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Thanks Eric R! ‘”I find it vaguely irritating how Eddie Murphy is given free [rein] to depict the cliched, overbearing, domineering black woman without any complaints,” wrote a blogger on Salon.com. “Hell, I’m white, and even I’m offended by this depictio
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“Such voices [like Oprah Winfrey and John Ridley]…are increasingly vocal and pointed. They are shattering the unwritten rules of black solidarity: Let’s all work together. And if we can’t, let’s at least keep our fights within the family.”
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“Most Latinos in the United States attend churches that started in their own neighborhoods…But Long says black churches have a special lesson for Hispanics. Like African-Americans before them, new Latino arrivals are struggling with poverty, finding wor
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“Find the Illegal Immigrant” There will be one individual with a nametag that reads ‘illegal immigrant’. This person has volunteered to do so and is not actually an illegal immigrant. On Thursday people will be signing up to be ‘INS’ and the first person
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“MTV Desi was not MTV India. Not something piped in for the Aunties and Babujis…instead, reflects the fact that we are creating something new, forging a unique identity from the melange available to us as Ameri-Brit-Canadian-Kenyan-Punjabi-Hindu-Tamil-B
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
mr guy wrote:
I’m going to tr4y to check out Norbit before I judge it.It might be funny.Not very often I get to see a black nerd portrayed in a movie.
Posted 22 Feb 2007 at 7:46 am ¶
Robin wrote:
Some criticisims are valid, but the one about Norbit is ridiculous. People nowadays complain entirely too much about any and everything. Norbit was not about all black women. It was about ONE fictional woman. Would it have been better if “Resputia” had been skinny??? People would have still whined about it. For pete’s sake, what is happening nowadays?
Not only that, but Eddie Murphy started the whole dressing-up-as-a fat-black-woman-in-a-comedy thing. Anybody remember Professor Klump’s mother? Was that a negative portrayal of fat, black women too?
A person with common sense realizes that “Resputia” is a totally over-the-top character, and not meant to be a depiction of every single black woman.
And why would the character offend white people??? Get a grip with all of the phony outrage.
Posted 22 Feb 2007 at 11:09 am ¶
Rob wrote:
What about when he dressed up like an old Asian man and did the usual tired stereotypical accent?
Posted 22 Feb 2007 at 1:57 pm ¶
Angel H. wrote:
Robin: Just because you don’t agree with what someone else believes does not mean that that person’s opinion is invalid. And how dare you minimize their outrage by calling it “phony”?
You ask “why would the character offend white people”, but a better question would be “why wouldn’t it?” Example: I’m a heterosexual female, but I’m offended when I hear someone call a person a “faggot”. It’s called sympathy: Get some.
Frankly, I think the fat suit jokes have really gotten old. “Just Friends”, “Shallow Hal”, both “Big Mama’s House” movies, and both “Nutty Professor” movies were tired before they even hit the screen. These movies and those like them follow one of two formulas:
Formula 1: Put skinny actor in fat suit. Fat character (FC) is in love with slender character (SC), but SC isn’t attracted to FC. Hijinks ensue. FC loses weight; SC suddenly realizes what a great person FC lives. Happily ever after.
Formula 2: Put skinny actor in fat suit. FC is comfortable in his/her own body, but is portrayed as loud, obnoxious, and rude, making him/her immediately unattractive to all SCs. Hijinks ensue. Plot? What plot? Happily ever after.
Posted 22 Feb 2007 at 7:25 pm ¶
Angel H. wrote:
Sorry about all the typos. I misspell when I’m angry.
Posted 22 Feb 2007 at 7:27 pm ¶
Colin wrote:
Don’t these movies and these characters, don’t they at least insult our intelligence by now, Robin?
Posted 23 Feb 2007 at 2:10 am ¶
mr guy wrote:
Rob makes a good point.On the other hand it doesn’t look like that character plays as big of a role as others.But he does make a good point.
Posted 23 Feb 2007 at 7:31 am ¶
Rob wrote:
It matters not if the role was big or small but rather it’s presence that is of concern.
I have a feeling that blacks feel they have the “right” to racially insult others because they’ve been the target of bigotry. Sadly, this reason is becoming more and more popular.
Posted 23 Feb 2007 at 11:37 am ¶
Sewere wrote:
Dude, unless you can point to substantial evidence of what blacks do or do not feel regardign our interaction with other ethnicities, you need to stop making these damn stupid ass stereotyping statements, OK?
This is not the first time you’ve deployed stupid stereotypes about black folk (as if it will further buttress your criticism of anti-Asian jokes). I for one am starting to get tired of having to call you on it.
Posted 23 Feb 2007 at 1:55 pm ¶
Anonymous wrote:
Sewere,
I don’t understand your anger in this case.
Perhaps Rob should’ve put “some” before the word “blacks”, but this whole idea that people can’t even hypothesize based on things they see in front of them what a person may be thinking at the time that they do something offensive, well, that’s insulting to my intelligence.
This sort of criticism, that a group must be thinking or NOT thinking a certain way, has been used before by respondents to this blog, mostly in response to racist white actions, and yet it’s only NOW that you respond with such venom? That’s awful.
While I too feel that Rob has missed the mark when he says he implies that black people SOLELY feel so empowered to racially insult by the history of their oppression, I am unsure whether or not there is a black consensus, at least in middle class communities, like the one I come from, that we black people should be given leeway to be more prejudiced because of our past.
I see times where some black people stand hand in hand with other minority groups and protest and rally and fight together the racist imagery coming out of the media and the powerwielders in our society and sometimes I see other black people, not unlike any other people mind you, giving into the near-sightedness of anti-Semitism, anti-Koreanism, anti-Latinoism, etc. It’s too mixed a bag, this black people, for me to be able to say unequivocally that blacks are or are not holding within their hearts the opinion that racism is okay for them.
That said, if you think what Rob said is a stereotype, at least explain how so. Saying he can’t say what he feels blacks (or at least some blacks) think as a group seems so much more like a deflection that I can’t see anyone taking you very seriously.
Posted 23 Feb 2007 at 4:01 pm ¶
kim wrote:
Rob:
I have a feeling that blacks feel they have the “right” to racially insult others because they’ve been the target of bigotry. Sadly, this reason is becoming more and more popular.
What is Rob talking about here? You want a defense of Eddie Murphy, as advocate and spokesperson for Black people? A comedian who would do the Fat-Mama-On-the-Couch routine to get your money out of your pocket? (Fat-Mama-On-the-Couch being a term borrowed from George C. Wolfe’s narrative instruction for his play, Colored Museum, about 1985, or so)
Your question regarding the portrayal of the Asian man in an old film, which one would have to re-watch to remember, is one for an Asian person as well, no? Was it racially offensive, insensitive, caricaturish, or merely tired?
How do you come to feel that Blacks have taken a license to ‘racially insult’ others? Is this routinely done, without discussion, without incident?
‘Becoming more and more popular — how so?’ (Please don’t stick to comedy, all those guys take incessant liberties, and we’ve discussed varying degrees of insensitivity and poor performance, as well as outright racist portrayals here at R-; plus, I don’t watch comedy, so it carries no cache for me at all.)
What do you know of the ‘rights’ Blacks may profess to have -and exercise? You (should, by this time) know there is no concensus ANYWHERE within the Black community(ies) on anything, and where there are gathered two or more Blacks and the discussion turns to acts of racism, not even then can all concerned agree about who has agency, and whether any group is excused from having agency.
Posted 28 Feb 2007 at 1:29 am ¶