July 22, 2023
"Once, her daughter’s drama teacher assigned her the monkey role in a school play. 'I think it was The Wizard of Oz'...."
"'My daughter at the time was young enough not to know what the message was, but I did, so I went right down to the school and I said, "Any time you’ve got Black kids in your class none of them are going to be the monkeys."' Mendez said that she learned later that another Black parent had the same conversation with the teacher two years earlier.
'We all have those stories in Amherst,' she said. 'And so, for me, this reparations program is about changing it for the next generation, chipping away at the systemic racism we have here and creating a place where there’s affinity and facility as well as prosperity for people of color.'"
Mendez = Yvonne Mendez, who, as a second-generation immigrant, would be left out if slavery reparations are limited to the descendants of American slaves.
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81 comments:
She’s OK with stealing from her community: because where does she think the money comes from for this next bitter round of slush funding and grievance mongering? Oh— that’s right. She doesn’t think.
so..
The children with No Talent get cast as monkeys.. UNLESS! they are black then they're cast as stars!
Mendez should just relax, because there aren't going to be any reparations, ever.
Sensitivity to monkey is white people assuring black people that nobody notices that black people more resemble monkeys than white people, something that black people too will have noticed and so need reassurance.
In WWII the Japanese were the monkeys, perhaps from climbing trees.
It would be better to think of a positive animal for black people instead of trying to suppress monkey. Fox would be good if you could motivate it.
This has always bothered me. I had always thought, "This flying monkeys myth is trash. They aren't flying monkeys, they are gargoyles. Gargoyles, which have come to life in the magic land of Oz. Just look at them. They perch on the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West just as they do on medieval buildings all across Europe. And -- credit to the MGM filmmakers in 1939, they really did make them look like gargoyles come to life."
Well, no. My intelligent, literate theory is blown up by reading the original books written by midwesterner (Chicagoan, when he wrote Oz) L. Frank Baum, who never attended college. He called his fictional creatures "Winged monkeys." Sigh.
But wait; Chicago buildings had gargoyles most notably Cobb Gate which was built just a few years before Baum wrote "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," but might not have known what to call the things that were gargoyles.
I want reparations for the two ancestors, one from Pennsylvania and one from Illinoise, who died in the Civil War freeing the slaves.
I remember being cast in a grammer school play as someone from Persia because my Italian skin was slightly darker than my classmates. Jean Testa was cast as the Persian queen.
Flip Wilson used to do a story about a lady on a train with a particularly ugly baby, which ends with the Conductor saying, maybe we could find a banana for your monkey.
news Flash!
Life Long Liberal is SO STUPID, that he thinks he knows Baum's books BETTER than Baum!
Even though he hasn't READ Baum..
After FINALLY Reading Baum; LLL STILL thinks he knows better than Baum.
The reparations program is about money. Stop lying.
When someone says it’s not about the money, it’s exactly about the money.
So, let me make sure I've got this. Only blacks can play Othello, and only lesbians can play ... if there was a lesbian in Shakespeare. But only whites can play monkeys?
What about dogs. Who can play dogs? Cats? Giraffes? Can I touch your hair?
She taught her child to associate monkeys to the color of people’s skin. The school didn’t do it.
Ms Menendez has a valid point: If the current Black citizens of California have earned the right to reparations from California for something their ancestors did not experience in California and California did not sanction, why shouldn't all Black immigrants to California rate reparations for slavery regardless of when they, themselves immigrated or whether their own ancestors were ever slaves in a different country? It's only fair.
Serious Question
Kamala Harris is from Cali. Is SHE eligible for reparations? you know, from being from India?
What about those of us descended from indentured servants, do we get anything? My ancestors may have not been forced into indenture, but they likely were exploited due to desperate circumstances.
What about those descended from immigrants who came here from Europe well after the 13th Amendment was passed? Do they have to pay for something their ancestors had no part in?
What about Asians and Hispanics? Do they have to pay?
How is this not approaching corruption of blood territory?
The only thing I can definitively say is; if there's anything that will start another civil war in the country, it will be reparations.
Only white (or Asian) students are allowed to be monkeys.
That sounds a little discriminatory.
Is it really necessary to point out that this country, unlike any other country in the world, has already been paying reparations? For decades. With multiple variations over time. Affordable action for jobs and college admissions. Relaxed lending rules. Massive lawsuit awards for being killed by police offers after unlawful flight and assault resisting arrest. And now non-prosecution for theft under $1,000. Cashless bail, catch and release. Etc.
What else is still needed? I mean besides public humiliation, cancellation, and simply opening up the public treasury and letting them take whatever they can grab? I guess we're about to find out.
Autocorrect... Affordable-Affirmative. Not very affordable.
"chipping away at the systemic racism"
By which she means the unwillingness of black students to do the hard work of learning basic arithmetic and proper grammar together with black parents who abide with similar practices and attitudes. Riding the unicorn of systemic racism.
“The reparations program is about money. Stop lying. “
It’s a bribe that theDems are offering Blacks, that they will probably never have to pay off. To get their attention, it’s got to be substantial, maybe $million$ or two, but cumulatively, it would destroy the finances of any government that tried to implement anything noticeable. Oh, and it is blatantly unconstitutional, violative of the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amdt. Haven’t they read the recent AA decision by CJ Roberts? (Of course not). Maybe have some explain Strict Scrutiny to them. Maybe they will allow Thomas to nuke it from orbit this time.
The Dems are worried about losing their near monopoly with Black voters (or I should say Black voter ballots). And they should be. Yesterday, in Vegas, another Black woman told me that she liked my (Trump) hat that I was wearing. She really liked it. Most here know exactly what she was saying - plausibly deniable MAGA. Nobody is surprised by hearing that from working class Whites. But from hard working Blacks? The smart Blacks. The hard working ones. They know that Biden and the Dems took the economy, and the country, into the crapper, after he was installed in office.
That’s what Reparations - a naked bribe to Blacks by Democrats for their votes. But the Dems are so racist that they think that Blacks would be so stupid as to believe that they would, or could, ever deliver on their promise of Free Money.
Reparations were already paid with 625K Union deaths. Fuck your desire for free cash.
Aren't there More children of illegal aliens in the country now, than blacks?
Since the children of illegal aliens (born in this country) are citizens, how long before the number of children of illegal aliens over 18 is greater than the number of blacks?
Isn't the democrat party barking up the wrong tree?
Or, don't they even care about voters anymore? (witness their transphilia).
As a wise democrat once said: It's not the voters that count.. It's who counts the votes
Reparations are to black America as "From the river to the sea" is to the Palestinians: a fantasy intended for cynical reasons to keep the population restive. It's no Herculean task because, as we know, the last of the items the gods placed in Pandora's box was hope.
A teacher cast a Black child as a monkey, then two years later after being admonished did it again? Honestly, that's kind of bad. Although, someone who produces two monkey plays in two years needs to broaden their repertoire and probably shouldn't be leading the drama department.
"My kid got a part she didn't like in the school play " = Systemic Racism. Got it.
Here's a hint: Racism would die a natural, fading-away death, if only it could be taken off Progressive Life Support.
Oligonicella said...
Reparations were already paid with 625K Union deaths.
My great great grandfather Oscar Clapper (38th Iowa Inf) served from Nov '62 until he fell to disease (Dysentery?) in Texas (early '64) and spent the rest of the war in Hospital.
While he got out alive, he was a shell of a man ever after.
Serious Question: Who gave More? Oscar Clapper? or Kamala Harris' great great grandparents in India?
Where are MY reparations????
"Once, her daughter’s drama teacher assigned her the monkey role in the school play...."
If that's bad, maybe they could assign her the role of the hammerhead worm.
I guess this means that that we can’t expect Disney to cast a black lead in a live action remake of their Tarzan film. Sad for woke.
At least in the Wicked series the flying monkeys had an origin - Elphaba ( wicked witch of the west) created them by grafting wings onto them based on what she learned in the Grimoire ( the mysterious book of magic only she could read).
No matter anyone's position, the reason reparations will never achieve a satisfactory solution is that here is no way to objectively determine who deserves them, how much they should be and who should pay them.
I'm more liberal than many here. I don't mind giving, say, a qualified Black a leg up over a more qualified Asian or even a white person who is a member of some ethnic group I don't like. That's only fair....I'm against reparations though. There needs to be some kind of vetting process. I don't think reparations should go to any Blacks who opposed gay marriage or transgender surgery. Giving money to such people will only prolong America's long struggle with bigotry. This is so important that some efforts should be made to investigate their parents and grandparents. If their parents or grandparents can be shown to have participated in discrimination against gays or transgendered, then they're disqualified. How do you know? Well, silence is consent. Unless their parents and grandparents can be shown to have actively opposed gay discrimination, we must assume that they and their progeny are bigots and not deserving of reparations. I believe any fair minded person will see the justice in my words. Only the pure are worthy of reparations.
We all pay reparations to black people every day by ignoring their criminal behavior and its costs, paying them disproportionate amounts of welfare, providing disproportionate free medical care, and on and on.
Maiming children. Men in women's sports. Legal shoplifting. Climate change. Systemic racism. Indicting a President. Open borders. Reparations.
Democrats, WaPo and NYT are the Pied Pipers.
I, for one, believe that a Flying Blue Monkey would be a damn fine role for any child of any race, ethnicity, country of origin, sexual orientation, religion, height, weight, or shoe size. Also, they are Blue Monkeys. Also, Flying. Pretty damn cool.
The flying monkeys in the Oz story were great characters in the movie, greater in the books, and deserve nothing but admiration. I have a small ceramic model of one on my office shelf as I type. It was made by my daughter in elementary school, and has no racial connotations at all.
Sometimes, a banana is just a banana, so to speak, not a racial slur. One kid for each of the main roles, often the ones who can remember lines, and everyone else gets assigned a supporting role. And I say that as a former humble Shepherd in the school Christmas play, who really wanted to be a Wise Man. There were only 3 of those. Most of the class became shepherds, keeping watch o'er their flocks by night. The costume was easier, and there were no lines to memorize.
The comments to the Wash Post article are wild. I get the sense that some people have a few issues with reparations. My main takeaway is that people have way too much time on their hands. Talk about arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Why not argue instead about how housing projects on Mars should be organized?
The black population of this country is not entitled to a dime from the other seven eighths that of the population. Not. A. Dime.
Bruce Hayden said...
That’s what Reparations - a naked bribe to Blacks by Democrats for their votes. But the Dems are so racist that they think that Blacks would be so stupid as to believe that they would, or could, ever deliver on their promise of Free Money.
Mostly yes (especially in Gavin Newsome's case), but don't rule out that there are some authentically woke types who regard this as a moral imperative.
Reparations, called as such, will not be passed by legislatures- they will be enacted via class action lawsuits against which Democrat mayors, governors, and Presidents will immediately agree to settle. See the recent settlement in New York City. The legislatures will then approve these settlements without the word reparations ever being mentioned.
I want to know whether anyone else was cast as a Flying Monkey. If I had a class of (e.g.) 25 kids and needed to cast the Wizard of Oz and give every kid a part, how would I do it? Let's see, Dorothy, Tin Man, Lion, Scarecrow, Wicked Witch, Wizard, who else is there? Good Witch? That makes 7. Sounds like 18 kids are going to have to be Flying Monkeys. Or do we need some Munchkins? Picking the shortest kids for that role could be a problem! Maybe 9 of each? Or maybe 18 Munchkins who change costumes at intermission to play Flying Monkeys, so they can get in on the action in both halves of the play. Should the black girl be left out of the play if she's not talented enough - or good enough at memorizing lines - for a speaking part? That seems kind of racist. Which brings me back to my question: were a bunch of white kids also playing Flying Monkeys? (And loving every minute of it, I'm sure.) Does the story tell us?
William said...
I'm more liberal than many here. I don't mind giving, say, a qualified Black a leg up over a more qualified Asian or even a white person who is a member of some ethnic group I don't like. That's only fair.
--
No, William that's only prejudice.
Thanks for offering us a peek into your bigoted soul.
No matter anyone's position, the reason reparations will never achieve a satisfactory solution is that here is no way to objectively determine who deserves them, how much they should be and who should pay them.
If we gave every Black person in the United States five million dollars tomorrow, by Monday they would be insisting that America can't buy its way out of its guilt.
I fully support Black people attempting to get reparations as long as they get them from the descendants of the Africans who enslaved them and then sold them to the Europeans.
William said...
I'm more liberal than many here. I don't mind giving, say, a qualified Black a leg up over a more qualified Asian or even a white person who is a member of some ethnic group I don't like. That's only fair....I'm against reparations though.
No, you're 100% for reparations as per your statement. You just want them to be paid by individuals other then yourself.
If reparations are ever paid on a national scale we should label them Reparations 1.0.
Less confusing when 2.0 inevitably comes around.
It's never enough. It will never be enough.
@William -- I thought your sarcasm was clear enough, but ... tough crowd.
Guys, William is writing tongue in cheek.
Promise me one thing. If reparations are ever enacted in whatever form deemed appropriate, that will put an end FOREVER, the discussion of the necessity of reparations. Not likely.
If reparations are enacted, that ends ALL future discussions
I have seen black people tell white people they can’t call *their own white child* monkey as a nickname because it is somehow racist. Ok. This just tells me some black people are crazy or incredibly stupid, or both. Take your pick. Everything is not about you, random black person. In fact general white people don’t really think about general black people at all.
Paranoia. That’s your problem. Paranoia and vanity.
F*** reparations based on a class of race. Period. Forever. It's past time for a bunch of people to get over themselves.
How many Africans died coming to the United States and while enslaved here? Honest number, please.
How many white people died as a result of the Civil War? That's a verifiable number.
In what other countries are those of African origin demanding reparations? Uncle Sugar has the deepest pockets, I guess. Only about 10 percent of "Victims" of the Atlantic slave trade were sent to what is now the US.
Have Black US citizens sought reparations from the nations who sold them into slavery? Small bands of scurvy-ridden white seamen certainly did not venture into the Heart of Darkness and forcibly roundup millions of people.
Have those of African origin in the US benefitted in any way from being sent here v. being left behind in their native lands (where they were certainly not at the top rung of those societies).
Do the trillions of dollars squandered on Great Society programs count as aid to those of African Orgin. Do the advantages of myriad affirmative action prorams count?
Africans control and are the face of many of America's largest cities (including our national capital). How's that working out?
This country is full of Black Americans who are better human beings than I will ever be. Not a day goes by that one or more of them doesn't brighten my life with a smile, a helping hand or friendly remark. I sincerely grieve for the many ways that their own leaders have let them down.
Sadly, though, every imigrant group coming to this country but one has lifted itself out of victimhood and become vibrant and welcome members of their communities. One stands out.
Our pandering pols, corrupt courts, America-hating academics, miss-named "news" media and too many ill-informed citizens would rather harp on rare police brutality and ignore rampant Black-on-Black slaughter and other self-imposed barriers to racial equality.
AAAaarrgh!!!!
This brings up one of the many problems with reparations. Assuming one can justify them in the first place. Who exactly pays? And who exactly receives them? What if one or more parents/ancestors is an immigrant?
The push for reparations is largely fueled by resentment. "I want what they have. And this is how we can make them hand it over". No amount will never be enough. The goal is to provoke Revolution that will usher in Utopia. The tell is "systemic racism".
"William said...
I don't mind giving, say, a qualified Black a leg up over a more qualified Asian or even a white person who is a member of some ethnic group I don't like. That's only fair."
This is what racism actually looks like.
You'll never get the real answer, but I'd be willing to bet that all of the non-speaking roles in the play were either drawn at random or the children were allowed to pick what they wanted to be. If the latter, I'd also bet that aggrieved person's daughter picked "Flying Monkey" either because her friends did or because it sounded cool (because what you get to do if you're a Flying Monkey in the child's version of Wizard of Oz is MUCH more fun than being a Munchkin or a random citizen of the Emerald City. I speak from experience).
When people tell these kinds of stories, and people assume that they're getting the whole story, I always think: "Do you know KNOW any grammar school teachers? Have you never MET any?" (And the thing is, aggrieved, or aggrieved-on-behalf-of, people repeat stories like this one, stories that are obviously too perfect, and never think to question the fact that the stories are just too perfect).
All former slave owners still alive should pay reparations to all former slaves still alive. Who could object to that?
What William ACTUALLY wrote was Swiftian in its back-flip-with-a-half-twist irony, which is why so many people misunderstood it.
One of my relatives used to call the group of cousins and friends running around our neighborhood "yard apes." Years later, a grad-school friend (guess the race and gender) was horrified. "That's a slur against black people," she said. And then she got spluttery angry when I asked which ethnic groups "rug rats," "crumb crushers," and "ankle biters" were slurs against.
Because the generative mechanism for all of these is pretty obvious, as is that fact that they're all hyperbolic-negative--hence affectionate--terms for children: "yard apes" or "rug rats" are used for children you love, not those who annoy you.
"'My daughter at the time was young enough not to know what the message was, but I did, so I went right down to the school and I said, "Any time you’ve got Black kids in your class none of them are going to be the monkeys."'
What a completely and horribly racist position.
It's not the teacher who has the "racism problem" here
All "reparations" should ONLY be paid by people who are the descendants of slave owners.
And that most certainly includes every single "black" person who has a white slave owner as one of their genetic contributors.
We can start with Angela Davis.
Oh, and we need a "get out of reparations free card" for anyone with an ancestor who fought for the North in the Civil War. They already paid
Having merely skimmed the comments above, I see a great effort to refuse recognizing why a black mother would be offended that her child had been picked to portray one of the monkeys in the Wizard of Oz, namely, the long (and not dead) slur against blacks as being "monkeys" and "apes," physically and mentally, accompanied by corresponding treatment of them.
Of course, many or most of those tsk-tsking the mother's displeasure are probably among those who are adamant that racism against blacks is no longer prevalent (or even faintly present) in America today.
"She taught her child to associate monkeys to the color of people’s skin. The school didn’t do it." A few hundred years of American history did it. And still is.
Wow, William's comment was a real time intelligence test. It was fun and sometimes surprising to see who failed the test. It shouldn't have been difficult to understand his post...
I'm reminded of a scene from Sanford and Son where Fred tells aunt Ester he could press her face in batter and make gorilla cookies.
In a church play on the Exodus I was cast as pharaoh. Pretty cool. Speaking part, gold crown, gold sword. And the villain is always fun to play because you can ham it up.
I look nothing like an Egyptian whether ancient or modern.
Can someone explain the difference between Affirmative Action, and reparations?
Yeah......me neither!
As a kid, I never understood the whole “meek shall inherit the earth”.
I do now.
"If we gave every Black person in the United States five million dollars tomorrow, by Monday they would be insisting that America can't buy its way out of its guilt."
And twenty years from now, those born after the money was handed out would be insisting they should get their own checks, too.
Neverending freebies based on your skin color paid by others, based on their skin color. What could possibly go wrong?
Once you insist that you need to take money from some people in order to give it to other people for no good reason at all, it's hard to come up with an explanation of why you should stop that the recipients would ever agree with.
Black people, just cannot help but be passed over by every other ethnic group that doesn’t scream victimhood 24/7. Amazing, every culture, every ethnic group passes them in one or two generations.
She was young enough to not be a racist, until her momma taught her.
As a kid I wanted a flying monkey of my own. Does this make me a racist?
I’m afraid I was one of those who missed William’s sarcasm. But only because it was written exactly as a liberal would write and I didn’t parse it or pause to puzzle it out.
So just yesterday I heard a new term being bandied about by younger folks.
“Basketball Americans”
Anyone here want to say they didn’t immediately recognize what portion of the population that was referring to.
After some discussion we came to the conclusion that only two other sports allowed immediate recognition of the subgroup of people.
“Field Hockey Americans “, obviously white female adolescents, and “Hockey Americans “, aka Canadians. The latter tongue in cheek. Sort of.
I'm reminded of a scene from Sanford and Son where Fred tells aunt Ester he could press her face in batter and make gorilla cookies.
Not to mention the time he was defending Lamont in court - and all their friends were there - Fred said, "There are so many n*ggers in here, you could make a Tarzan movie!!" (my wife's jaw dropped to the floor)
The people who are singularly focused on race - no matter the subject - are the true racists.
Black people spend a lot more time thinking about being black than white people think about being white. They don't understand that most white people don't think about them at all.
“@William -- I thought your sarcasm was clear enough, but ... tough crowd.“
“Someone told me today that humans eat more bananas than monkeys. Sounds about right. I can’t even remember the last time I ate a monkey!”
—- Rodney Dangerfield
We should just give the money to the monkeys, where it might actually do some good.
Robert Cook said...
"Having merely skimmed the comments above, I see a great effort to refuse recognizing why a black mother would be offended that her child had been picked to portray one of the monkeys in the Wizard of Oz, namely, the long (and not dead) slur against blacks as being 'monkeys' and 'apes', physically and mentally, accompanied by corresponding treatment of them."
For over a half century, when I heard the term "flying monkeys", I thought of monkeys with wings that fly. But I realize I need to be more sensitive. From now on, I will think of Robert Cook.
Dude1394 said...
"She was young enough to not be a racist, until her momma taught her."
If you can hear the dog whistle, that means you're the dog.
The idea that racial ancestry must be researched to determine government policy is wrong. Where my ancestors came from is none of your damn business. This is America.
"For over a half century, when I heard the term 'flying monkeys,' I thought of monkeys with wings that fly. But I realize I need to be more sensitive. From now on, I will think of Robert Cook."
Well, I hope at least you won't think of me in your most "intimate" moments, Rocco, but otherwise, I blush with humility! That said, your remark is inscrutable. I have no idea what it means or how it relates to my comments. But thank you, though!
Maintaining the racial divide one child at a time.
"Any time you’ve got Black kids in your class none of them are going to be the monkeys."
And you sure as hell don't feed them fried chicken or watermelon at the annual class picnic.
"Amazing, every culture, every ethnic group passes them in one or two generations."
And every culture and ethnic group hates their guts. Name one that doesn't.
Don’t believe the whole monkey story. I smell a Juicy Smollez.
Geez! Get a look at this cry-baby blaming his problems on white racism! No fucking way! Just another spoiled, entitled black man who thinks white racists are the cause of his problems. Loser!
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