Key and Peele: Coonin' Ain't Comedy

Coonin' Aint Comedy

TRUTH Minista Paul Scott



Once again it's Black History Month and there are a few things that you can count on. Martin Luther speeches. Stories about how "far" Black folks have come almost 150 odd years up from slavery. And a new Comedy Central Show to pimp slap us back 150 years...


When I first saw the obligatory slavery commercial for the new "Key and Peele Sketch Series," weeks back, I said to myself "we've been here before." Then there was the preview of the "Obama as Angry Black Man" clip on the Comedy Central website. (Yeah, that's original)

So, I wasn't really surprised when the show that had been hyped like the Second Coming of Stepin' Fetchin' for months lived down to be everything that I thought it would be.

The standard "talkin' black jokes," the Black men calling Black women the "B" word, " the "gangsta Hip Hop artist in jail skit" peppered with random muggin' and stabbin' jokes. Yep, they pulled out all the stops to once again use a comedy show to make white America more sensitive to the plight of Black men (or in this case half-Black men.)

But the question I kept asking myself was "why is 'that's how Black folk act' comedy even funny anymore?"

It's just so...70-ish.


I admit our parents thought the "shuckin' and jivin' of " JJ " on Good Times or "George Jefferson" was hilarious and I do watch a Sanford and Son rerun every now and then but those shows were from 30 years ago.

Newsflash! We have a Black man in the White House and little white kids in Iowa have the whole neighborhood shakin' , blastin' Drake and Niki Minaj. So the idea that white people are oblivious to Black culture on at least a shallow, superficial level is ludicrous.

Now, some folks may call Key and Peele comedy but where I come from we have another name.

"Coonin'" (making white folks laugh at the expense of disgracing their children, parents, great grandparents and 30 million other African Americans.)

In all fairness, I must point out that "coonin'" did not start with Key and Peele as the practice goes back to the 19th century.

The popularity of black folks actin' the fool has its roots in the mid 1800's with the black face minstrel performances. In the book, "Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media," (Janet Davis and William Barlow) historian William Van Deburg is quoted as saying that in a time when many whites feared slave insurrections "the early slave image offered white audiences a comforting , psychological reassurance." He writes that "such intellectually inferior clowns posed little threat to white hegemony."


So, it reassures a white America that may still be a little shook up over the first Black president thing, that they don't have a thing to worry about.


It must, also, be remembered that barely a hundred years ago, African people were being locked up in monkey cages at zoos and forced to perform for white folks. According to Dr. Harriet Washington in her book, "Medical Apartheid," around 1903, a missionary explorer, Samuel Phillips Lerner, captured Ota Benga, an African "pygmy" and gave him to William Hornaday to put on exhibit in the Bronx Zoo. However, today they have stopped putting black men in cages but place them on stages.

As we enter into an era where some people are trying to "turn back the clock" on African American progress, the Key and Peele Show cannot be viewed in a political vacuum. In a time when some people want to put us back on the plantation we don't need black comedians to supply the whips to beat us into submission.

Really, in 2012 , who would think that something like Key and Peele is even the least bit funny...(OK. Maybe Newt Gingrich but that's about it.)


I wouldn't be surprised if old Newt brought Key and Peele out to do a tap dance routine during his weekly "diss a minority moment" at the next presidential debate as exhibit A.


TRUTH Minista Paul Scott's website is No Warning Shots Fired.com. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com Twitter @truthminista

The Changin' Face of Racism

The Changin' Face of Racism:

Julie Myers's Big Mistake

Min. Paul Scott

Used to be a time when you could easily spot racists. They were the group of good ol' boys hanging (excuse the pun) by the tree with the white bed sheets on their heads or the portly, southern sheriff spittin' tobacco and patting his police dog, Rex. But today the face of racism is changing.

Seems like Julie Myers, head honcho of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) got a lot of people p.o.'d when she ingeniously, helped give the "most original costume" award at a Halloween party to a "bronzed up" white dude in fake dreadlocks and a prisoner suit.

(Earth to Julie, there is nothing original about racial stereotypes.)

Although, some of her more PC supporters may want to grab her by the collar and yell "Jules, what were you thinking," I'm sure that when Myers first saw the shocked looks on the faces of some the party goers her first reaction was:

"What?"

That's because the foul winds of racism are a' changin'.

In 2007, it seems that racism has become chic. Even funny to some.

Many folks thought that the "nappy headed ho" thing was down right hilarious. Especially, since Don Imus is about to make his triumphant return to radio in a few weeks. Even the World Wide Wrestling Entertainment folks recently used the phrase as a punch line for one of their recent shows. Then again, this is the same company that gave us Crime Tyme, a black tag team that would steal televisions and pick pocket wallets before every match.

And not to mention Fox News's Bill O'Reilly's well publicized blunder when he said how shocked he was to find ouut that black people are just as civilized as white folks, which was easily smoothed over when he had a couple of civil rights leaders in the No Spin Zone for a chummy chat.

What is actually funny is the excuses that these racially numb-skulls come up with when they get caught with their hands in the fried chicken bucket.

According to news reports, after the incident, an ICE spokesperson said that although the goober wore blackface (uh, bronzer) the crowd didn't realize that he had on makeup.

"Gee Bob, there sure is something different about you. Have you lost weight?"

However, they did have the foresight to get rid of the pictures of Myers posing with the "convict." Heaven forbid that they would wind up on TMZ.com or worst on Ku Klux Klan Christmas cards.

I forgot to mention that the costume party was part of a charity event. I wonder what charity it was for, the...(Naw, too easy.)

Anyway.

What is scary is that these are the people that we want to be in charge of guarding our borders.

I wonder if Myers has the boys from the border patrol using sombreros for target practice ?

As ticked off as I am with Myers, I don't know with whom I'm more upset, the racially insensitive folks or that ever present group of African Americans who they always call on to accept their weak apologies on behalf of black folks everywhere.

In this case it was a group of black employees called the National Association of African Americans in the Department of Home Security. (Yeah, that mighty group of black power militants, the NAAADHS).

I can see them now cowering together in their overalls with straw hats in hand...

"No sur. Miss Julie ain't no racist. Her been good to us's."

Where do they find these people, the Apology Acceptance Temp. Service?

What is most disturbing is that these are just the incidents that get reported. Can you imagine the stuff that goes on that we don't know about ?

Somewhere, I think there is an old Christmas party video with Julie "Cool J" Myers and the homies from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in blackface and dressed up like gangsta rappers, lip syncing Vanilla Ice's old rap song:

"ICE ICE, baby!"

Min. Paul Scott's blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com