First of all, sensitivity to the feelings of others is an important, but highly overrated as a value in our culture. We'll get back to this point.
It truly makes zero sense to me, but Eric Olsen keeps telling me repeatedly, at length and with great insistence that I have some horrible lingering perceptions among numerous Blogcritics of being if not racist, at least "racially insensitive" over the Bad Eagle Massacre from all the way back in February '04. I guess my Mea Culpa from the time wasn't sufficient. Fine. I'll take one more crack at explaining myself here at the end of the year, then I'm done with it.
This all stems from an innocuous post I did addressing the question the perfectly reasonable question that no one seemed to be asking- whether Janet Jackson and/or Justin Timberlake should be prosecuted for public lewdness. Here comes my main racial insensitivity hate crime: for the prosecution I quoted a paragraph of a post by a guy named David Yeagley, from his Bad Eagle website. (He's a direct descendent of a Comanche warrior.)
I hadn't paid much attention to the website before I picked up that fairly uncontroversial quote, but Yeagley obviously has some racial issues. I don't care to take his inventory, but he notably has some resentment against black folks, based on his perception that they get all the coddling and sensitivity and the Injuns are getting the dregs. What are we, chopped liver? Plus, he seems to have talked himself into some kind of unfortunate positive physical aversion to black women.
Specifically, however, seemingly nearly all Blogcritics (left, right and center) were beside themselves in fits of rage over one specific item: Yeagley illustrated another post about Janet Jackson with a picture of a gorilla cupping her breast, as per Janet's infamous Superbowl incident.
Now, he might pretend to have had a half-reasonable argument that this was an individual statement, as this gorilla was inserted to parody the specific disreputable and base animalistic activity at the Superbowl, specific acts committed by Janet Jackson.
But of course that would be rather disingenuous. Any American who sees that is going to take it as a slap at black folks in general, a denial of their basic humanity. Seeing ANY black woman compared to a primate will obviously be taken as a totally base racial insult. Surely an intelligent college educated man such as the Bad Eagle knows that. I could particularly well imagine a black woman being really un-thrilled with this nonsense. Make your point another way.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - David Yeagley
Al, I don't recall having seen this post. I'm impressed with your patience and concern. While I can offer no effective therapy for racial paranoia such as you faced, I must congratulate you on your attempts to aleviate (or at least ameliorate) the suffering of your patients here. Noble effort, indeed.
On my own website, there was sincere protest from animal lovers that the gorilla was abused. Gorillas are aesthetically beautiful, and it was horribly insensitive on my part to have referenced one in a negative way.
Nursing animals became part of the thread as well, and I was rebuked for implying something was improprietous or unbeautiful by making such a reference to nursing animals.
So, you see, there was something to offend all. But it was I who was not allowed to be offended by Janet Jackson's act, nor to express degree of offense I felt.
That's my impression of the objections.