It’s like living your life as a job interview. Forever.
February 20, 2015 7:59 AM   Subscribe

 
Living your life as a job interview, forever- ugh! Sounds like a good description of hell.
posted by Anne Neville at 8:20 AM on February 20, 2015 [5 favorites]


It’s like living your life as a job interview. Forever.

That is a killer line, and I hope people will remember it.
posted by suelac at 8:25 AM on February 20, 2015 [13 favorites]


It’s like living your life as a job interview. Forever.

Eh. Eventually you get tired of treating that job interview so seriously and start to relax and have fun with it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:30 AM on February 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


In the 1990s, white showrunners earned millions for The Wire and The Sopranos

Whoops.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:31 AM on February 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


Fantastic article. I wanted to pull a quote but couldn't choose just one. Thanks so much for posting, I'll be thinking about it all day
posted by donnagirl at 8:34 AM on February 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


In the 1990s, white showrunners earned millions for The Wire and The Sopranos

Whoops.


Maybe he was thinking of Wire creator David Simon's 90s show Homicide: Life on the Street? The early 90s also saw crime shows like NYPD Blue and Law & Order.
posted by Sangermaine at 8:43 AM on February 20, 2015


I've seen a lot of black Twitter talking about this before (all women, at least the ones I follow), so the ideas aren't new to me, but this was a good way of putting it.

Of course, what I think about this issue as a white person is pretty irrelevant, but it is really interesting to me.

I wouldn't call Cosby "diminished" though. "Disgraced" is more accurate.
posted by emjaybee at 8:44 AM on February 20, 2015 [5 favorites]


The rejection of "BRP" reminds me of Chris Rock's recent statements that electing a black president reflected not black progress, but white progress. And Obama's treatment by white America shows that it doesn't matter HOW you act, racists are going to be racist. Look at how the right pretends to venerate Frederick Douglass or Jackie Robinson or MLK, the supposedly good, respectable negroes of the past, even though white conservatives in their times reviled them, and today's conservatives do the same to their modern equivalents.

In 30 years, I guarantee it, racists will be saying "why can't President Wallace (hypothetical future black president) be good and respectful like Barack Obama was?"
posted by mellow seas at 8:57 AM on February 20, 2015 [24 favorites]


Of course, what I think about this issue as a white person is pretty irrelevant, but it is really interesting to me.

As a member of the majority race in America, trust me, your thoughts on the issue do matter to some extent.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:16 AM on February 20, 2015 [8 favorites]


Like hip hop artists, [Power and Empire] sacrificed some cultural respectability in exchange for commercial success and professional viability.

This seems like a bit of a false dilemma. The refrain of rappers from NWA to Future have always said that they are simply writing about their own lives; creating a sort of self-ethnography. Likewise the criticism of the Cosby Show has long been that it presented a very idealized view of African-American life that was unobtainable by the majority. Even Squire notes the odd bifurcation between his own life and the Cosby household.

Obviously, not every single Black person lived in either gang-ridden Compton or an affluent Brooklyn brownstone (and it's also not as though there weren't more middle/working class depictions cf. Sanford & Sons, Roc, etc.), but the author seems to be equating the notion of the Cosby ideal with cultural respectability. That in turn seems to suggest the metric of cultural respectability is indistinguishable from the presenting an unchallenging facade to the rest of society. There is something to be said for gaining cultural respectability, cultural "self-respectability" even, from not trying to paper over Ice Cube with Tootie.

It might not win over Peoria, but as the author alludes, Peoria wasn't trying to be won over to begin with.
posted by Panjandrum at 9:40 AM on February 20, 2015


suelac: "It’s like living your life as a job interview. Forever.

That is a killer line, and I hope people will remember it.
"

I'm now picturing a sort of socio-political parody of 1984 about life in Reagan's America with BRP in effect. Perhaps that was the intended effect.
----------------------------------------------
1984: Like living your life as a job interview. Forever.
posted by symbioid at 9:40 AM on February 20, 2015


Great article. And like the author, I'm still amazed at the hatred for Obama among a lot of white Americans. I really thought it would fade with time. And it extends beyond the hard-core racists. I mean, even mainstream Republicans like Giuliani are feeding into it.

But this:

In 30 years, I guarantee it, racists will be saying "why can't President Wallace (hypothetical future black president) be good and respectful like Barack Obama was?"

is already happening. I've been seeing Facebook posts along the lines of "I can't stand Obama as a man, but at least he has dignity. Not like that Hillary Clinton."
posted by kanewai at 9:54 AM on February 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


Wallace is an interesting name for a hypothetical black President.
posted by dame at 10:07 AM on February 20, 2015 [7 favorites]


I've been seeing Facebook posts along the lines of "I can't stand Obama as a man, but at least he has dignity. Not like that Hillary Clinton."

And what's funny is that in 2008, she was some sort of crazed witch hellbent on ruining the country, until they realized obama might get the nomination. At which point she was suddenly the respectable elder statesperson and he was the dangerous radical!
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 10:31 AM on February 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


Woah woah woah. Hillary Clinton is black?

Who knew!

...the author seems to be equating the notion of the Cosby ideal with cultural respectability.

All situation comedies, regardless of the race of thier core cast, portray an unrealistic class ideal for thier target demographic.
posted by clarknova at 10:53 AM on February 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


So having read this and thought about it more, I really dislike the implication in the article that middle-class and affluent blackness is somehow fake, a ruse to make the "community" look good and not the reality of some black lives. My family is not as rich as the Cosbys, but my life certainly had more in common with the life presented therein than it ever did with the representations and stories of NWA.

I've mentioned this on Metafilter before but I am going to keep saying it: I am so, so, so sick of the idea that blackness == privation, contemporary or historical variety. It seems to be one of the unfortunate side-effects of integration (which obviously is overall a hugely good thing) that the black middle and upper classes have been so thoroughly integrated into the white that the only visibility sometimes seems to be poor blacks.

Do all the people who think the Wire gives them insights into blackness know anything about Jack & Jill or Oak Bluffs? Because one isn't actually more "black" than the others.

And, I understand the author's appreciation that something closer to his life was shown, but I think we all deserve that joy. I grew up in a house with high expectations around school and behavior and talk of the Black Panthers at breakfast not because we were trying to be something other than we were, but because that is exactly who we were.

My current antidote to all this annoyance is awesome Tumblrs like Vintage Black Glamour and The Way We Were but something a little more modern would be nice!
posted by dame at 11:00 AM on February 20, 2015 [19 favorites]


I am so, so, so sick of the idea that blackness =
posted by cashman at 11:05 AM on February 20, 2015 [6 favorites]


Also, beyond my personal human desire to see my kind of existence recognized and reflected in culture, I do feel like "well black people are poor" serves as a feel-good way of making assumptions that are just as racist and Bell Curve–style assumptions of inferiority. It really doesn't matter if you think black people are inferior because they are poor instead of "because genetics"; the presumption of inferiority is the actual problem. Not to mention, it also allows people to avoid the hard work of actually integrating people unlike them into the cultural mainstream, their lives, their workplaces, etc. It is here that the corollary to a lot of discussion about "women in tech" becomes obvious, but I have to get back to coding so, uh, I will leave unpacking that as an exercise to the reader for now.
posted by dame at 11:07 AM on February 20, 2015 [7 favorites]


When I got to this part

The backdrop of South Florida injected irony into the Cosby-watching experience. Long after the show was over, I’d lie in my bed and listen to the sounds of assault weapons as a cocaine war raged on outside. Police helicopter lights swooped through my bedroom window, crack addict prostitutes showed up at our doorsteps begging for food. And by the morning, I was singing the theme song to The Facts of Life on the way to school in a perfectly tailored outfit. This was my schizophrenic normal.

I was like, "Oh snap -- did I write this article?!" I didn't have the perfectly tailored outfit, but otherwise, yeah, that was me back in the day. That same kind of "schizophrenic normal."

The scales dropped from my eyes with regard to BRP when I started noticing that my dress and behavior made absolutely no difference in the eyes of concerned citizens and police officers who felt like their day wouldn't be complete if they didn't take advantage of an opportunity to fuck with a black man. And this was back in high school. Though I guess that does roughly correspond with the rise of gangsta rap and the era of hip-hop crime dramas.

Thanks for this post, roomthreeseventeen.
posted by lord_wolf at 11:08 AM on February 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


Wallace is an interesting name for a hypothetical black President.

Well, I might vote for someone who combined the Marsellus, William, and David Foster bits, but yeah, the George aspects would kind of be a dealbreaker.
posted by busted_crayons at 11:38 AM on February 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


I really dislike the implication in the article that middle-class and affluent blackness is somehow fake, a ruse to make the "community" look good and not the reality of some black lives. ... I've mentioned this on Metafilter before but I am going to keep saying it: I am so, so, so sick of the idea that blackness == privation, contemporary or historical variety.

I'm admittedly Whitey McWASPerson, but isn't recognizing this how Tyler Perry makes money so fast it breaks the presses?

Wallace is an interesting name for a hypothetical black President.

He would disappear after making an important decision, prompting Vice President D'Angelo to repeatedly query National Security Adviser Bell about his whereabouts.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:43 AM on February 20, 2015 [6 favorites]


He would fly a mission to the moon with his dog in search of cheese.
posted by matildaben at 4:21 PM on February 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


While I love several, several quotes in this article, I'm not sure if this means BRP is dead...at least, it's certainly not dead for me or my family.

Like, I get that racists will hate me no matter what. So no matter how squeaky clean I am, I will always be black and people will find things out of the woodwork to justify whatever misfortunes may come my way.

At the same time, I don't want to tempt things. I don't want to give people fodder.

Also, I echo the folks who have criticized the idea that BRP is a ruse. I mean, I am certainly not a Jack and Jill type (and when I first heard about Jack and Jill, I was totally flabbergasted. It just seems like a totally different world), but I don't listen to gangsta rap or anything like that. I mean, I listen to old pretentious overwhelmingly white prog rock. I grew up Mormon (certainly not a religion known for great positions on racial diversity.) How I act, speak, behave, etc., are not affectations.
posted by subversiveasset at 6:43 PM on February 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


I really dislike the implication in the article that middle-class and affluent blackness is somehow fake, a ruse to make the "community" look good and not the reality of some black lives.

No one would ever tell a white person that they're Doing White Wrong.
posted by space_cookie at 7:16 PM on February 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


emjaybee, agree: I was going to say -- "From the diminishment of its main spokesman Bill Cosby ... " um, that's putting it mildly.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:23 PM on February 20, 2015


No one would ever tell a white person that they're Doing White Wrong.

Interesting point.
Might be helpful for a bit of writing I'm doing at the moment.
*thinks about strategy*
posted by glasseyes at 7:12 AM on February 21, 2015


No one would ever tell a white person that they're Doing White Wrong

Uh, as someone currently living in the deeeeeeep South, I can assure you that I tell white people exactly this on a regular basis.

(but I understand what you're getting at)
posted by SinAesthetic at 3:02 PM on February 21, 2015


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