I like what Alan said because it raises the interesting question of freedom of speech, which everyone has been exercising in spades. I find it laughable when people say, “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” The point of freedom is that if you don’t like it you can do whatever you darn well please to reconcile that with yourself as long as it is within your rights.

Accountability is the only reasonable lesson from all of this. I just can’t bring myself to heap the weight of all the world’s inequities on the shoulders of Loren. He’s a BSer whose BS caught up with him. That being said, there are people out there orders of magnitude worse and Louis, Wayne and Corvida did a lovely job of unearthing a few recently.

What do I mean when I say accountability? I mean that if you put your name on any piece of content, you accept the consequences of that content (good, bad or otherwise). The less popular your opinion, the more problems you might see.

There it is.

Loren opened a powder keg that exploded in his face. Now it’s on him to deal with it. Is it the end of the world? I’ll raise you two ethnic cleanings that it isn’t. All of you wonderful people are responding from your hearts, and maybe learning some new things about the medium that you’ve been working in. You’re finding a common voice, and realizing that more than a few people support the cause of equity. This is a fantastic thing, and I encourage everyone to keep discussions like this going but expand them beyond Feldman into broader matters.

I only wish we lived in a world where everyone rose up against and acted on all the horrible, biting inequities in the world. Unfortunately, we don’t but with tools like we have now to express ourselves, maybe we can.

If I am completely off base here, c’est la vie. Thanks for the time.

I haven’t seen the video; but I don’t want to get into the antics of is this or that racist or not. I think there’s a fine line between folks making comedy out of their life experiences and those that perpetuate negative stereotypes.

but i also see ego at the basis of religious fundamentalism of any variety, wherever you find it in the world

in america the phrase “the dominant group” seems to be used by feminists about masculinists also, but in the racial point of view for those caught up into racial discrimanation, (seeing different races) the dominant culture in most countries is not white, it is brown … (and i hate even making those surface distinctions …. there is only one race, and until the world sees that there will always be trouble) … and in these (please excuse) brown worlds there is every kind of distinction made, on a microtonal basis, about who and who does not deserve power, or who one can marry, etc.

In short, this IS a human problem, and once you see that you can no longer say it is about color… it is about ego, it is about identifying one’s self as a part, rather than as the whole, it is about addiction to a limited view of oneself, the world, and reality …

the only way out is to erase the concept of differences, but it amazes me that when somebody does that, they are also castigated by those who are addicted to seeing difference … you dont have the “luxury of being desensitized” because you are a member of the particular local dominant group, you have it because you have become conscious of a higher order of human functioning, one that is based on the unity of all existence.

how to get there is an interseting discussion, but confrontation may not be one of the successful techniques that accomplishes it

thanks for your time … probably the short version for everybody, change your mind, change your life

your voice was reasonably prominent in followup discussion; based on that i wish to know your opinion of the following, found on http://www.huffingtonpost.com …specifically, is this racist?

““Chocolate News” is ostensibly a newsmagazine — the “Dateline” to Jon Stewart’s “Nightly News.” As an example of what viewers can expect, Mr. Grier pointed to an upcoming skit about the person who does John McCain’s laundry. The skit also features Mr. McCain’s “Reverend Wright-type person,” referring to Mr. Obama’s controversial pastor.

Mr. Grier joked: “We found John McCain’s launderer, his dry cleaner, and his recordings… where the guy goes, you know, ‘Black and white cannot be together. If they mix, white will be ruined. This cannot be allowed to happen.’ ” In the skit, the comments are “used by the ‘Chocolate News’ to bring him down,” Mr. Grier added.

is this show going to something any different than what mr. feldman did? it is by black mainstream comedians apparently

does it seem “off” to you?

for me, “insensitve to race” means having gone beyond race …. race has no meaning except for the phrase “the human race” and anybody who thinks otherwise is simply being limited, inexperienced, and quite possibly ignorant

i was sad to see BOTH sides of the discussion that existed last week, because unity is a higher order of mental functioning, and people addicted to duality seem to be missing something crucial to their own peace of mind

thanks for your time, and your opinon

gregory lent

http://mashable.com/2008/07/08/technigga/

There’s this strange aspect of people who spout off like this and the people who spout off in their defense. They make blanket generalizations, think of it as simply that, they make blanket generalizations, and then they feign this surprise when countless people take them to task.

Then, for fear that they might have *listen* instead of whatever it is that pundits and mouthpieces do, they start squealing like a stuck pig that they are being censored.

Yes, it make me angry.

And it’s subtle things like that Mashable article above that make me angry. If you don’t like it don’t watch it.

You mean, I can’t speak out against it? I can’t ask that person to leave my house? I can’t tell that person that I don’t want to do business with them? I can’t tell Verizon (sickening firm to begin with) that I don’t want to have those sentiments beamed into my phone?

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean that you are unaccountable for what you say. Freedom of speech does not mean zero accountability. A vast swath of society responding to racist prattle with open and vocal disgust is also freedom of speech.

We Canadians have a long way to go on the racism front — I know folks don’t want to hear about this kinda stuff because it upsets their false reality but it has to be brought into the foreground and when it is, we shouldn’t so easily discount it.

It reinforces the belief that some people who do race work reinforce time and again that people of color view racism completely different than so-called “white” people. What I mean is, according to their wisdom, “white” people tend to view racism as individual acts of meanness, while people of color tend to take a larger, more systemic view of racism and bigotry. Were the jackholes who sh*t all over Wayne and Corvida’s live stream being individually mean? Of course. But it’s all to easy to pass it off as one act of foolish behaviour instead of something that is indicative of a much larger problem.

I was going to blog about this myself, but you and Bwana have already spoken so eloquently on the subject, there’s just no need for me to do so.

Living in Memphis as I have since 1980, its hard to believe anything could shock me regarding this issue-but that screenshot made me want to puke. I’m so sorry people still have to see and hear that crap and I guess I’m sorry too that I’m so insulated that it shocked me.