Megyn Kelly expressed tolerance for someone who used makeup as part of a Diana Ross Halloween costume, and was roundly condemned for not being intolerant (white tolerance = violence!). Blackface is now so far from its original meaning, that people also talk about "brownface" to refer to the use of makeup to appear hispanic.
I realize the ship may have already sailed on this point, just as people persist in adding the suffix "-gate" to any scandal or quasi-scandal.
"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." All things being equal, I'd rather go through life as a white man. But all things are never equal. I wouldn't mind changing places with Michael Jordan or Denzel Washington. I could handle that.....I wouldn't want to go through life as George Floyd and Jacob Blake. I think their big problem in life wasn't so much their skin color as the fact that they were scumbags. It's hard to have a happy life when you're a scumbag. Their only real advantage in life or rather death is no one is willing to come publicly forward and comment on their lack of character....I've known a fair number of Black people who have led better lives than mine. I suppose they had challenges I never had to face, but I don't think those challenges were in any way insurmountable. Consider the average Indonesian factory worker who works on the line producing Colin Kaepernick's shoes. No way would I ever want to change places with him.
Any post with a Rae Dawn Chong reference gets a thumbs up from me.
She taught me and my classmates about anal sex
Why is it a terrible idea? Society claims being black/minority is so terrible a handicap that we must give them a boost, an advantage. So, a white person pretending to be black/etc. is actually adopting this "Handicapped" status. They are passing themselves off as an oppressed minority, and thereby suffering the same fate. How much discrimination has Krug faced as a supposed Puerto Rican? it's only fair that White who pass as P/R or black get the rewards as well as the demerits of being a person of color.
"black like me" was a fraud. the author lied. But it was for a good cause, so that was OK.
without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied
That makes a feature sound like a bug. Half the fun of parody is watching the thick get trolled — like when your dopey commenters first encountered Titania McGrath.
"...and the colored girls go..."
Michael,I also read "black like me" in the sixties.
Ann, this post was a real tour de force of discussing racial issues and commenting on those who are accused of racism whether they are doing a parody or not. You danced through that whole commentary without saying anything that could be misconstrued. I think. You have managed to deal with a lot of racial issues without being cancelled. Or have you been cancelled in some quarters?
So I thought about it seriously, and asked myself "why would I want to be Black?". The only reason I really think it would be better ironically is the extra opportunity. I started out dirt poor and homeless in my twenties, with no degree or special skills when I finally decided to take life serious. I ended up pretty well in couple decades later, but it took years of long days and nights of hard work, combined with taking smart risks. I can't think of any kind of extra help being White got me. I suppose if I was Black a few racist people along the way might have avoided doing business with me, but that would be far outweighed by the number of people both Black and White who would have given me extra attention and business just because I was Black, and "clean and articulate". Blacks may not notice, but lots of White people go out of their way to support any Black who is attempting to make his way in business if he's honest and sincere, and that's just on a personal level. The institutional bonuses and opportunities offered by government, banks, and other organizations who are either virtue signalling or honestly sympathetic to helping minorities are endless. I would have accessed them all, and it would have really helped me get ahead a lot quicker. I remember many times where I was vying for contracts or loans or some grant etc., and the application asked if I was a woman or a minority which would have given me the inside track on getting that help. I never got any of it. That's institutional racism, and "that's storybook, man".
"Anyway, it has always been a terrible idea for a white person to adopt a black identity to get ahead within higher education"
No, the terrible idea was setting up a system in which race mattered. Playing with your identity is a rational response to an irrational system.
I think all of us pretend to be who we want to be, and, in some cases, the pretense surpasses reality. Cary Grant, for example, did a much better imitation of a charming heterosexual than I was ever able to bring off. To a certain extent, civilization is based on people hiding their true sexual feelings and yearnings. They keep their eyes up there. ...Thus so with class. I pretend to be much classier than I really am. It's a pretty good act. I can pass as bourgeoisie but most of my deep tendon reflexes are lumpenproleteriat.....So far as ethnicity, I define myself as Irish-Catholic but that's not completely on target. Both of father's parents were born Ireland, but my mother's family came from that part of Denmark which became German and her grandfather was Jewish. I'm not quite sure of how to embrace that part of my identity. It's so easier to be Irish Catholic.....We pretend to be the best person we can get away with without being too pretentious.
"If you watch the movie, it's really making white people look stupid"
Oh. Well then that's OK.
Shaun King, racist or nah? You make the call.
You know who doesn't want to be black? Mick Jagger. From Martha Bayles' "A Hole in Our Soul."
"Rolling Stones biographer Stanley Booth remarked to Mick Jagger in the late 1960's: 'Well, that's the dream, we all want to be black, what we think black is.' And Jagger replied, with characteristic coolness, 'I don't. I'm not black and I'm proud of it.'....Jagger himself was never smitten with 'blackness' so much as skilled at manipulating people who were."
Like Churchy, my first thought was Ackroyd and Belushi's version of "Soul Man", which, for me, is the one I always listen to, paired with "Rubber Biscuit".
Here is my question:
Can a trans-woman apply for women's scholarships and professorships according to Woke Rules? If so, what is the problem in Klug's case?
... and fuck Barbara Streisand...
-- - Lou Reed
Is that Kurt Rambis, pride of Terre Haute Indiana?
If Clinton was the first black president, Lou Reed was the first black poet of proto-punk.
The era of that's not funny really sucks for deadpan.
I read "Black like Me" in the early sixties. My parents were (anti-Communist) liberals then and gave me the book as part of my regular reading assignment. (It was an author with three names).
They believed that Blacks had to be better than Whites in order to get a fair shot in those days. Their politics changed with the Black Power movement because they believed the movement to be Communist inspired and organized.
I thought they were fools back then.
Tom Hanks got his first big break in the early 80s on a TV show called Bosom Buddies, where he (a struggling actor) and his male friend (a struggling writer) dress up and pass themselves off as female in order to rent an apartment in a women-only building (there used to be such things, like the Barbizon Hotel in NYC). It sticks in my mind that the writer character made a joke about his experience being like Black Like Me. They could make jokes like that back then.
Tom Hanks got his first big break in the early 80s on a TV show called Bosom Buddies, where he (a struggling actor) and his male friend (a struggling writer) dress up and pass themselves off as female in order to rent an apartment in a women-only building (there used to be such things, like the Barbizon Hotel in NYC). It sticks in my mind that the writer character made a joke about his experience being like Black Like Me. They could make jokes like that back then.
"Street Hassle" as I recall from my college-radio days, was not particularly good. But then again I was just a bored, white middle-class college kid.
STAX artist. W/o STAX, and Sun, we'd still be listening to The Ink Spots and Pat Boone.
The small labels here (and to some extent Motown) were the ones that broke the NYC (Tin Pan Alley) and Hollywood stranglehold on popular entertainment, and showed America's roots music back to Americans, if only temporarily. (The genre term for popular African-American music from the 1920s and through the '50s was "race" music.)
Jagger is a Toynbeean dream: the scion of a well-to-do English family adopted the style and look of Black field hands (as he understood them) in order to get laid. And rich.
Narr
Lunceford fan
How about one from Randy Newman?
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/randynewman/rednecks.html
Elizabeth Warren should have canceled herself. But, since she didn’t, we should cancel her.
She taught me and my classmates about anal sex
Mind. Blown.
Diversitists.
45 years ago, I made the mistake of telling all the colleges I was applying to that I was Asian. Got shut out of my number 1 choice, but made the rest.
Holy Crow, I am so tired of this subject.
Is there any aspect of life in 2020 America where we are not bludgeoned with race?
Now fighting poverty
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