Chattering classes – from Los Angeles to Cannes and all points in between – are all atwitter today about putative Hollywood liberals coming across like Tea Party racists in e-mails, which “anonymous” hackers leaked as part of their ongoing vendetta against Sony Pictures.
What has so many White liberals expressing “shock, shock” (i.e., instead of looking in the mirror), is an exchange between Sony Chairman Amy Pascal and über producer Scott Rudin, in which they revel in the stereotypical view that Blacks could, if not should, only be interested in films about Blacks … preferably by Blacks.
Except that, in this case, they were trying to determine what films would be appropriate to discuss over dinner with no less a person than the eminently cultured, Ivy-League educated, and Black president of the United States. Yet, after bandying about “Blacks-only” movies like Django Unchained and 12 Years a Slave:
The pair then keep (sic) going, listing as many current films starring Black actors as they can name, including Lee Daniels’ The Butler and two Kevin Hart movies, Think Like a Man and Ride Along … ‘I bet he likes Kevin Hart,’ says Rudin at one point.
(Daily Mail, December 11, 2014)
It’s a wonder they did not damn Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever with this faint praise, or suggest that he might prefer popeyes instead of popcorn with his movies … and watermelon of course.
But, if you are genuinely shocked by this insight into the “deeply rooted” racist views of White liberals, I am constrained to share this excerpt from “Obama-Day Tuesday: BET Founder Executes Black-on-Black Hit for Hillary,” January 15, 2008:
As Sen. Ted Kennedy – who recently referred to a Republican Black female judge as an ape – can attest, White liberals will never pay a political price for insulting Blacks – who are either too stupid to realize they’re being insulted or don’t care, or both…
What is even more disappointing, however, is that Blacks like BET’s Bob Johnson open wide and swallow their pride even when Hillary’s White liberal supporters make racist remarks about Obama: as was the case, for example, when Andrew Cuomo dismissed his campaign strategy in New Hampshire as “shucking and jiving”; and when Bob Kerry insinuated that Obama is a Muslim who was educated at a Jihadist madrassa in Indonesia, even though he knew these were bold-faced lies. Not to mention, just last week, when her husband Bill dismissed the very premise of Obama’s campaign, namely his opposition to the Iraq War, as an uppity fairy tale.
Incidentally, please don’t be fooled by these political assassins – who hurl stink bombs, and then issue patently cynical statements clarifying or apologizing for their remarks. Also, in this respect, bear in mind that no two people show more indignant sincerity when lying or spinning for political expediency than Bill and Hillary Clinton. And, as between the two of them, Bill has nothing on Hillary.
Therefore, do not wait to see if their leaked racist e-mails will forced these White liberals to issue perfunctory and plainly disingenuous apologies.
Wait to see if Obama will coddle them (either tacitly by saying nothing or overtly by accepting their apologies), the way fawning Black liberals like Johnson have always done; or if he will publicly condemn them (by upbraiding them Sista-Soulja style), the way proud Black liberals like me will always do.
Moreover, beware of the likelihood that e-mail exchanges (to say nothing of private conversations) of this racist nature flow between far too many White liberals — not only in politics and entertainment, but in every context imaginable. But, for a little more insight into Hollywood liberals, consider this about their most celebrated member, George Clooney:
Alas, it speaks volumes that, almost 50 years later, America not only remains as segregated on Sunday during church services, but seems equally so on Saturday during social occasions. This was brought into stark relief today when pictures of George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin’s wedding party went viral on social and mainstream media.
But let me hasten to clarify that I really couldn’t care any less who White folks invite to their nuptials. It’s just that, if a putative Hollywood liberal like George can have a wedding party as lily-White as his apparently was, then we must face the sad fact that the wedding hour on Saturday might be the second most segregated hour of America.
(“Clooney Nuptials Show Saturday Weddings as Segregated as Sunday Services,” The iPINIONS Journal, September 27, 2014)
Mind you, to be fair to George, his Lebanese mother-in-law would probably have had it no other way…. Still, as Arsenio Hall might say, ‘things that make you go, hmmmm.’
Related commentaries:
Obama-day Tuesday…
Clooney nuptials…
Racism worse under Obama…
UPDATE
Hollywood big shots apologize
Less than two hours after I published the above, the Huffington Post published the following (at 1:45 p.m. EST) under the headline “Scott Rudin & Amy Pascal Apologize After Racially Insensitive E-mails About Obama Leak”:
Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin have apologized after racially insensitive e-mails they sent to each other leaked online as part of a massive hack of Sony Pictures.
‘The content of my e-mails were insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am,’ Pascal said in a statement provided to the Huffington Post…
In a statement to Deadline.com, Rudin said that while the emails were private correspondence between friends that were ‘written in haste and without much thought or sensitivity,’ he understood the notes were out of line.
No shit.
This might seem like a script right out of Hollywood. But I can’t make this stuff up folks.
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Thursday, at 12:07 p.m.
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