It is so hot outside that my oven is sitting in the shade...
Sorry, I couldn't resist that old Vaudeville routine. I am going to see Captain America in a few hours and will post a review soon after. Next week, I hope to do a series on the Department of Homeland Security and white terrorism: which will be provocative to say the least as I got both barrels loaded. I really do love white folks. I am their best friend because as Paul Mooney says, "I tell them the truth." Hopefully, my intervention will help the White Soul have a moment of productive, critical self-reflection.
At present, my best friend Black Conservative Garbage Pail Kid Herman Cain is in the midst of self-destructing, despite what some pundits have suggested, with his foolish anti-Muslim bigotry and race baiting--trust, the latter is the script even though Cain's focus is ostensibly on matters of religion.
I used to think that black folks could not be racist. I still hold to that proposition: but Herman Cain flirts and has shameless intercourse with bigotry, in a way that is so racialized, there may have to be an asterisk next to his name if the Routledge Keywords series was to do a volume called Concepts in Social Inquiry. Moreover, because he has so distanced himself from the African American community, and rejected "African-American" as an affiliation of either kin or shared experience and struggle, he is subject to the "turn about is fair play rule."
Herman Cain is a black buffoon. Consequently, he should be treated as such.
To point: the wickedness of Jim Crow stereotyping and race minstrelsy was how it gave life to a lie--we were not incompetent fools, unfit for citizenship, more childlike than adult, and ultimately ill-suited for the American democratic project.
Be it Jumpin Jim Crow, Uncle Tom, or the Black Dandy, one of the recurring themes in the racist imagery deployed against black people was that we were "uppity" and aspired for a higher social standing and responsibility than either earned or deserved. African Americans were natural incompetents when viewed through the White gaze of Jim and Jane Crow America.
That lie is still with us in the 21 century. In the white animosity and resentment faced by Barack Obama, the basic challenges to his legitimacy as President, the assumption by the Tea Party Birther Palin populists has long been that Barack Obama is incompetent and should "know his place."
Ironically, Herman Cain is actually incompetent and not fit to be President of the United States. Could the white supremacist frames of Jim and Jane Crow apply to Herman Cain? Would the visual "work" when applied to him? Would the semiotics of Cain as lawn jockey or a happy servant be a good fit for his personhood and habitus?
I like to play with fire. So let's find out. Consider this our American Pickers meets Photoshop meets Jim Crow meets Herman Cain game.
Don't feel embarrassed to participate: Herman Cain gave tacit approval for such acts of imagination, because as he kindly reminded us, that whole Civil Rights deal was much to do about nothing anyway because the water from those segregated water fountains "tasted the same."
My Photoshop skills are adequate. But, I know there are folks out there who have real skills.
I offer you 3 images to play with (feel free to use your own) and I will post the winners next week. By the way, a Herman Cain themed pinball machine would be a real treat.
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Herman Cain as Rastus of Cream of Wheat:
Herman Cain and the White Man's Burden:
Herman Cain and Coon Chicken Inn:
7 comments:
Since when did not being competent stop anyone from being president? He could not possibly do worse than the guy we got now. I would say why not Jim Crow photoshop him, except it's already been done to death... I know! maybe I can find a picture of Benedict Arnold and put Obama's face on it.
I think Allen West has Herman Cain beat. Not only that, Allen West is actually in office. Cain hasn't a prayer.
Don't know if you've heard yet, but Richard Land gave him the white smackdown, telling him to knock off the Muslim- and Mormon-baiting.
White Baptist bigot wagging his mommy finger at the Black Baptist bigot, over who gets to be the anti-Mormon and the anti-Muslim. Charming.
@Nomad. So level headed. Always so vulcan! Have some fun...
@Oh Crap. Allen West aka the Total Recall look alike is a cartoon character mascot too. But as you said, blacknoromous is in office and will only escalate the foolishness.
The pathology of white supremacy continues to sting and wound...WTF
You make the same point that has shouted at me in this mess: Black Obama is excoriated while Herman Cain, private citizen, is forwarded as a substitute. As Greg would say, WTF?
I had way too much to say about this, so I shared it on my own, but here's a piece:
"All the while, it is Mr. Cain who is really unqualified to be president (he has no experience in politics and seemingly no understanding of our form or government or our freedoms), really unsuitable to be president (he doesn’t have the temperament for it, he’s impatient and undiplomatic), and really the more politically radical of the two."
Unless the "center" has moved all the way to right-wing vigilantism, that is.
I love the job you're doing, Professor.
@Thrasher. Got to get a styptic pencil or some Vaseline to deal with those wounds.
@Fred C. I will check your post out. Sounds interesting. Always making me sound like I know something with that kind title, you all are the elders doing the teaching here.
I did a post on Allen West over at Urban Politico. As far as Cain all I can do is shake my head. There's also a discussion going on at AB where some people are actually defending Cain's ridiculous position concerning building a mosque.
Neither Cain nor West appears to have much love or understanding for the Constitution.
I don't mind black conservatives. What I mind is their embrace of the same victimology that they so self-righteously decry in everyone else.
And Cain is old enough to have experienced legal segregation. For him to endorse such tactics against others shows that sometimes people that get abused can't wait to perform such abuse against others.
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