free thinking

Two weeks ago, on Last Comic Standing, a reality television show on NBC, Richard Belzer gave a lecture to a contestant from Alabama about his skit.  The contestant's skit was based on a dogfight between an American fighter pilot and a Japanese fighter pilot.  Rather than simply saying that the material was not too funny, he referred to the contestants humor as “post World War II, late-40's humor” that “had no place in 2008” because it had “ethnic references.”  Then minutes later, he was laughing at a lady from Chicago, of Korean, descent poking fun at her family using the exact same ethnic humor that he chided the other contestant for using.  He even took a moment to praise her and tell her it's okay for ethnic humor in the realm of individual ethnic groups or for ethnicities to make fun of themselves.  

Now the “serious” media has a new controversy over Barrack Hussein Obama and the cover of The New Yorker magazine.  This cover shows Barrack in Muslim apparel giving a fist-bump to his wife, Michelle.  Michelle has been given a huge afro and an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder.  They appear to be in the Oval Office with a picture of Osama Bin Laden over a fire place which has an American flag burning in it. 

Various outlets are telling Americans that we should not find humor in this.  The Obama camp had just weathered an internet campaign that pointed out Obama's Muslim background so they are up in arms about this.  The editors at the magazine even had to explain that the art is a satirical reflection of the fear-mongering already being perpetrated against the Obama's.  This is how coastal media elitists think that conservatives view the Obamas.

However, the media outlets were silent when Condoleeza Rice was portrayed in editorial cartoons as a slave or Aunt Jemima.  No one was up in arms when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was called Uncle Tom Justice from the title of a 2001 Time Magazine article by Jack E White.  No one told Americans what to think about these public jabs as they were being fleshed out.

Knoxvillians were told recently that they did not need to know the intricacies of local politics which led to ousters and changes in the way Knox County/Knoxville conducts business.  Sevier Countians are always told they do not need to put much thought into the hiring and replacement policies in taxpayer-funded positions.  Far too often we allow others to cow us into silence with phrases like, “You can't think like that!” or  “You shouldn't laugh at stuff like that!”  Agree or disagree, individuals must think for themselves, perhaps then this community can analyze and fix some of its own problems.