Options
Imagine this... we're watching the White Entertainment Awards...
Iateallthepies
Posts: 453 Forum Member
✭
..let's say Justin Timberlake has just died. Tom Cruise is hosting the event and in keeping with the theme of the evening wants to pay a tribute to the prematurely departed JT. His voice booms through the mike.
"JT was a WHITE man. He was one of US. White people of America decided to share him with everyone else..."
Is this acceptable? Of course not. So why then is it okay for Jamie Foxx to make a similar speech about Michael Jackson (substituting 'black' for 'white' of course)? Why did Foxx bring MJ's race into it?
If white people are to be colour blind then why is the same not true for black people?
"JT was a WHITE man. He was one of US. White people of America decided to share him with everyone else..."
Is this acceptable? Of course not. So why then is it okay for Jamie Foxx to make a similar speech about Michael Jackson (substituting 'black' for 'white' of course)? Why did Foxx bring MJ's race into it?
If white people are to be colour blind then why is the same not true for black people?
0
Comments
that's 'cos he 'sho is a jive talkin', trashmouth, mofo sucka.
There is nothing wrong in a black person making a note in a speech about another black persons acomplishments, maybe in 100 when both white and black can move on from racial tensions and the like it wont matter at all and it would be ... was a great man.
Black people still feel opressed in what is still mainly a white world, any chance they have to show their acomplishments is welcome in my book.
I see what you mean, but I suggest you look at how blacks have been treated for most of the US's history.
Alan
I think you're wrong. Those artists were not mainstream, MJ opened the door for so many black artists that came after him. Then Whitney Houston opened it further.
They started it Jackson made it big in a white music society at the time.
Thats like saying that what obama has done is pointless because of the people in the 60's like Martin Luther King.
Yes, because there was NO racism at all in the 80s or 90s... There are people my age who, when growing up IN THE 80s, were pleased to see ANYONE of their own colour on television because it didn't happen often. Y'know, there was "Different Strokes" and "The Cosby Show", and... erm... that was about it. Everyone else on telly was us white guys. "Riding on their shoulders" perhaps equals "continuing their good work"? What, black perfomers should have given up because the hard work had already been done? That's a ridiculous attitude- it's STILL an ongoing process, and surely those who carried on should be applauded for that?
Personally, I was never a fan. Not really my thing. But to say the colour barrier had been broken before Jackson's time actually just betrays a lack of knowledge of the way society has been working, and the way it was (and still IS, though not to such a great extent, thank f*ck) working against sections of itself.
OMG! When you substitute black for white it sounds like a Ku Klux Klan meeting or something :eek:
Michael Jackson was the first black person to get their music regularly played on MTV. Until then it was a mostly white artist channel (if not all white?) His music was the first black music that white Americans bought regularly and in very large quantities. Yes others had gone before him as Alan says, but these didn't have the same massive impact as Michael Jackson - he was a true trail blazer who all colours and sexes bought and, most importantly, accepted. It sounds archaic now but it was a HUGE deal in those days.
After the way the blacks have been treated by the whites in the past in America I, for one, don't mind in the slightest black people being proud of their boy
Oh Christ, not this one again. OK, there's no NEED for a "white police federation". If you think there IS, then please explain why you think so. White people can join the BPF, which was set up because there is a perception (and probably a reality) that there is a fair bit of institutional racism in the police force, and someone thought that should be redressed. Most white coppers I know think it's a good idea and aren't BAWWWing about how they don't get their own, because they don't feel they need one.
Right. Given the explanation I've given for the existence of the BPF, can you please explain to me why, right now, anyone would bother FORMING a "WPF". What purpose would it serve? What wrongs would it right?
These arguments are really redundant. Black people have been discriminated against for generations. It's not as simple as forgetting it all and moving on.
They are also in the minority in the West. There is no need for a WET because white people make up 80% of the police force.
They were the ones who busted open the ceiling for later generations.
But the "industry" can make more money out of someone who died a couple of days ago - so guess how they respond.
Alan
Yeah, I know. Same "logic", equally bullsh*t.
Sometimes this board just leaves me unable to leave the house for days because of the palmprint that's been impacted on my face.
Yeah, the music industry will make a quick buck out of anything and anyone it f*cking can. I'm pretty sure everyone here is aware of that. What does it have to do with the discussion at hand? They can't make money out of Ellington or Basie because they no longer own the rights.
But then this is the guy who ranted about a 16 year old girl saying she should do drugs, go to rehab - he seems a complete tool.
You're incorrect. Those artists were discriminated against. Even until the 1980s MTV refused to show black artists. Michael Jackson became so big that they were litterally forced to change him.
Undoubtedly he was influenced by those before him (particularly James Brown), but he was probably the most important black musician ever.
Ok firstly I don't know what you mean by "white people have been practically ruling the entire world" and even if it were true (no one rules the world unless you believe in all that illuminati gumph) what the hell has that got to do with music?
agreed unless said person makes a special note about their colour as if it makes the accoplishment better as in this case.
OK so for the time being you accept so-called "positive discrimination"? In other words you don't want true equality.
Mainly white world? You specifically mean black people who live in mainly white countries like the UK and America. Well then speak up about this oppression (if it exists) don't just make statements that imply it to celebrate a success.
I'm sorry but it's nothing but horn blowing and self congratulation.