I still love Grover.
I went to the mall today to pick up some final giftings for people who need their giftings posted. The DVD I wanted for my mother was no where to be seen in JB, but as I poked around in the bargain bin (you must NEVER skip the bargain bin at JB HiFi. I got “To Kill a Mockingbird” for $2 once) I found a DVD we’ve had at work for a while and I pondered buying. Sesame Street Old School.
It’s volume 2, so covers 1974-1979 and oh my god I love it so much I could weep. I parked myself on my bed with my crochet hook and my little DVD player thing and watched the first two discs as I worked on a thing. This was preElmo people, how could it be bad?
I love Grover. Grover brings the sunshine. I just read a review on the DVD that stated it was grey and miserable and depressing. Uh. What? It’s certainly not the frantic rainbow of today, and there’s things that wouldn’t pass muster in the current paranoid climate but it’s far far from miserable. Some of my favourite bits are the bits like this:
I loved those as a kid, and I do now. I don’t know if Sesame Street still includes little snippets like that, but I hope they do. It’s simple but it’s interesting and educational.
Grover is still my favourite, but it’s a close call.
Actually, it *was* racist.
In 1999 a TV show on Aussie TV limped to a thankful end. That show was Hey Hey it’s Saturday, a show that didn’t so much jump the shark as leap the ocean. Over the past couple of weeks there’s been two reunion specials, which have been amazingly well received. I didn’t watch them, to be honest. I mostly remember the show to be cringe worthy (it did start well, it just lost the plan in later years), and it was on at the same time as Spicks and Specks, so you know, had to watch that instead.
Last night the talent segment of the show featured a parody of the Jackson Five, which involved 5 guys in blackface dancing behind a guy with a white painted face. Harry Connick Jr was a judge for the segment and was incredibly offended by it. This is understandable, I’m incredibly offended by it. However, I’m more offended by the attitudes being sploshed around today, which I will now address.
1. It’s only offensive to Americans.
Um. No. Sorry. Australia also has a long history of racism against black people. The White Australia Policy anyone? Raising aboriginal children to be servants and maids? Ring any bells? Sure, the blackface tradition originated in the US, but that doesn’t mean in any way it’s only offensive to Americans to show this sort of thing as “Entertainment”.
2. The movie Tropic Thunder featured an actor in blackface, and no one complained.
Wrong, people DID complain. Loudly.
3. The guy in whiteface was Indian, so it’s okay.
Sorry, no it isn’t. Someone else made the point (and I don’t recall where, probably online somewhere) that racism is racism, regardless of which direction it travels. I’d go along with that.
4. Harry Connick Jr had no right to impose his culture on ours, and shouldn’t have said anything.
Disagree 100%. I’m GLAD Harry said something, I’m glad he explained why he was offended. It’s sad that people believe blackface is okay in Australia though. “Oh he was only offended because he’s American”. Not so, but why should nationality make a difference? Maybe Americans are more sensitive to blackface as a form of racism, perhaps Aussies aren’t as aware of how and why it’s racist, but even so there should be some understanding from the resulting fall out.
5. It’s okay because Daryl Somers (the host) apologised.
Except that he didn’t. He apologised to Harry, yes, because he understood that people from America find it offensive, but he didn’t give a general apology for allowing the act to air in the first place. Big difference.
6. People just want to be offended these days, and make a fuss about nothing.
I’m actually pretty hard to offend. I may not find all comedy funny, but I find very little of it to be offensive. I actually tend to take the above line myself on a lot of things, but in this case – no, I don’t believe it’s a fuss about nothing.
On an episode of the 1970s British comedy “The Goodies” they end the episode in blackface. On the commentary all three of them draw a sharp breath and say, pretty much in unison “I wish we hadn’t done that”. It’s not the 1970s, it’s the 2000s and we’re supposed to, as a culture, be more advanced than we were then. Even understanding that the episode was made in 1976 or whenever, it’s not comfortable to watch.
A few weeks ago Sam Newman held up a photo of a Malaysian man and called him a monkey, and claimed he wasn’t long out of the jungle. Yet he’s still on air. Daryl Somers is aching to get Hey Hey back on air full time, and this incident won’t damage his chances of doing so. THAT is what’s really wrong here – racism is still apparently mainstream entertainment, to be applauded and enjoyed.