I'm reading "Morgan Freeman: it’s an insult to be called African-American/In a rare interview, the Hollywood legend hits out at Black History Month, and talks about Sidney Poitier and why he’s envious of Denzel Washington’s career" (London Times).
Morgan doesn't answer the question asked. He offers "Two things I can say publicly that I do not like," suggesting there are other things he thinks but will not say.
He calls 2 things "an insult." First, Black History Month. (Why just one month?) Second, the term "African-American." (Because we don't say "Euro-Americans." We get more specific and say "Italian-American," etc.)
So, you can see that Freeman did not go back to his 2005 position. It's been almost 20 years since he called on Americans to simply leap forward into color blindness. That's not how we've used the 20 years. Quite the opposite. It's understandable that he's not accepting the nudge to repeat the same advice.
But perhaps you can see the same idea in the 2 grievances he did voice. Both suggest treating black people the same as white people — no special month and no grouping by continent.
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As it should be. God has spoken.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
I will admit that when describing someone to another person, I often will use a modifier ("black", "Asian", et cetera) but I can never remember using "white", except when I am talking with my black friends to describe a female that they might know.
Almost everything is counterproductive. That's why women in charge never works.
We all do the Shawshank Red Morgan Freeman voice in our heads when we read Morgan Freeman, don’t we? I bet he doesn’t like that…
…top bottom, left to right…readin’ is, ah- outta sight!
Wise man.
There’s a lot of evidence backing up the idea that the obsession with racism is a driving force behind today’s racism. He probably didn’t mean that stopping talk about racism is both necessary and sufficient to eliminate racism, but I think he’s clearly correct that is it necessary.
"Both suggest treating black people the same as white people .."
Not when there is gold to be had at the end of the race rainbow. First it was the race hustlers cashing in, now it's reparations.
He's still right, you know. Unfortunately, the race baiters, the DEI cabal and reparations scammers cannot allow it to happen. There's no money to be made in championing a color-blind society, and it's generally not "Euro-Americans" who are the profiteers.
America is too large to know it self as “white America” or “black America”. The rhetoric and mythos of race as an all encompassing all identifying, all sustaining has to be constantly reimagined and reinforced from above. Nothing caters and nourishes racism more than this way of… seemingly having to live as a white this or black that. As if we could live in all or nothing extremes. As if a person's thinking did not primarily constitute “bringing together the dichotomy of both perceived positive and negative qualities of something into a cohesive, realistic whole.” - (see mind splitting)
Hugh Laurie talks about the number one overarching American identity
Hint: it isn’t race. It’s something else.
I'm betting he's not that fond of saying "N-word" either.
In my old neighborhood, there was a white family from South Africa. The dad was a doctor. They lived next door to the Mayor.
The kids went to Westside high school. One of the boys won the African-American student award. Controversy!
"Both suggest treating black people the same as white people — no special month and no grouping by continent"
The same as--that's his key mistake right there. In parallel to feminism, antiracism is the doctrine that black people are special. Setting aside a special month is the very least America must do, in recognition and atonement.
The grouping by continent highlights the primacy of race, the very basis of modern progressivism. Or at least, is intended to--I'm not sure the descendants of fairly caucasian North-African enslavers are included.
I took the man at his word and followed his advice. I found the model to be excellent, and I don't plan to change because others insist I judge people based on superficial things like the color of their skin.
FYI, Elon Musk is an African-American.
There's a great book about race during the Roman Empire by Frank Snowden. Concepts of racial identity or political racism were largely unknown in the classical world and didn't really show up until the post Renaissance, and them even not everywhere in Western culture.
There is a theory that our modern racial notions are specifically Spanish and Portuguese in origin. That they are derived from a large history of racial animosity during the reconquista and then exploding onto the world stage with that attitude extended towards the black African and Indian slaves incorporated into and traded in their empire.
All I know is that Freeman is right that his perception was the norm at one time, and it would probably do us a lot of good, but may never happen.
For some reason, this made me recall the very underrated Garrett Morris on SNL with Julian Bond. It's been surpressed, but you can see a snippet here.
here's the Secret secret.. white liberals WANT racism, because it keeps blacks DOWN
https://www.joannejacobs.com/post/algebra-for-none-fails-in-san-francisco
Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco
Test data from 2015 to 2019 shows that racial "achievement gaps have widened," wrote Tom Loveless last year. The district "is headed in the wrong direction on equity." Black and Hispanic 11th-graders in San Francisco earned "appalling" scores on the state math test, "about the same as or lower than the typical fifth-grader" in the state.
The rich white families just hired tutors, so THEY kept learning math
The poor (black/hispanic/white) families were thrown under the school bus
Look closely at any program that is supposed to 'fight racism'.. You'll find a program to help rich whites
You can thank the GREAT DIVIDER...Obama who used race to fundamentally change America.
"It's really important to know what Morgan Freeman thinks about things like race relations. I won't know what to think myself or whether to feel validated by an actor's opinion." -no one
What happened to "judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin"?
Dr. King's legacy has been betrayed by the very people he freed.
"...and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man."
Why would anyone call Morgan Freeman a black man? Light chestnut, maybe. Pleasant color. Come to think on it, the only off-putting human skin tone comes to mind is tattooed.
I am not a fan of Black History Month. That implies that Black folks can't be proud of Chuck Yeager and John Steinbeck, and I lose Cab Calloway and Mohammad Ali, and I'm not willing to do that.
What I remember was walking to administer a dawn swim test at UF (Gainesville) and having to fend off the unwanted advances of gays trolling for BJs.Nonviolent yeah right!(1978).
Václav Patrik Šulik:
"the very underrated Garrett Morris"
Is he ever! And that clip is one of the first I remember from him. (The other being, Garrett Morris of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing: OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT!!)
The only people who believe in "Color Blindness" are whites and a few African Americans. Its time is over. Conservatives keep praising blacks who make that case, and push the idea, but most African Americans aren't buying it.
And never will. 80-90 percent are proud of their group, and they never forget they are African-American. Telling them to be a colorblind individual is silly. You can't even tell them "We're all just Americans" becaue these same people won't defend patriotism or the borders.
Telling them to "just be American" is like telling them to be nothing.
To be fair we chose the shortest month for BH.
I don't know why anyone would act like African-American is correct when I don't think you're "black" unless that connection's been broken by American slavery. I got no "old country" to visit on vacations, no extended family "back home", no "motherland" to return to - I'm a descendent of American slavery. That's what it means.
Morgan Freeman gets no respect from anybody but whites for saying what they want to hear - when they don't think about half the things I have to deal with as a person with no past, thanks to my country's history
The problem is, Freeman gets jobs not because he's a great actor (maybe he is), but because he can pull off the 'wise black man' with great vocal chords.
He seems to play the same part in every role.
Same with Samuel L. Jackson. He can't act his way out of a paper bag, but keeps playing the cool black guy who says 'motherfucker' a lot.
Good for him, I guess...it made him rich.
The rich white families just hired tutors, so THEY kept learning math
The poor (black/hispanic/white) families were thrown under the school bus
Look closely at any program that is supposed to 'fight racism'.. You'll find a program to help rich whites
Just like rich white women had a significant role in electing that nut as Chicago Mayor.
Diversity, [In]Equity, [Ex/In]cluson (DIE). DIEversity includes racism, sexism, ageism, and other class-based bigotry.
That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion
We should drop the whole hyphenated American thing and just go with American. Unless you don't like being an American in which case why are you in America?
I was curious about when the something hyphenated American thing started and was surprised to find it began in the 1890's.
According to Ancestry I am of Scottish, Irish, English, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian ancestry but I think of myself as an American. If you're a naturalized citizen living at home or abroad I think you should refer to yourself as an American. That might go a long way to uniting the country. Just my humble opinion.
" I got no "old country" to visit on vacations, no extended family "back home", no "motherland" to return to...."
Me neither. Only Americans with recent immigrant ancestors have that.
Like you, I could get a DNA test that would point to some places smaller than a whole continent and work up some emotional attachment to those places, but it's not really accessible emotionally.
"when they don't think about half the things I have to deal with as a person with no past, thanks to my country's history"
I have very little "past" and don't feel the poorer for it. I can name the countries my genes are supposed to have come from, but I don't know if it's correct nor do I very much care.
"Both suggest treating black people the same as white people .."
Everyone’s White In My Eyes. Great song.
I get it, though. Black folks need their identity but will continue to be othered until they give it up. A great social Catch-22 exacerbated by the cynical and vicious exploitation relentlessly visited upon them by White Progs.
But no one respects anyone who allows themselves to be endlessly played.
So I no longer care.
Joe Smith said...
The problem is, Freeman gets jobs not because he's a great actor (maybe he is), but because he can pull off the 'wise black man' with great vocal chords.
He seems to play the same part in every role.
Same with Samuel L. Jackson. He can't act his way out of a paper bag, but keeps playing the cool black guy who says 'motherfucker' a lot.
Now do John Wayne.
"I mention a television interview with Freeman in 2005, in which he said the only way to get rid of racism was to stop talking about it."
Never happen. Now that all our stuff is made in China, DEI is about the only thing left with a future here.
Thank you, JPS. Here's another Morris bit that won't see the light of day: "I'm going to get me a shotgun."
He talks about it here. It's hilarious.
"In a landmark paper based on the Human Genome Project, scientists showed that there are no “races” but a single human race—not in sociological terms, but according to biology.
The project found that there is more genetic variation within a single population subgroup than between two different population subgroups. For example, there may be more genetic diversity within a population in Asia than between that same population and a different population in Europe.
Another way of saying this is that, while certain populations tend to cluster around certain regions of the world, the variation that exists between them is continuous, not discrete—that is to say, different populations (e.g., Asians and Caucasians) are not “grouped” into discrete genetic races; rather, genetic variation between individuals varies according to a sliding scale, with people who are closer together geographically sharing greater genetic similarity and those further apart sharing less."
Source: Duke University Science & Society
Race is a myth. Myths are useful to those who hold power, which is why they've been in use for several millennia.
"here's the Secret secret.. white liberals WANT racism, because it keeps blacks DOWN
Yup. And because Blacks are starting to catch on, white liberals have been forced to start recruiting Asians. Especially since Hispanics failed to meet their expectations.
"Dr. King's legacy has been betrayed by the very people he freed."
Dr. King has been thrown under Rosa Park's bus.
You know who hates African-Americans' guts? African immigrants. If you ask them why, they will tell you it's based on what they learned from Movies and TV. All they see is pimps and whores and drug dealers and mad killers. John Singleton pointed this out in "Hollywood Shuffle" (1987). And today is no different.
So on the one hand, Hollywood constantly self-aggrandizes its wokeness, and on the other hand grows ever richer perpetuating the myth of Blacks as inherently criminal and immoral.
Thanks Hollywood! Mission accomplished.
" The Crack Emcee said..."
I took a break from here for quite a while. But not long enough to have forgotten my belief that The Crack Emcee is whiter than a barium-infused stool. Thanks for the reminder.
This is not a personal attack, just a reasoned observation by someone who has spent the last forty years living in the inner-city, working with Black youth. So I definitely know an act when I see one (as if the name itself isn't a tell all on its own).
"Good for him, I guess...it made him rich."
Same with Oprah. As D. L. Hughley said, they put out a slave movie every year (he rattled them all off from "Roots" to "Django Unchained"), adding that Oprah's in every one of them, despite Oprah being rich enough to BUY the plantation.
Another Black comedian said they come out with one every year just to ensure Black folks stay pissed-off at whitey. I sincerely believe he is correct.
how many countreis mandate race on official forms?
does UN keep score?
I got no "old country" to visit on vacations, no extended family "back home", no "motherland" to return to - I'm a descendent of American slavery. That's what it means.
Kamala seems to be discovering her "roots." why not you?
"I'm a descendent of American slavery"
Everyone alive today has an ancestor that was likely a slave in the last 10,000 years. If you're not a slave today it's because you had ancestors that fought so their descendants could be free. But the free might not see the difference between physical shackles and mental ones.
Many are still in chains.
Now do John Wayne.
John Wayne has been dead for 44 years
People should just be "plain ol' Americans"
LOL. Yeah, tell that to the ADL and Jewish Americans.
And then get ready for the "Ye Treatment".
"I mention a television interview with Freeman in 2005, in which he said the only way to get rid of racism was to stop talking about it."
That was then. Five or six years later he was insisting that opposition to Obama’s policies, especially Obamacare, was driven by racism “straight up.” Because people, especially small business owners, were supposed to be thrilled to be paying several times more for worse coverage. Then he decided that the Tea Party was racist because they were pushing the Republicans to try to defeat Obama in 2012. Because, of course, no Democrats had ever tried to defeat a sitting Republican President.
I stopped watching his movies.
"I'm a descendent of American slavery"
You should thank God every day that you are.
Otherwise you'd be living in some shithole in Africa.
That is the only reparations Americans should point to: Where would you (the ancestor of a slave) be better off, here or in Africa?
You are assuredly 100 times richer living here, unless you are a Nigerian prince...
That's not going to happen. America encourages the diversity obsession that is tearing the country apart, because otherwise people would be tearing the country apart out of boredom and pent-up frustration. Americans have time on their hands and many don't have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. They want some focus or purpose or meaning, something that at once unites them with others and makes them feel like individuals. For many people, the country doesn't provide that, so we have what we have.
Another use of DEI: privileged people get to pretend to be victims or social justice warriors.
>> "I got no "old country" to visit on vacations, no extended family "back home", no "motherland" to return to...."
> Me neither. Only Americans with recent immigrant ancestors have that.
America is you new house. Your Althaus is somewhere across the Rhine.
As a Neanderthal-American, I am proud of the great achievements of my Neanderthal forebears; you Cro-Magnon types with all your new-fangled airs don't impress me much.
There's a rock shelter in the Taunus that calls to me.
I stand with the People of Zulu color against the People of Mandela's Xhosa color.
I stand alternatively with the Hutu then Tutsi then Hutu...
I stand with the Kenyan deplorables against the Kenyan elite Obamas et al.
I stand with babies... buns, in ovens, against the human rites activists and advocates of social, redistributive, clinical, political, criminal, and fair weather progress.
When first we practice diversity, congruence, and selection.
Free Manure While You Wait! said...
Race is a myth. Myths are useful to those who hold power, which is why they've been in use for several millennia.
If can't opt out of specifying my race on a form, I enter "Human."
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