The story below appeared at AdAge.com — a MultiCultClassics response immediately follows…
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The Flavor of Stepin Fetchit
VH1’s Ratings Sleeper is a Cable Minstrel Show
By Bob Garfield
Poor Bill Cosby.
He didn’t like HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, because he thought it was a stereotype engine, allowing mostly white viewers to gawk at one raunchy ghetto “comic” after another.
“These people come out and they just start to yell at the audience and from that point on they begin to describe what orifices you’re going to put your extension in,” Cosby once complained. “There’s got to be more.”
Oh, there’s more. Now there’s The Flavor of Love.
This would be the VH1 “reality” show starring rapper Flavor Flav -- the clownish, alarm-clock-necklace guy from Public Enemy -- sorting through various sluts and hos in search of a mate. It’s so over-the-top appalling that you can’t take your eyes off of it. Which, of course, is the point.
Congratulations to VH1, Sunsilk hair care products and all the other advertisers. Just when you thought black culture couldn’t be degraded and exploited any more comes this, the mutha lode. At least Stepin Fetchit blazed a trail for black film actors. All Flavor Flav is blazing a trail for is Viacom’s trip to the bank.
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When did Bob Garfield decide he was Stanley Crouch?
One day he sees racist overtones in an Oreos promotion starring American Idol’s Randy Jackson. Now he’s taking on Flavor Flav, peppering his viewpoint with hos, mutha and Stepin Fetchit — references he probably collected via Google and Wikipedia.
Thank you, Bob, for sharing your insightful and informed cultural perspectives with the masses.
Although you really should stick to critiquing the latest Glade Plug-Ins campaign.
"Mutha lode" is just cringe-inducing. But I see it this way: it would be worse if guys like Garfield never even gave a thought to issues like this. Not saying he deserves a medal just for writing this column. Not saying it's a good effort. But it opens the floor to a discussion (well, it would if he wrote a blog instead of a column) since there's plenty to be said -- even if mostly bad -- about his argument. Garfield may be vastly uninformed here and he may need to be taken apart point by point. It seems counter-productive, though, to just dismiss him altogether. (Although, to be honest, I always enjoy some good, old-fashioned Garfield bashing.)
ReplyDeleteactually, garfield does write a blog. and it's just as awful as his column.
ReplyDeletedismissing him altogether seems like a highly productive endeavor. hee hee.
it's true that these issues should be discussed. too bad advertising age doesn't have any staffers qualified to do so.
and that, in our opinion, may be more offensive than anything flavor flav has to present.
after all, mister flav isn't commenting on world affairs or topics he's clueless about. wish garfield would do the same. he could save himself a great deal of potential embarrassment.
or does his ego even accommodate such things?