you know, talking about "how Hollywood fucks up anything related to African Americans even when they award them an Oscar" i had a little anecdote happen at this rap show i went to tonight that speaks to this general sentiment here.
i happened to be one of only ~3 white people attending the show, and one of the other ones was this photographer dude who i called "Triforce" (it was either that or "Hyrule") rockin a legend of zelda hat+shirt combo as he was legit "doing his thing" with the photography steez. at one point i had just came back in from having a cigarette outside and i ended up settling in on the left side of the stage by a corner of the bar+wall where they had a L shaped couch getup that had a few "cool lookin balck guys" [one guy was rockin sunglasses indoors with a sharp looking black-clothing ensemble, another dude with a knit cap and big ol headphones around his neck, you know, basically people waiting around to perform later**] chillin there all vibin out to the music and whatnot. when triforce noticed that i had just came back in he gets all up in my face [non-threatening / more-performance] and is like "DUDE WHAT THE FUCK?!?! DON'T YOU KNOW I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONLY WHITE DUDE HERE?!? *POINTS TO THE EXIT* YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW CUZ THIS IS MY JOINT TONIGHT!!!"
...and then he kinda looked around at all the different black ppl kinda half-mugging for laughter, lamentably getting none at all
he quickly recovered and started bullshitting with me, ending in one of those high five + handshake + shoulder-bump combos and then did a little ~33% ironic [over]dancing to the hip hop music and moved on to go take pictures from different angles. so after he goes i just kinda turn to everyone in the corner and go "hey i don't mean any disrespect or anything, but i think it's safe to say that guy's trying too hard, right?!" -- everyone immediately broke out in laughter cuz i mean.... dude was a nice guy who i prolly ended up having ~5-10 little mini-conversations with as you're doing your thing putzing around a hip hop show and hey, out of nowhere at one point he just up and hands me a freshly cracked "Indian Pale Ale IPA" so that's some good looking out, his heart is definitely in the right place...
BUTyou almost kinda wanted to go up to him and be like "hey man you know when you come to a show like this and you're one of only ~3 white people here you probably want to be on your best behavior because your actions might end up reflecting negatively on white people to all the black people here. you know, you don't want them to see you actin the fool a little bit too much and thinking all of us white people are always actin like that all the time, you know what i'm saying? it's a minority thing!" (- an excerpt from my upcoming novel, a contemporary remake/reboot of "Black Like Me" =)
AHEM. but yeah, you know, i think what the oscars are trying to do with balck ppl is pretty much akin to my guy Triforce was tryin to do with balck ppl tonight; really, man, even tho we're pretty damn sure that your heart *is* genuinely in the right place, still, just stop trying so damn hard, you know what i'm saying?!
* mic drop *
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Curious Hair wrote:
Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?