Urban Thought Collective

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. PLAYS A BLACK MAN

I’m going to a press screening of “Tropic Thunder” in a few days and I don’t mind telling you that I’m very uneasy about the idea of Robert Downey, Jr. playing a black man in this flick. Well, he doesn’t actually play a black man. He plays an egotistical actor who undergoes some kind of chemical treatments to make himself look black so that he can land the plum role of a brother fighting in Vietnam. Sigh. This will either be clever satire (especially if Downey’s character clowns himself) or it will be racially insulting garbage. I’ll give you my two cents next week.

It’s easy to get upset about a white man putting on blackface, but anticipating Downey’s performance caused me to think about how some black artists willingly collaborate in the perpetuation of racist stereotypes. Racists who think black men are dangerous, foul-mouthed, drug and alcohol-abusing criminals must take comfort in their bigoted beliefs when they see brothers throwing up gang signs in hip hop videos, bragging about their shady street activities, dehumanizing black women and engaging in pointless, ego-driven beefs with other black men. The White Man (that collection of individuals and institutions dedicated to the repression of people of color, women and the poor) loves seeing this.

COINTELPRO IS BACK

Here’s some more Bush-Cheney mess for Barack Obama to clean up after he becomes President. As we speak, the Justice Department is finalizing a new policy that would allow the FBI to investigate Americans as possible terrorists even if they haven’t done anything wrong. Currently, there has to be at least an allegation of criminal intent before the FBI gets on your case. Instead, the feds will base their suspicions on vague factors including race and ethnicity. This new policy will only intensify the biased scrutiny that Muslim and Arab-Americans have lived under since September 11.

The racism of this plan is obvious. These guidelines call for the profiling of Muslims and Arab-Americans. This is not only racist but it’s foolish. Prior to September 11, the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history was the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. That heinous mass-murder of civilians (including — women and children) was carried out by homegrown terrorists: white, Christian American citizens who called themselves “patriots.” But, of course, being a white guy with a Timothy McVeigh crew cut has never been criteria for the federal government to start investigating folks.

Paranoia and racism have always walked hand-in-hand in our nation. This new Justice Department policy, like the so dreadful Patriot Act, borrows from the disgraceful, un-American handbook of COINTELPRO and McCarthyism which have undermined the spirit and the law which make the United States a unique and potentially great nation.

Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.
THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!

Cameron Turner is a Los Angeles-area native whose editorials, entertainment news features and audio documentaries have appeared on national radio networks, online and in print for over 20 years.