A Short Compilation of Appropriation: Harlem Shake Included

Do the Harlem Shake has finally gotten to black people who now also "do the Harlem Shake" by not actually doing the damn "Harlem Shake" at all.Paul Mooney famously once said, "Everybody wants be a nigga but nobody wants to be a nigga," which is about the most true statement in the history of African American culture. People LOVE black culture, but hate the folks who make it. If only there was a way to enjoy all this good black stuff without the pesky black people. And hence, appropriation was born. But it's not always Pat Boone taking the funk out of Motown or Elvis making "hip thrusts" white people friendly. Today, appropriation is more of a comedy art form practiced by hip hop loving white people who want the thrill of saying the "N-word" but not that pesky backlash afterwards. 

Here is a brief compliation of white appropriations in black culture (particularly hip hop and "ratchetness"), and what these appropriations mean.

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Some GOPers Will Be No Shows For President's Job Speech Tonight, Possibly Because They're Jerks

President Barack Obama talks with Governor Rick Perry to express his concern for citizens of Texas impacted by the unprecedented fires, during a phone call in the Oval Office, Sept. 7, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)With the Obama Presidency (and the constant disrespect this President gets for having the nerve to be president), sometimes it's hard to tell if Republicans are being dicks because the president is a black guy or because the president is a Democrat.

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The Southern Experience: I Didn't Know Slave Reinactors Did Political Hodowns? (WTF)

Um ... is this Colonial Williamsburg or something? No? It's a party thrown by the National Federation of Republican Women in South Carolina, you say? It featured people dressed up like both Confederates AND slaves? Well, spank me on the ass and call me Scarlett O'Hara, what in the great land o' cotton is this!

More after the jump.

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Racist Or Not: Harry Reid and Blago Get Blacker Than Black

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the word "Negro" and disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod "Crazy-Pants" Blagojevich says he's "blacker" than the president. Everyone go crazy!

I'm no fan of Harry Reid, mostly because I think he's useless. But I think his "Negro dialect" comment is about as dumb as Vice President Joe Biden calling Obama "clean" and "articulate" during election 2008. Meaning -- what the hell, old dudes?

More after the jump.

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Give It Up For the HNIC! ... Wait? What?

St. Petersburg Mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford quoted Cornel West's HNIC comment and got herself some criticism for it.Part of some of the criticism about Warren Ballentine telling Juan Williams he could "go back to the porch" came from those who felt Ballentine shouldn't have used a term blacks throw around among themselves in public. "What would happen if others started using it!?!?" some wondered. Everyone knows there are a lot of terms just used by black people, for black people and against black people that would ... er ... not sound as kosher coming out of the mouths of a non-black person.

Case in point the term "HNIC," aka "Head Negro (nee, nigger) In Charge."

More after the jump.

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Racist or Art: Model Lara Stone Painted Black In French Vogue

From The UK Guardian:

"What Klein and Roitfeld should know … is that painting white people black for the entertainment of other white people is offensive in ways that stand entirely apart from cultural context," it said. "France and Australia may not have the United States' particular history of minstrel shows … but something about the act of portraying a white woman as black ought to sound an alarm, somewhere."

This can be viewed several ways in my opinion ...

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Harry Connick Jr. Manages To Not Murder Blackfaced J5 Aussie "Tribute" (O RLY?)

Some things have to be seen to be believed, like five dorks in blackface (and one in "whiteface") doing a "tribute" to the Jackson 5 as the Jackson Jive. I suppose you could attempt the "maybe Aussies don't know blackface is offensive in 2009" excuse. That might work, you know? If they didn't already have their own indigenous group of brown people who've suffered endless humiliations at the hands of the majority population. If anything it shows how just because you have your own racial issues doesn't make you all that sensitive to the issues of others. Fortunately Harry Connick Jr., lovable New Orleans jazz man, was there to remind folks that blackface just is not funny. Mostly by mentioning that no one would pull that shit in the states for fear of a severe case of beatdown. Unless it's Halloween and you're a drunk frat boy dressed up as a "rapper." But then, if you're doing that it's probably not on television and within the relative safety of your Phi Kappa House.

Question of the Day: Rep. Clyburn Has A Civil Rights Protest Flashback on the Healthcare Debate

Something about the angry people, mostly white, with signs, screaming things have caused Rep. James Clyburn, pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement to have what I sometimes jokingly call a "slavery flashback." That's a moment where you see something that causes a chill to run down your spine, something you know about deep in your subconscious that scares the living daylights out of you because it reminds you of a less than pleasant past -- whether you experienced that past or not.

For Clyburn it's the healthcare debate. He sees "hate" and he sees "fear" and he doesn't like it. It reminds him of a time he would rather forget.

More after the jump.

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Question of the day: Racially-Tinted Agitprop? (Racist or Not)

From NewsbustersIs there a racial undertone to the "Barack Obama as Joker" agitprop going around? Philip Kennicott with the Washington Post seems to think so.

(T)he poster is ultimately a racially charged image. By using the "urban" makeup of the Heath Ledger Joker, instead of the urbane makeup of the Jack Nicholson character, the poster connects Obama to something many of his detractors fear but can't openly discuss. He is black and he is identified with the inner city, a source of political instability in the 1960s and '70s, and a lingering bogeyman in political consciousness despite falling crime rates.

The Joker's makeup in "Dark Knight" -- the latest film in a long franchise that dramatizes fear of the urban world -- emphasized the wounded nature of the villain, the sense that he was both a product and source of violence. Although Ledger was white, and the Joker is white, this equation of the wounded and the wounding mirrors basic racial typology in America. Urban blacks -- the thinking goes -- don't just live in dangerous neighborhoods, they carry that danger with them like a virus. Scientific studies, which demonstrate the social consequences of living in neighborhoods with high rates of crime, get processed and misinterpreted in the popular unconscious, underscoring the idea. Violence breeds violence.

Still, not everyone, like The Guardian's Lola Adesioye sees what the big deal is.

Let's take the accusation of racism. I believe that the president's race means that there is a need for cultural sensitivity in how people talk about and depict him. And there is no doubt that some other cartoons and pictures have been offensive or highly questionable. However, there is also a need to avoid being overly sensitive at every single joke or piece of satire that comes Obama's way, particularly those that are in contrast to one's own beliefs about the president. Is it simply too easy to call something anti-Obama "racist" just because one doesn't agree with it?

Where do you fall? I tend to agree more with Adesioye in that it's just a caricature. I find it more silly than offensive and politicians are regularly drawn in unflattering fashion. But if you do think the illustration is racially tinged liked Kennicott and dangerous, I'd love to hear your argument below.