Although I love comedy and firmly believes in a comedian’s right to push the boundaries of acceptability in order to generate laughs on stage, social media has presented some unique challenges for me because what constitutes a stage is changing. For example, in the past a comedian would be allowed to say whatever they feel like on stage and that wouldn’t necessarily be considered representative of that person’s views on a particular topic. But, if that comedian said something in an opinion editorial they wrote or in a serious TV interview, then their “stage” allowance would be gone and they would be playing by the same rules as the rest of us. Yet when Chelsea Handler was granted access to Huffington Post’s official Twitter page so she could live-tweet throughout Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, her tweets were hard to swallow for most regardless of whether she was being tongue-in-cheek, because most people thought she was simply being racist.
To be honest, I just thought she was making corny jokes and kept it moving. I didn’t stress myself out believing that she has a secret agenda to hate Black folks because I know the nature of comedy is simply to get attention and laughs, and sometimes the former happens without the latter. But, it’s not her tweets that disturbed me – it’s the interview she delivered afterwards to explain them that really did it for me.
Truth be told, I DON’T think Chelsea Handler is a racist who is ready to shave her head and become a skinhead or buy fancy white sheets and become a card-carrying member of the KKK. I truly think she is just a confused white woman who believes that her increased access into the Black community gives her carte blanche to talk and act towards us, in any way she deems (in)appropriate without any necessary tact or concern for the people she may be offending. Basically, she subscribes to the notion that smashing a Black dude on Saturday night gives her a pass to “act like a Black woman” on Monday morning. This is really disturbing because Handler’s thinking that a sexual attraction to some Black men equates to her not having to be careful with her rhetoric is just, well, wrong as fuck.
As a staunch advocate of free-speech, I believe people should be allowed to say whatever they want to, but what troubles me about Handler’s mentality is that she believes her “hood pass” gives her lily-white ass far-reaching privileges that no one outside of that culture should have. If I was lucky enough to ever date Lucy Liu, it doesn’t give me a pass to make rice-dinner and bad driving jokes to all Asians, as if they all share one collective sense of humor.
Yes Chelsea Handler, you can sleep with a Black man and be racist. You can sleep with any minority and be a bigot. Being down with the swirl does not preclude your involvement in an oppressive and prejudice system.
LAB
Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.