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KSig RC-it is always this time and place, everything related to the context in which it is delivered.
-I love comedy. Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy made a lot of money playing the racial angle, Red Foxx as well. They each took a different perspective though. Like KSig RC mentioned, it's easier to poke fun at your own group which often times was the tract these entertainers took. Then there is Cosby, the class act of the century. Any person could wind up rolling on the floor because he had universal appeal and found the "comedy" in
situations everyone could relate to.
-The current music industry has taken a forum with great potential and segregated the delivery of the message from the mainstream. This is ONLY an opinion. I find a great deal of the music offensive yet my son can see the social content like I did in the protest songs of the 60's. Still, some has little if none redeeming value. (This is true across the board.)
-The film industry opened my eyes with movies like "A Patch of Blue" "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" "Raisin In the Sun" and so many more. I don't care for the mindless sitcoms that seem to perpetuate the "white" impression of a black family or characters. Yet are they not black actors taking money to make us "white folk" laugh?
-Books "Black Like Me" and "To Kill a Mockingbird", off the top of my head, have had an impact on how perceive things.
-Let's not forget J. C. Watts, Langston Hughes, and the courage of Rosa Parks. Yet it has been said by various Black leaders that Jesse Jackson makes money off the charities for the betterment of his race.
-Friendships, acquaintances, peers, associates, all relationships deliver a message as well. This boils down to behavior. Are we only comfortable when everyone it white-ized?
I don't believe whites are the only ones perpetuating a double standard. As long as blacks accept money or succumb to the white dominated industries, there is a shared responsibility. On the flip side how else will there be mainstream exposure to talents or social commentary??? The proverbial "rock and a hard place"?
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