Hootie shills for the man
Alright, crackers, we close Black History Month on a weird note. The story begins with me coming down exactly a week ago (almost to the minute, I am noticing) to write about this offensive piece of corporate drivel I saw on TV. I checked my e mail first, as I always do, and found the news about Hunter in an e mail from our dead pool. Well, that pretty much derailed the following piece... but it has been festering in my head for the last week. I had to write to you about this terrible, terrible commercial I saw. As it featured prominent black entertainer... I had to tell you about it.The commercial begins with this black guy dressed in the squarest cowboy outfit you have ever seen. I mean, John Rocker would have found this offensive. Next, the guy in the bad outfit is singing super gay love songs... to a burger! I should probably clarify the context of the term 'gay' here. The word is not used in reference to two people of the same sex in love. It's what your (well, mine at least) big brothers called you all through childhood for dressing like a 'spaz'. As for the spaz contigent... sorry, no apology from me (no one likes a spaz, go away)
So dude is strumming his guitar, singing to the burger, and behind all this is a painted styrofoam set that looks like the video for Tonight, Tonight threw up all over the stage.
So who is this singer? You have probably seen it by now. It saddens me to say that guy dancin' for 'the man' was beloved soft rocker Daruis Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish. Well, this isn't how I wanted to end Black History Month, honest. I wanted to do a week of role models and great black counter culture influences... but the Hunter Thompson thing pushed all that aside. Oh, and I am sure some comedian has mentioned this... but why do we give the black man the shortest month of the year?
posted by Lono of Denver at Sunday, February 27, 2005
3 Comments:
Lono: I see you're holding the Liberal line of "keeping the black man--black." Just can't let them become part of the human race can you? Always got to seperate them out and call attention to their "blackness". You know, Lono, we Conservatives "intergrated" a long, long, time ago. I had forgotten O.J. Simpson was "black" until Johnny Cockran reminded me.
Sally Ann, so good to hear from you. Thanks for your gracious hosting of our previous dialogue on your site.
For the most part, you are right. It shouldn't be an issue of black vs white. It should be viewed as a cheesy commercial. However, as a serious rock and roll expert, and obseeseive media watchdog, this commercial is racist. It is racist in too many aspects. A cowboy would never dress like that. Rucker is dressed in a manner to pretend how a city person would imagine a black cowboy to look.
Me and my wife raise and train horses. This commercial is an affront to blacks, decent few whites, and rock and roll lovers like myself!
I'll admit when I saw that commercial it did strike me as being "weird" as in too much visual stimulous for whatever they were selling...burgers I think. However, I can not wait for the day when black and white issues drop completely out of our culture. Just drives me crazy that whenever a "black" gets backed into a corner they start using the race card. I'm telling you, the O.J. Simpson trial pushed me over the edge as I'm sure it did for a lot of "white" people who never had a racist bone in their body. In fact, I dare say the trial pushed civil rights back a hundred years! On the upside, there's a lot of blacks emerging who are trying to set their race free from black and Liberal preponderance to promote the "victim black." I don't think you realize just how much the constant "I am black, I am victim" hurts the black culture. It's called "backlash".
On another upside note: I used to own a Tennesse Walker and quarter horse. I love horses and am a big fan of the Horse Whisperer. My husband and I are also Rock and Roll fans. We "lived" the 60's. I left you a comment on your music blog about the Grammy's. I tune into the media to watch the evolution of our culture. I can see a shift towards the center...I call it a correction. You would call it an error.
Congratulations on your Hunter T. effort. You must've crapped when you got all those hits. Hey, it put you on the map and that's a very good thing for a writer, no matter what his ideology is. Catch you later. Have to go tend my own blog...Tell me about your horses....
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