Nick Cannon Whiteface Controversy

From my Facebook Wall Post
March 25, 2014

Before today I didn't even know who Nick Cannon was, but have since found that he and Mariah Carey are a couple.



But today I saw him all over the social networks and entertainment news because he has insulted white ppl all over America. Well, I saw his egregious insult and thot it was FUNNY AND GREAT MAKEUP! He dared to make himself into a white man. (Don't call it 'whiteface' like the 'blackface' Ted Danson did with the blessing of his then GF Whoopi Goldberg.)



Anyhow, I know this is fueled by the entertainment news sources who have to get viewership and even they don't know if ppl should be incensed, asking viewers for feedback.

The only thing that upsets me is seeing how quick ppl are to become upset. No one seems to have any humor in our PC world today. Maybe it was the time in which I grew up. Maybe watching movies like Shaft (Not that motherfucking 2000 remake, with Samuel L. Jackson but the 1971 movie with Richard Roundtree) where the jive shit banter between black and white friends threw “******” around like it was some common expression. That movie could not be made today. We are now too pure to even laf at our differences or peculiarities.

So, we have become a bland, fearful culture; afraid to say certain words. Yeah I wrote that word here AND I'M WHITE. Just call me a racist, like Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder.



C'mon Ppl. Lighten UP! (Oops)

 

yeah, i thought it was pretty funny too.

 

You're really lamenting the loss of commonality for the word '******'?

I was with you up until that point.

 

He broke the barrier, I'm going blackface for Halloween and no one can say shit now!

 

What kind of barrier did he break? And yes, I laughed my ass off when I watched that movie with Robert Downey (I didn't know it was him until it showed) so I can see how this is funny.
Even if I didn't thought this was funny at all I could see how other people, even if it were only black people, find it funny. It's really a nonissue or so I would think!
So, what kind of barrier DID he break?

 

It's all about context. (I'm from the George Carlin School of Bad Words)

 

Don't think anythin of this nature offends me. The aim of comedy is to find the funny side to behaviour. Barrier ~ prob going one step further and becomin the being he may be basin his scetch on. only thing tht I get offended by is ppl feeling a superiority towards themselves, and openly preach it too, whether through word or action

 

ted dated whoopi?...gross

 

unsure if tht cmt was geared to me. If so....your very right, though saying tht old habits nva die has some truth. Though one thing i do know is tht i love the comment in ur sig, its just made my day.

 

i just read the first post...skipped the rest

 

Ohhh haha cool.

 

I agree. You'd think that Whoopi wouldn't be that hard up, but... <shrug>

 

Yeah, race humour, how cutting edge...

Fuck, Richard Pryor was over doing race humour well before he set himself on fire.

In other news, the Compact Disk is proving to be quite popular.

 

Who knew that Nick Cannon was black or a rapper?? huh learn something new everyday.

 

I like your OP Shale, and I understand the use of context, like inflection in speech, to emphasize key points for comedic effect.

Note; When an idiot, excuse me, actor, like Sacha Baron Cohen portrays a white race making fun of another white race, that is hilarious blockbuster material. Yet when a white portrays a black or a black portrays a white.... Not so cool. Yet, we made an exception for the movie White Chicks in which two talentless black guys thought they were being cutting edge by pretending to be white women. Yawn...

As for your use of the word ****** and the social implications of getting too tightassed as a society... Not only can we no longer be liberal in our comedic use of the word ******, but it is recommended banishment from our literature as a race because it is offensive...

It seems we want our cake and to eat it toothless too. We no longer have the faculty to appreciate in a comedic sense the differences between cultures, yet we want ****** jokes.. We call it hurtful, though laugh. Want it removed from our literature but want ut for a punchline.

 

Lunar, I know the history behind the word itself, but I also disagree with banning it because it's offensive. I think it's a matter of the context in which it is used. I have and will use the word "******", but where I'm from it's not a racial matter. To "us" "******" means a person of low morals & low ethics. A person that is about the lowest form of life on Earth. Essentially a human cockroach.

 

I was joking, because it will never be ok for a white person to do blackface. So the whole thing is kind of hypocritical.

I'm not really offended he dressed up like a white person but I think there is a lot of racial hypocrisy out there. A white person couldn't get away with this, and also a lot of people are under the mistaken impression that black people are never racist against white people.

 

Ah thanks for explaining. I thought you must be kidding cause I didn't see the controversy but I admit I'm also am blisfully unaware of how it would not be ok for a white person to do this. Was there any riot/hype/media attention after that movie with Robert Downey then as well?

 

No but I think because of the nature of his role..the whole premise was so silly you would have to be a huge dick to be offended

But generally in the US blackface is considered really offensive.

 

Here's my take on it at the time in a Movie Blurb excerpt. The real controversial language in that movie was the character of Simple Jack and the use of "retard." My contention is, if you take out every instance of "offensive" language you will end up with a stilted, unrealistic dialogue. Ppl say offensive things all the time and sometimes that needs portrayal in books and movies if you want it to look real.

Script: Old redneck sheriff in Mississippi, 1954
"Yo in a hep o' trouble African-American young man."
There, that is inoffensive dialogue.

Tropic Thunder
Movie Blurb by Shale
August 15, 2008

OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE CONTROVERSY

Just as in any war movie, our actors-turned-real-soldiers have their own irritation with each other and working thru that has some funny moments. Alpa Chino, a real American black is put off by a white Australian who not only has a black American role but stays in character all the time with his degrading '60s black rap. At one point he calls Lazarus a "koala-honky-******."

But that little blurb of realistic (and funny at the moment) vernacular was not the controversy with this movie.

During one of the moments when Lazarus and Speedman are discussing acting, are flashback scenes from the movie Simple Jack where Speedman stammers thru an over-the-top portrayal of a retarded man with bad teeth in his one attempt to prove himself an actor and get out of the action movies. He and Lazarus are talking about how he may have gone too far in his portrayal of a retarded person to where it affected his mind.

Here's the dialogue:
Speedman: "There were times when I was doing Jack when I actually felt retarded. Like really retarded."
Lazarus: "Oh yeah. Damn."
Speedman: "In a weird way, I had to sort of just free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid or dumb."
Lazarus: "To be a moron."
Speedman: "Yeah."
Speedman: "It's what we do, right?"
Lazarus: "Everybody knows you never do a full retard."
Speedman: "What do you mean?"
Lazarus: "Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man,' look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump.' Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard."

With that bit of dialogue and Stiller's portrayal in a mock movie, Simple Jack many of the agencies working with developmentally disabled people were up in arms and some even proposing a boycott. (Good luck with that).

I have worked in the field with developmentally disabled people since the time we called them retarded. Language changes, gets euphemized over the years so that what was once acceptable is now embarrassing or insulting. Such as moron, imbecile and idiot, all clinical terms for developmentally disabled until they made their way into common and insulting usage.

Now, "retard" is an insulting word and those in the profession try to get away from it. Even the agency I work for had "retarded" in its name when it started in the 1960s. Likewise, one of the agencies in an uproar over this movie ARC would like to forget that its acronym was originally the Agency for Retarded Citizens.

Just as "koala-honky-******" may look more derogatory in print or on your monitor, it was funny when delivered by Brandon T. Jackson on the screen. Reading the dialogue between Downey and Stiller in script may look more insulting than it sounded at the moment describing an absurd premise that actors get too into character. (Maybe not an absurd premise to some who thought the Heath Ledger killed himself because of getting into the character of The Joker).

You had to have heard Downey, with the makeup and inflections of a black man of the '60s delivering the lines and you had to see him as not a professional in the developmental disability field but as a regular guy talking about acting roles.

My advice to the organizations that express umbrage and advocate boycotts; Get Real! It ain't gonna happen and you may even help this movie like the fanatical Christians who wanted to boycott The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Not everyone is sensitive to the offensive language in a dialogue between two actors playing a character who is playing a character. Inform people with your sensitivity of what they will encounter but it is a personal choice whether to see this movie or not. I did and enjoyed it very much. I intend to add it to my extensive DVD collection and to see it again.


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