Jack & Jill Politics

So evidently Mel Gibson is racist and anti-semitic even when he’s not drunk driving. Who woulda thought? Well, all blacks and Jews actually but who’s keeping track, really…

What kind of person says this to their baby mama — ?

“You’re an embarrassment to me. You look like a fucking pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of niggers, it will be your fault.”

Wow.

Ok then…let’s de-construct, shall we? He’s saying to his girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva — you look like a hot slut. The kind that attracts all those roving packs of black men wandering the streets of LA who are just looking for reasons to rape white women. And if you get raped, it’s not their fault — niggers rape. It’s what they do! No, it will be your fault because you’re an embarrassing whore.

What world does Mel Gibson live in — I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen any packs of black men running around raping people in public lately. Gang bangs do happen, but 80% of women who are raped know their assailant. And it tends to be a solitary, secretive crime. I didn’t know that Hollywood was having such a problem with African-American men roaming the streets raping people they don’t know. That’s so strange beacuse you’d think that would be national news since it’s so rare.

Mel Gibson’s sick fantasies tell us everything about him and should mean nothing to us. Gibson’s rantings are hateful to women and to African-Americans. This guy’s got problems. He doesn’t live in the same world we inhabit but another one that’s in conflict with the reality of who African-American men really are.

But why should we care? He will soon be an even more isolated, friendless drunk than he is now and he’s on his way to being just another Hollywood has-been fast. Earl Ofari Hutchinson gives us a reason to care:

But any thought of blowing off Gibson as a loose cannon is a mistake for two reasons. Gibson is still a big, rich, influential, and bankable name in Hollywood. And whatever he says and does makes news, gets the ear of legions (many fans of his), is incessantly chatted up in the tabloids, and he makes money for the industry. But that’s the least of the two reasons. If Gibson made the reported slurs, he swims with the times. Racism has been on full and ugly display the past year.

The Tea Party rallies that featured these signs and banners, “The Long Legged Mack Daddy,” “Where’s the Birth Certificate,” Mississippi Freedom Riders,” “Whoa Boys Take it from Here” (Obama waving to black and Islamic militants), the Confederate flags and the Texas state flag (separatist movement emblem). No attempt was made to mask the racist sentiment. Some protesters always seemed quite proud to openly send a message about race and Obama. The endless racist cracks, digs and slurs from talk show jocks, and on the legions of websites and blogs that bash President Obama and blacks, and not necessarily in that order.

In fact, I’ll go farther than Earl — Gibson absolutely fits the demographic profile of the Tea Party — older, affluent, white males who are uncomfortable with social change. Intolerance among those in power tends to find its way into the culture in toxic images that poison our minds, oppress our spirits & darken our future together. That’s what’s so dangerous about guys like Gibson.

Portrayals of black folks as a criminal class hurt our whole society. Police harassment of black and brown citizens means that other criminals too often get a pass. They look white and must be alright? This attitude leaves us all unsafe and we don’t need further perpetuations of stereotypes that aren’t true.

Any apology Gibson might give will ring hollow indeed. It’s also more proof that anti-semitism, sexism and racism are usually linked — bigots seldom confine their irrational hatred to one group of people but usually prefer to extend it to all people they think are not like them. I hope there isn’t another attempt to rehabilitate Gibson and get him re-invited into the superstar set. It makes me cringe to think that there are some people out there who would, given the chance and while holding a cocktail, wink at Gibson and tell him they know just what he really meant.

One thing is for sure — it’s gonna take a whole lot of donations to Color of Change, Spelman and the United Negro College Fund for Gibson to get past this one. Because we don’t want any more words from Mel — we’ve heard enough. No apologies needed. We’ve heard enough.