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Audacity of Truth
Flyswatter in Chief:
"He had this fly that was persistently buzzing around him during the interview...he swatted his hand and he said ‘I got the sucker’...it was a, you know, Dirty Harry ‘make my day’ moment."- The NYT's John Harwood, describing Obama's killing of a fly - 6/16/09
Slap me, please.
I just got done sitting through over 6 minutes of a “debate” that happened earlier this week between View co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck on whether or not it’s ok to use the “n-word.” Goldberg’s opinion so upset Hasselbeck that she started to tear up a bit towards the end of the segment. Here’s the video:
That’s 6 minutes and 29 seconds of my life I’ll never get back.
Watching Barbara Walters pander to the shows two black co-hosts by patronizing Elisabeth was infuriating. Not only that, but I should have known better to watch Whoopi Goldberg (and Sherri Shepherd) make the stupidest argument I’ve ever heard in favor of it being “ok” for black people to use the “n-word”, considering some of her other infamously stupid arguments, such as the time when she called for “reverence” for women who aborted their unborn children. Then there’s the hypocritical Joy Behar, who smirked the whole way through as Whoopi tried to tear Elisabeth down.
EH has the patience of a saint. There’s no way in hell I’d last on that show for more than 2 minutes. It’s embarassing to me as a woman that that show is supposed to symbolize the “views” of women all across American.
Not this woman.
(Hat tip to ST reader Leslie)
Update: Here are the opinions of a couple of black actors on the debate between Whoopi and Elisabeth. Only read it if you’re mild-mannered and not prone to throwing things across the room when you get really, really irritated.
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16 Responses to “Slap me, please.”
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I think Whoopi’s point held a lot of merit. By taking back a derogatory word and making it your own, you get rid of it’s power. We are running a comedy in NYC, called the “feminazi” (the n-word for women), and we are doing the same thing: we are breaking down this derogatory term and rending it powerless.
When I was a child, everyone used the term “colored.” One day, when I was about 7, our housekeeper sat me down and said that it was time I learned the correct terminology. She explained that she was a Negro and to call her “colored” was considered demeaning. She also explained that some people with sloppy English used the term “n!gger” when they meant Negro. She told me that was considered both demeaning and insulting. She called it an “accent” and not so common in our northern town as it was below the Mason-Dixon Line.
I took those words to heart because around the same time my Mother was telling me that Carrie, our housekeeper, had more class in her little finger than 99% of the people she knew. So for several years, I was careful to always use the correct race designation of Negro.
Then I went away to college and suddenly I was told, in not so nice terms, that it was insulting to call Blacks Negroes. Black Power and all that. From there we seemed to go back to a variation of “colored” with the new phrase of “people of color.” Before I was able to catch up with that transition, we’d moved on to African-American, a term that I hate. A term that makes no sense to me at all.
Africa is a continent, not a country. What possible common ground is found between Egyptians of the African continent and South Afrikans of the African continent or say the Libyans. Why should a continent be given precedence over our own country of America?
Carrie Daniels would say, “I am an American. My skin is darker, but that is the only difference between you and me.” And then she would get in a little dig and say, “but there is nothing like a good ‘ol bring the house down Negro spiritual to liven up the place and get you in the proper state of mind.” as she would burst into a beautiful rendition of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” or “There’s No Hiding Place.”
I felt for Elizabeth today. It gets really confusing when you want to do the right thing, you would never want to hurt someone’s feelings or insult or demean them, and yet as fast as you learn one rule, the rules change and suddenly you are being called a racist or a bigot. How ’bout we all just work on being good Americans and celebrate the American culture instead of the black culture or the Hispanic culture or the Muslim culture or the whatever culture. Isn’t this country big enough and great enough to have its own culture instead of all these little cliques of culture that each say the others can never understand? Can’t we recognize that we are all living in the same country, working at the same types of jobs, sending our kids to the same types of schools, living lives that for the most part are far more alike than different?
Does it really help to say that we are not alike, we cannot understand, or that our experiences come from far different places? I wanted to yell thru the TV to Whoopie, “oh you think your experience was so different? I lived 5 blocks from where you were living in San Diego and at the same time. I was a single Mom struggling just like you. And, oh yeah, Whoopie, I didn’t have any talent I could parlay into millions. No one jumped to open any doors for me, I had to slug it out from the bottom and work hard to get to a mundane middle class existence. So some jerks called you the N-word, at least they didn’t call you stupid or fat, or ugly or 4-eyes, or slant-eyes, or pock face or porker or lazy, or trash, or slut, all terms I’ve heard used towards people I’ve known thru the years.”
Sara’s points are excellent and they align with much of what I feel about this subject. I, too, have trouble with the notion that I can never understand. What am I, braindead? Of course I can understand and have empathy for the suffering of others. What people like Whoopi and Sherri and the two actors in the link fail to understand, is that most people have dealt with similar forms of abuse throughout their lives. I’ve been left out, not because of skin color, but because of nepotism. It’s not the reason as much as being left out that hurts.
As far as the “N” word, and I hate that expression, the only people that can deflate the power of any word is the one to whom the word is directed. To say that I can use a word, but you can’t, is assinine. Who is anyone to deny me the use of any word. I don’t care what you call me, for I know who and what I am. I am not defined by some jerk with a bad attitude. I’m more concerned with the emotion and intent than I am with the words used. Name calling is nowhere near as important as the intent behind it.
Here’s the problem: the blacks who talk like these people are clinging to victimhood by their attitude toward white usage of the word. If a word is “bad”, it’s bad for everyone. If there is anytime when it is OK for some to use the word, then it must be OK for others to use it as well. Otherwise, they are segregating themselves. And I think to some extent, this is a real desire. There should not be a Black Caucus, for if one is in public office, one serves all. There really is no such thing as “the Black experience”, there is only the human experience. As Hasslebeck suggested, how can we move passed this crap called racism if the victims won’t eject their victimhood? They are either a part of the family of man or they aren’t. There are enough non-blacks willing to welcome them that they should cease the “its a black thing” nonsense.
So why not just start using the “B” word amonst women, pretty soon everyone will be able to use it and it will mean nothing. Pretty soon it will be a term of endearment.
What Whoopie is saying is absolutely not true, otherwise where is the offense if Barbra was to use the “N” word. This is a ridiculous double standard and is completely assnine, and to defend this is just an afront to any normal person’s sensabilities.
I like how Whoopie had to use her Mother’s experiences in life in order to defend her own perspective. – Lorica
To use a quote from Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?” I agree with Sara. This do as I say not as I do attitude is keeping the victimhood of our brother and sisters of color apart from us as Americans.
I hated to see EH being taken to task by the two other hosts who would not give her a good rationale of their view. She was talking to stone walls and that means division and no common ground reached. Sounds like the brothers and sisters of color do not want to be accepted as just an american. They enjoy the attention and the minority status. That is not being stereotypical, just frank.
The list of forbidden words grows longer every year:
The N-word.
The H-word.
The B-word.
The I-word.
The other H-word.
The M-word.
The P-word.
The other N-word.
The V-word.
The F-word (not the original F-word, which is now o.k.).
The P-word.
The other I-word.
Memorize this list and make sure that none of them ever pass your lips. Report anyone who does use them to the nearest Revolutionary Watch Committtee.
Nonsense, cheryl. There’s no similarity at all. The n-word is a slur on all members of a race. It has nothing to do with what anyone does or says. It’s applied equally to leftists like Sharpton and Obama to conservatives like Thomas Sowell and Michael Steele.
The feminazi label, on the other hand, must be earned. It applies to close-minded people with a far-left ideology that demands complete adherence and has absolutely no tolerance for dissent or discussion. You know, the kind who obsess over “Men Working” signs near construction sites. No one would apply the term, for example, to Sister Toldjah, or to Sara. You, I’m not so sure about.
That’s reminiscent of Pauline Kael’s comment after the 1972 election, where she was certain the results were fixed becuase everyone she knew was voting for George McGovern. Hate to break it to you, but the only people who will come to your “comedy” are already in your little left-wing echo chamber. It will have absolutely no effect in the real world.
Jo Graham says:
And maybe that’s why she cried. I think they were tears of frustration more than anything. And while the headline writers declaimed that EH had been reduced to tears, I prefer to think that she was elevated by them.
You forgot about the T-word. Actually, I forgot about the T-word, and brought the wrath of the unhinged half of the Cheddarsphere down on me.
Oh well; they seem to have missed their mark, especially since the VRWC half rose up to my defense (see the links of yesterday’s Scramble).
Heh, feminazi, the n-word for women? You’re joking, right? I always thought the c-word was the biggie… Hmmm.. GWR is absolutely right.
Lorica wrote: “So why not just start using the “B” word amonst women, pretty soon everyone will be able to use it and it will mean nothing. Pretty soon it will be a term of endearment.”
Actually, that was an idea in the late ’80s and early ’90s. It was quite a popular word among certain stereotypical feminists at the University of Michigan. One of my roommates tried calling me t in a “friendly” way – we weren’t friends at all, I should add. I just smiled and called her a c**t. She actually gasped in offense!
The funny part was that “bitch” was no better at that point. My friends and I considered it grounds for a break-up if a boyfriend ever used that on us!
We weren’t unusually squeamish, either. The Glen Close thriller “Jagged Edge” (’85 or ‘86) had a rapist/murderer who had written “bitch” on a wall. The shocking trick was for the female defense attorney to get a man on the stand to call her that. Ooooo!
But “taking back” the word in women’s magazines and such acted like a vocabulary booster tape. The word was bored into the brain. Not just female brains, either. And not just women, of course. Men seemed especially delighted to use the verb “bitching” instead of “complaining” in office situations when the complainers just so happened to be female. Then it was on TV as a noun, a verb, and an adjective.
So basically if you’re white, male, straight and a Christian, you basically can’t say anything to anybody about anything, or did I miss something?
EH–tears of frustration I think and maybe hurt–she was trying to make a reasonable point and the rest of them informed her she can’t possibly understand and has no right to her opinion. They treat her like she is an idiot. Sometimes I think The show needs a stronger conservative–E gets too emotional maybe sometimes–but I guess Joy and Whoopi wouldn’t stand for it–they seem like such bullies with people who don’t share their views—whatever the topic–and God Knows they wouldn’t want someone who could match them–barb for barb (isn’t that what the two of them do–little insidious barbs at people they don’t agree with and view as dumber—
ooo it kinda sounds like I watch The View all the time–ovey
Don’t think you missed anything, vegas art guy.
Then again, I haven’t been much for listening to liberals.