Hatin' the Skin I'm In: Response to Stanley Crouch
Min. Paul Scott
I remember back in the day, when I was a kid, I used to watch those sitcoms like Happy Days. Once in a while, during Black History Month, they had to deal with the "dreaded" race issue. From out of nowhere some lone black dude would show up in a lily white town , get picked on for being black only to have his honor defended by some "Fonzie" kid that would deliver a tear jerkin' speech about racial tolerance and universal brotherhood. Just before the funky music would play for the closing credits, the black dude would make some overly emotional apology about how he "couldn't help that he was born black." The seeds of self hatred are planted early. I wonder if Stanley Crouch ever stared in one of those sitcoms?
I was reading Stan's piece in today's NY Daily News and seems like ol' dude wasn't feelin' the piece that I did on Jodie Foster's new vigilante movie "Brave One" and my analogy about "a t'd off Rosa Parks bustin' cap's in tha fools that made her sit in the back of the bus."
Now I've read Crouch's stuff before about his hatred of Hip Hop and all things black.
(OK Stan, we get it Hip Hop = Bad. Now keep it movin')
The problem with Crouch is that he seems to dwell on the issue ad nauseam.
Now, I am far from a Hip Hop apologist and have taken many stands against the negativity in "some" Hip Hop.
But unlike Crouch, I realize that Hip Hop is really a code word that the media use for black youth and the degree of separation between the average rap dude and me isn't as much as you might think.
I also know that "black folks dissin' black folks" is a hot commodity. Just look at Bill Cosby's career. I mean, America hadn't thought about Cosby for over a decade until he became the official Hip Hop charm school headmaster demanding that young black men pull up their pants and talk proper English.
"Let's see if "we" say it, it will be considered racist but if we can pay a black guy to do it..."
So, many black folks have jumped at the chance to be the black Charlie McCarthy to the white power structure Edgar Bergen.
I bet Stan is somewhere, right now" in some editor's office buck dancin' to "Crank that Soldier Boy."
Until today, I was willing to live and let live and let Crouch get his hustle on. (We all got to eat, right ?)
But then he decided to diss me and I really wasn't feelin' that line about:
"Fortunately, there is ample proof of the universality of insipid thinking to discourage all except the most devoted bigots from concluding by reading blogs that black people are no more than the upright monkeys they were always thought to be in more informed times."
Not sure what all that meant, but I'm pretty sure that it was a diss...
Like my dude, Bugs Bunny used to say:
"Of course, you realize, this means war."
So Stan, I'm calling you out, homie. You wanna debate? Anytime, anywhere...
To borrow from the old school EPMD jam:
"So if you're thinkin bout battlin you better come prepared/
Come witcha shield and your armor gear"
TRUTH Minista Paul Scott can be reached at (919) 451-8283. His blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/
