Brotha dropped some knowledge while slinging jokes.

Brotha dropped some knowledge while slinging jokes.

Brotha dropped some knowledge while slinging jokes.

That Eddie Griffin line was off tha chain. Which show did that come from? Personally, I'm still waiting for Undercover Brotha II. LOL . . .

Hey, I hear you on D.L. In fact, my whole beef with the Imus situation has always been the sense of a missed opportunity to really confront some of these issues head-on.

I like your Eddie Griffin comparison . . . it's easy to tell that he put a lot more thought and effort into that joke than D.L. did . . . a better job of conveying how most people felt at the time.

I saw D.L.'s, Going Home. It was funny. But you're absolutely right . . .I heard him say the exact same jokes on at the Kings of Comedy and his last HBO special. He needs to step his game up.

Hey CPL. . . if you can't rant at JJP where else can you go? LOL!

Nice talkin' to you.

That Eddie Griffin line was off tha chain. Which show did that come from? Personally, I'm still waiting for Undercover Brotha II. LOL . . .

Hey, I hear you on D.L. In fact, my whole beef with the Imus situation has always been the sense of a missed opportunity to really confront some of these issues head-on.

I like your Eddie Griffin comparison . . . it's easy to tell that he put a lot more thought and effort into that joke than D.L. did . . . a better job of conveying how most people felt at the time.

I saw D.L.'s, Going Home. It was funny. But you're absolutely right . . .I heard him say the exact same jokes on at the Kings of Comedy and his last HBO special. He needs to step his game up.

Hey CPL. . . if you can't rant at JJP where else can you go? LOL!

Nice talkin' to you.

“First of all, I'd make that SOB pay the tuition of everyone of those sistas at Rutgers; then for every time he referred to them as 'nappy-headed hos', his advertisers would have to cut checks to the United Negro Educational College Fund. Then, I'd walk into his office and ask him (Imus), “who's the nappy-headed ho, now, BITCH? Go ahead and say 'Nigga' so I can get my check…”

I totally agree with you regarding the venue. There's a time and place for everything, including the humor on “In Living Color”, but just like Dave Chappelle took off when he felt that his show was turning into buffoonery, so did Keenan Ivory Wayans when the network started pushing him towards more buffoonery in the skits as well. By the time they mercifully pulled the plug on that show, the only credit Keenan got was that he created the show.

DL pays just enough attention to events to make jokes about it – not to see the significance of the event itself. That's also pissing off people like Dr. Harris-Lacewell, as well as me, and everyone else raising objections on the board.

Ironically, HBO was running one of DL's shows “Going Home” and he was funny as hell. Personally, he's lost his touch – he knows it, and needs the venues like the one CNN is giving him to hide behind the fact his joke pool has dried up and I don't understand, because Bush provides enough fodder for jokes for the next 10 years if a comedian does it right.

Okay, rant over. LOL

I'm sure there are a lot of things comedians say that they'd never want their children to hear or endure.

If that were the case, comedians would never talk about sex, drugs, relationships . . . they try their best to separate their public persona from their private life – a luxury that we afford white entertainers all the time.

As for freedom of speech. I agree, many “freedom of speech” arguments are lame. But this country has purposefully set a very low bar for protected speech because it values (at least, in theory) freedom of expression over freedom from offense (even if we all know that this works much better in theory than practice for black folk).

You mentioned In Living Color in a post below. What makes that humor ok, but D.L.'s humor inappropriate?

Time and venue. People cringe at the thought of D.L. acting a fool on CNN, despite the fact that we might laugh along if some of those same jokes were told at a taping of the Kings of Comedy. We especially cringe when such buffoonery encroaches upon perhaps the most serious political moment in black history (I think that this was the main intention behind Dr. Harris-Lacewell's article . . . she didn't mention the “nappy-headed” joke).

In Living Color had a skit for almost every type of black stereotype. In fact, I know a whole lot of black men and women that laughed their as*es off everytime Jamie Foxx played Wanda.

For me, it's a matter of consistency. We assume to function by a set of unspoken rules of cultural ethics. Yet we have no problem making exceptions when we feel appropriate. And there are times when our words don't match our actions. So when we highlight one incident for rebuke, we run the risk of establishing a zero-tolerance code of ethics that most black folk are unable (and justifiably) unwilling to accept when it comes to black popular culture.

People are angry at D.L.'s “nappy-head” joke, but if Don Imus were to draw a sketch of his “nappy-headed ho” he'd probably draw a picture that fit the stereotype portrayed by such characters as Foxx' Wanda and/or Martin Lawrence's Shenene.

That's why it was so easy for Imus to flip the script back on the black community and divert attention away from himself and back on to black pathologies.

I'd say an overwhelming majority of black audiences laughed at those skits on In Living Color. And if it weren't for the fact that we constantly act in anticipation of white reaction, I believe most black men and women were happy enough to just laugh and have a good time . . . knowing that Wanda is a caricature and in no way representative of all black women . . . just as Damon Waynes' Wino was not representative of black men (even if we all might know one or two Wandas and Winos from our neighborhoods. LOL).

So what's changed since then?

The times and venue have changed. I don't think people were mad at D.L.'s joke so much as they were mad at the fact that his joke was used in defense of Don Imus.

If Don Imus never happened, I could easily see that joke having little to no controversy as D.L. and many other black male and female comics like to play the dozens at their shows (which is why smart people never sit in the front row).

But D.L.'s joke didn't take place inside a vacuum. It happened on the heels of a major controversy when the wound was still relatively fresh. Even more, it happened in front of a white audience on national television. I think that's why D.L. got so much backlash.

Just as he's getting a lot of backlash now for telling (what I assume to be) HBO-level black comedy on CNN. Not the right time. Not the right venue.

Hughley must be doing some major-league ass-kissing these days.

He just smells of “Sell-Out”…I can't put my finger on it, exactly, but he doesn't appear to hold to standards like Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, or even Keenan Ivory Wayans (who took the hell off after the producers hijacked his own creation, which was the show that gave Grier his start).

Hughley and Wayans have daughters, B-Serious. How easily their joke can turn when it's directed at their children and see how fast they'll try to “go off”. Trying to defend Don Imus with the lamest of “freedom of speech” defenses takes them out of defend their own daughters' womenhood.

Sorry.

And I can't recall Chappelle doing any Black woman bashing jokes either.

He is definitely one of the greats.

I thought you’d like it! Let me just say—-He is fine! lol

LOVE HANGOVER – Diana Ross

VERY RESPECTFULLY!! :>)

Now I’m in front of my AC annnnnd using my Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr.

church fan!! :>) :>)

Oh! Here’s the pic:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5014706.ece
Republicans Fear A Barack Obama Victory Would Turn America Sharp Left

O.K., ON THE REAL: Spent half of the day in church and the rest in the “hospital” with my friend and her grandson. He is progressing. THANK Y’ALL for your prayers and well wishes! Keep them coming. He is NOT out of the woods YET!

Annnnnd, Justice58: THANK YOU for da pic! U R 2 kind! :>) Bless U!

Obama-Biden ’08!!! TRUST

As to your second point, I think reasonable people can disagree on whether D.L. has a disregard for black women. I can see one making the argument that he has an unapologetic disregard for the Rutgers women's basketball team. But I don't know whether that sentiment extends to all black women. I'd need more than his inappropriate joke to make that judgment.

To me, that judgment assumes D.L. actually considered the social ramifications his joke would have on other black women. It further assumes that most, if not all, black women were offended by his joke.

As to your other point, unfortunately black men and women insult each other all the time in the public eye. We've mastered it like sport. Sadly, it's nothing new and it never seems to grow old. Indeed, one of the reasons I like JJP is because this is one of the few places black men and women can come together in appreciation for each other. . . not in competition against one another.

But D.L. is symptomatic of a larger problem between black men and women . . . a problem that, at times, plays itself out through various forms of popular culture.

We all know how black comedians, in particular, consistently showcase routines wherein they joke about how sistas ain't right and brothas ain't sh*t.

We write songs about it. We make movies about it. All of that takes place in the public eye. All of it, to one degree or another, perpetuates various stereotypes about black men and women. We criticize the supply but never fully examine the demand. We keep buying the cds. . . purchasing the tickets, etc. This begs the question: WHY???

I think we must begin to ask ourselves what it is that we truly want. Do we want a strict code of cultural ethics or do we simply want the freedom to be ourselves without fear of having to represent the entire race at the same time?

Sometimes a joke (however in bad taste) is still just a joke. That is, unless a joke about one or a group of black people automatically morphs into a joke about all black people.

That doesn't make it right, but it does beg to question whether we can separate a person's on-stage persona from his or her true self. And, to the extent that we can, how far do we accept that some things are just meant for pure entertainment? And, in the case of D.L., what responsibility do we have to each other as black men and women to acknowledge such protests when they are made?

Whatever the case, I think we both can agree that this issue goes way deeper than D.L. And, to the extent that there's a failure to communicate deeply held cultural/historical wounds . . . well, perhaps that's the true discussion that still needs to take place in the black community.

Because it seems clear to me that black people, like any other race/culture, should be afforded the luxury to partake in buffoonery without assuming the identity of buffoons. . . an identity that more aptly reflects how others view us, but not necessarily how we view ourselves. This should also extend to other aspects of human nature (most notably, sexuality and anger).

We could run through an entire list of black entertainers and never completely agree on which ones cross the line and which ones do not. And that's not necessarily a male/female thing. It's really a matter of personal tastes and the thresholds each of us have when it comes to pushing the envelope.

As an entertainer, D.L.'s joke was in poor taste, perhaps even reckless. But, as a man, I honestly can't say whether D.L. is a misogynist or a devoted husband and father who's joke just went too far. For all I know, he might be both at the same time. . . he might be neither.

I honestly don't know enough about D.L.'s personal life and worldview to feel comfortable labeling him one way or the other.

But, of course, that's just my opinion. I respect your viewpoint as well.

How could he? I am through! Just stupid, stupid, stupid!