Chris Rock and "Those People"

[ArtieBoy]

Last night I had the mute on when Chris Rock was doing his part of the hurricane benefit. If the transcription thing on my TV was right, Chris Rock started with, "George Bush hates midgets" and went into a thing about why everyone says, "Why didn't 'those people' leave?..." If he he really said, "George Bush hates midgets" it sort of trivializes what Kanye West said, but the stuff about "those people" was a great point.

[Dem Agog]

1. Re: George Bush hates Midgets

I don't think he said it to trivialize what Kanye West said at all. I think he said it for 3 reasons.

1. By saying it, even using the word "midgets", every person in the room knew what he was really referring to.

2. He scared the producers of the show for a minute. (I read that somewhere, and I do believe they weren't expecting it.) He probably got a kick out of that.

3. It got chuckles.

So by not saying what Kanye West said, but saying something very similar, he very effectively reiterated the exact same message.

[fishwax]

2. I agree with your analysis

I didn't think he was trivializing it, just referring to it, keeping it alive ...

[mithnanthy]

3. exactly!

n/t

[roguevalley]

4. I saw an internal moment, can I or can I do this now, here. I am

proud of him.

[me b zola]

5. It also made another point

That you can say "GW hates midgets" but you can't say GW hates black people"

Why?

Why does one statement merit censorship and the other not? Could it be because one statement is so obviously true that it cannot be allowed to be spoken?


To me, this different standard made the point that racism was involved.

[mirandapriestly]

6. Oh, thanks for the explanation, I didn't get it, I thought he was

trivializing the West statement and I thought he had sold out or something.