Posted on 11/13/2017 1:07:12 PM PST by simpson96
At Reed College, a small liberal-arts school in Portland, Oregon, a 39-year-old Saturday Night Live skit recently caused an uproar over cultural appropriation. In the classic Steve Martin skit, he performs a goofy song, “King Tut,” meant to satirize a Tutankhamun exhibit touring the U.S. and to criticize the commercialization of Egyptian culture. You could say that his critique is weak; that his humor is lame; that his dance moves are unintentionally offensive or downright racist. All of that, and more, was debated in a humanities course at Reed.
But many students found the video so egregious that they opposed its very presence in class. “That’s like somebody … making a song just littered with the n-word everywhere,” a member of Reedies Against Racism (RAR) told the student newspaper when asked about Martin’s performance. She told me more: The Egyptian garb of the backup dancers and singers—many of whom are African American—“is racist as well. The gold face of the saxophone dancer leaving its tomb is an exhibition of blackface.”(snip)
A Hum protest is visually striking: Up to several dozen RAR supporters position themselves alongside the professor and quietly hold signs reading “We demand space for students of color,” “We cannot be erased,” “F*** Hum 110,” “Stop silencing black and brown voices; the rest of society is already standing on their necks,” and so on. The signs are often accompanied by photos of black Americans killed by police.
One of the first Hum professors to request that RAR not occupy the classroom was Lucía Martínez Valdivia, who said her preexisting PTSD would make it difficult to face protesters. In an open letter, RAR offered sympathy to Martínez Valdivia but then accused her of being anti-black, discriminating against those with disabilities, and engaging in gaslighting—without specifying those charges.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
LOL
I love the sign “Reed can do better”.
They sure can—expel the protesting students!
hater!
What a dull class. It has no atmosphere.
When I attended college in the 60’s, we all carried an ashtray so that we could smoke in class.
Don't forget, a lot of people didn't think Martin was funny back then, and I was one of them.
He may have gone up slightly for me since then just from familiarity. But protesting the "King Tut" novelty song while ignoring the history of rap is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And the liberals have to try hard lately to get me to say that.
Yeah, and I didn't get Uncle Miltie either. He says something stupid and the audience goes bonkers. Must have been a generational thing.
You evil! Funny, but evil.
The stupidist thing is the vapors they would get from Blazing Saddles, the demagoguery, and the crying...for a movie. While, to a one, they support the most evil political system since a Khan rode across the steppes.
If I had a time machine, I would go Stalin on their asses, or Mao, or Pol Pot; their pick.
The death of comedy!
If you ever read his biography “Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life”, you’ll quickly understand his humor was more in the line of a vaudeville act or street performer vein.
This would explain why his humor is less about the jokes and more about the slapstick and drawing of attention. I still think it holds up well in that regard sort of in the Chaplain/Keaton vain more so than the a true standup such as Button, Newhart, early Pryor, etc.
Book was well done I thought.
Blazing Saddles would kill these little snowflakes.
One of the greatest movies ever made.
Never saw it before! Hilarious.
I just watched “The Jerk” — Martin’s dancing on the porch at the end is fantastic. He was such a great performer and musician.
I can’t believe anybody would be discussing a Steve Martin skit for perceived racism.
“Buried with hid donkey, He’s my favorite honkey.”
“Sorry about the ‘up yours n****r’”. One of the greatest lines in movie comedy.
Personally, I keep my copy of Blazing Saddles hidden. Living in Caliph-phony-a, you never know when Governor Moonbat and his Brown gang of thought police might knock on my door.
But yes, it was a great movie. Mel Brooks at his un-PC best. Sad that it could never be made today. At least nobody could “reimagine” it and turn it into total dreck, much like some of the recent mega-super-blockbusters that Holly-weird has been foisting on us of late.
Is a down the Matterhorn race with patches of black ice to make things interesting, and with a non-niggardly host of contenders. Like Mel Brook's "Blazing Saddles", I doubt that Steve Martin's "The Jerk" could make it past the first script reading today. This is pretentious madness by clueless idiots given license by the LEFTist ideologues of Academia.
Funny you would say that @ Berle...I was just watching him in a Dean Martin roast of...wait for it...Sammy Davis.
Check it out.
There is NO WAY they could do some of those lines in this day.
The snowflakes’ tender brains would explode.
Leftists/SJW’s destroy everything they touch.
“The chinks can stay but we don’t want the Irish!”
“He says something stupid and the audience goes bonkers.”
Ditto for Soupy Sales. I never did get it.
He gave his life for tourism!
I would love to screen Blazing Saddles - Mel Brook’s masterpiece - for these whiners, and then explain to them that Richard Pryor was one of the screenwriters!
Hilarity would ensue...
This behavior during class should be unacceptable to the students.
Many of them have mortgaged their lives to pay for school. It’s their dime, not the protesters. The school should be forced to reschedule lectures or refund tuition for disrupted classes, for it is the schools responsibility to provide a classroom environment conducive to learning & free from distractions.
No doubt more than one affected student came away from this with the same level of disgust for these black racist whiners that I have.
“The sheriff is near!”
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