I Don't Get It
I was watching an old Chappelle's Show sketch about a hypothetical "race draft." It's modeled on the way sports teams draft their new players, ie draw lots to see who gets first picks for the most sought-after players. For example, the blacks get the first pick and claim Tiger Woods; henceforth he's officially black (instead of mixed-race). And so on and so forth. It's hilarious - there's this part where the whites try to get Colin Powell, and the blacks object, and they finally resolve their differences: the whites can keep Colin Powell if they'll also take away Condoleeza Rice.
Then comes the joke I didn't get at all: the whites are about to claim Eminem, which draws a reaction from the blacks. The blacks then concede that the whites can keep Eminem IF THEY CAN KEEP OJ SIMPSON. I guess this is more covert inside joke, because I never knew that OJ Simpson was in danger of not being black, much less that he had any merit that would make either group want to claim him.
Then comes the joke I didn't get at all: the whites are about to claim Eminem, which draws a reaction from the blacks. The blacks then concede that the whites can keep Eminem IF THEY CAN KEEP OJ SIMPSON. I guess this is more covert inside joke, because I never knew that OJ Simpson was in danger of not being black, much less that he had any merit that would make either group want to claim him.
posted by Rex at 11:00 AM
3 Comments:
I think that OJ reference was kind of saying how sometimes the black community makes heroes or stay loyal to celebrities that are totally repulsive, and that this tendency is kind of self defeating. I think. Like the Michael Vick dog thing. I mean, probably the majority of black people thing OJ is a murderer and that Michael Vick is at least an idiot if not cruel for running a dog fight ring, but there's some public solidarity thing (Sharpton) that is kind of self-defeating. I think.
Oh, yeah, and OJ tried to kind of "white-ify" a lot in his career prior to this whole murder thing, and the white women part was just part of it, I believe. He's like Michael Jackson basically, claiming blackness only in times of trouble because he can sort of count on this black solidarity to kick in, at least publicly.
Good theory. That sounds about right.
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