Comments on: Keepin' It Real

Keepin' It Real

dhammond — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:55:18 -0800

The Rise Of Bullshit In The Black Community [YouTube, NSFW] Author/humorist Sabrina Lamb tackles "the epidemic of bullshit sweeping the black community" in a new book.

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:16:47 -0800

meh, that video seemed to incoherent bullshit.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:17:39 -0800

Bullshit is endemic to the entire human race.

By: fingerbang

fingerbang — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:19:09 -0800

I urge removal.

By: roll truck roll

roll truck roll — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:20:36 -0800

I'm two minutes in. Why am I watching this?

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:21:34 -0800

great music but people kept talking over it

By: quin

quin — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:22:01 -0800

I'm with mcd on this one, with one or two minor exceptions, I don't see how the 'bullshit' examples in this video are specific to the black community. Asians gotta deal with child support too, whites gotta pay the same gas prices as everyone else, Hispanics gotta deal with the war and this administration, just like everyone else. Bullshit is colorblind.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:22:41 -0800

Nihil Sine Deo! Happy Boxing Day!

By: ibmcginty

ibmcginty — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:23:23 -0800

Yeah, what was the point of all that again? Other than that it's bad that someone white owns the Apollo? And I think we're supposed to resent immigrants, too, if I understand correctly. Funny in some pieces (the guy who fought to prevent paying child support to his "miracle twat" ex was an entertaining chap), but all in all, full of (traffic) sound and fury, signifying not so much.

By: roll truck roll

roll truck roll — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:32:19 -0800

And I think we're supposed to resent immigrants, too, if I understand correctly. So it appears. And women. Having looked at Lamb's website and read the book description on Amazon, it now seems that this is a last-minute promotional vid. A rather cynical attempt to show that the book is in fact "keeping it real," despite all those big words.

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:33:05 -0800

OK, this video is incoherant as all hell, and I dont know her well enough to trust that she's not some Regnery-styled trojan horse having said that do you think her thesis (which you might have to go to the Amazon link to get) is true or false and why? I think its possible that (and I could be wrong here) most of the problems blacks face these days are much less about skin color and much more cultural. I do genuinely believe there may be some truth to the destructive culture of victimhood allegation. If Im wrong, I would prefer you explain why as I am earnestly curious here and not above changing my mind on this. I would just rahter this not devolve into something ad hominem.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:35:39 -0800

I don't get it.

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:43:38 -0800

From amazon... Sabrina Lamb is fed up with the rise of bullshit in the black community. In her new book Keepin' It Real, Lamb confronts all who are guilty of bullshitting. This controversial expose begins with bullshit's firm place in black history to its thriving presence today. Lamb convincingly argues why Abe Lincoln is not a black hero and that Africans slaves were not stolen by white men but sold by fellow Africans. Her compilation of rumored bullshit is an entertaining look at what people are willing to believe and why. Rumors such as the expiration of black people's right to vote in 2007 and that Social Security Numbers are racially coded are dispelled by her sardonic wit. Sabrina Lamb challenges the black community to stop playing the victim, take out their gold teeth and never say the N-word again. This book has a simple message: As long as the black community is "down" with bullshit, that is exactly where they are going to stay. This book pulls no punches about the state of the black experience - similar to Cosby and others, Lamb dares to say what others only think. "Sabrina Lamb takes her wit and charm to the next level with Keepin' It Real! This is a book that people will be discussing for generations to come." – Zane, New York Times best-selling author "Sabrina is one of the most compelling writers I know. I would read anything from this woman." - Comedian George Wallace

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:45:02 -0800

I bet she watches Oprah.

By: jimfl

jimfl — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:46:12 -0800

[this is bullshit]

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:50:28 -0800

Well, it doesn't show that one guy in a very positive light "I'm trying to say I didn't know this bitch!" waa waa, use a condom next time.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:00:19 -0800

Lamb dares to say what others only think. we have enough people who dare to say what others only think ... we need people who will say what others haven't thought of yet

By: dbiedny

dbiedny — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:10:50 -0800

(Bull)Shit Sandwich.

By: black8

black8 — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:16:56 -0800

Sounds like yr typical black Republican to me...

By: Frank Grimes

Frank Grimes — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:17:24 -0800

Kind of like Cynthia McKinney, but not as funny. Meanwhile, Juan Williams gives the same idea a more eloquent spin.

By: photoslob

photoslob — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:21:43 -0800

Finally, a black woman who has the courage to stand up and say what racists have been saying for years.

By: taursir

taursir — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:24:25 -0800

Bullshit is just the new black...

By: Critical_Beatdown

Critical_Beatdown — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:25:15 -0800

Sabrina Lamb challenges the black community to stop playing the victim

This is news. When did we start?

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:04:45 -0800

In her new book Keepin' It Real Ah, yes. It is essential to the hilarious but culturally important activity of bullshit-debunking to be Keepin' It Real at all times. Forget to drop that terminal 'g', and you're nothin' but a shitshooter yourself. (truncated) Word.

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:24:50 -0800

dares to say what others only think How about: "dares to say what Chris Rock said 10 years ago, only not funny?"

By: thebigdeadwaltz

thebigdeadwaltz — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:44:04 -0800

I'm still confused. What bullshit is she talking about? Anyone have any examples? All I've seen and read are people talking about how bullshit has to go, but what exactly is bullshit in this context. Maybe some answer to my question can clear this up for everyone. (Sheesh that video was wacky.)

By: Grimgrin

Grimgrin — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:58:34 -0800

So she turned a Dave Chappelle skit into a serious book?

By: Kronoss

Kronoss — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 22:09:07 -0800

Bullshit is a cultural universal. Might as well talk about the rise of sneezing in the black community.

By: SinisterPurpose

SinisterPurpose — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 23:02:24 -0800

"Miracle Twat" I'm keeping that one. Thanks guy.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 01:09:02 -0800

bet is white owned, you dumb poop. way to dump tavis smiley.

By: revmitcz

revmitcz — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 01:14:37 -0800

I think I'll stick to getting my "keepin' it real" Bullshitfilter from Boondocks. If that video was meant to promote the book - it's time to get a new marketing team. They're probably hoping it'll go viral and get people talking but all I could think was "wait, wait..... what?" Chuck D had a solid point, though, and it seems to be the only coherent one throughout the video - and it related to the book. Ahh.. Chuck. Always a charmer. It'll take a nation of millions to hold you back.

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 02:51:27 -0800

Pepsi Black

By: haqspan

haqspan — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 03:54:19 -0800

How terribly bold of her to say that Africans were involved in selling fellow Africans to the Americans back in the day.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 04:11:21 -0800

How terribly bold of her to say that Africans were involved in selling fellow Africans to the Americans back in the day. Was that a sarcastic comment? If it wasn't, then you are not exactly up to date on this matter. I've heard this sentiment expressed numerous times by African-American writers and intellectuals, and maybe a rap artist or two (unfortunately, though, I can't really site anything specific).

By: Postroad

Postroad — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 04:24:10 -0800

My comment is entirely not ab out this post but it did spring to mind. So here. Watched All the King's Men the other night. Then, because I recalled the original, made in 1947, I rented the earlier version of that film. Set in Louisiana, there was not but one (a butler) bnlack person shown in the film! And that was in 1947, after WWII, an in the deep South. Wow.

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 05:14:56 -0800

What bullshit is she talking about? Anyone have any examples? She doesn't really define it anywhere in the video and the jacket blurb from her book doesn't do a very good job either. From what I can tell she's mixed up the "victim complex" element with the conspiracy thinking angle ("Rumors such as the expiration of black people's right to vote in 2007 and that Social Security Numbers are racially coded are dispelled by her sardonic wit.") thought I can't tell how exactly the two go together or what they have to do with one another. In my experience as a caseworker in Philly I've been privy to a lot of the latter type bullshit during my day to day. A good recent example was listening to a car full of black women talking about Temple University hospital and how it is a totally common and accepted practice there to farm the organs of still living, critically injured black boys and men. They were pretty adamant about how the gunshot victims that are brought there (there are many) are let to bleed out by the staff before they are taken to a special room "upstairs" where their hearts are removed. They went on to expand this theory to include the funeral director industry in the city; they believe there is a practice of recycling caskets after dumping the bodies in them to save money. So, you know, whatever. The black women I work with and provide services to talk tons of bullshit. So what? It's neighborhood folklore based in my opinion on a simple misunderstanding of correlation and causation and you know what? There's a lot of mother fuckers out there of all shades walking around with advanced degrees that still don't get correlation and causation. The kind I see every day doesn't hurt anybody, the kind that white folks engage in at a national level seriously fucks the planet up because they get elected to power based on that bullshit. Not to mention that any of the women in question would seriously fuck your shit up if you suggested that they had a victim complex.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 05:34:22 -0800

The kind I see every day doesn't hurt anybody, of course it does ... it hurts the people who believe it ... it encourages them to think the world is against them even more than it already is ... it encourages other people to disregard them and their opinions on other things ... and it creates more mistrust and hatred in a world that already has too much Not to mention that any of the women in question would seriously fuck your shit up if you suggested that they had a victim complex. compared to running for office, organizing politically and pressing for change, isn't fucking people's shit up self-destructive, victim-like behavior?

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:10:44 -0800

it encourages them to think the world is against them even more than it already is ... You go ahead and explain to me exactly how that works. compared to running for office, organizing politically and pressing for change, isn't fucking people's shit up self-destructive, victim-like behavior? No, it's not. Why would you assume these things are mutually exclusive? Where in my post did I say that the women I work with or serve are uninvolved in the political process? Why would you assume that they aren't?

By: jonmc

jonmc — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:18:33 -0800

Well, hey, plenty of white, brown, and yellow people who believe all kinds of bullshit, too. The reasons are manifold, lack of education, paranoia, crazy-ass explanations for things are more fun than logical ones, whatever. It's all still bullshit, and people are dumb for believing it. Let's hear it for equality. One way we're equal is that an awful lot of us aren't too bright.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:25:51 -0800

(some of the classics that people have believed: Church's Fried Chicken puts saltpeter in their food, Tropical Fantasy soda is owned by the KKK, AIDS was invented in a laboratory, etc. etc. I know people of all races who earnestly believe this stuff.)

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:40:28 -0800

I guess the thing I take serious exception with is the author's erroneous conclusion that somehow believing in urban legend type bullshit is somehow causally related to the state of disenfranchisement of poor blacks ("As long as the black community is 'down' with bullshit, that is exactly where they are going to stay."). That is simply another piece of bullshit based on the same misunderstanding of cause and correlation as the bullshit she is attacking.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:40:56 -0800

You go ahead and explain to me exactly how that works. you're the one who insisted it wasn't hurting anyone ... change your mind? No, it's not. it most certainly is ... people who go around fucking people's shit up get marginalized Where in my post did I say that the women I work with or serve are uninvolved in the political process? Why would you assume that they aren't? people who believe in conspiracy theories aren't effective advocates for anything positive because they're regarded as nuts

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:43:01 -0800

I guess the thing I take serious exception with is the author's erroneous conclusion that somehow believing in urban legend type bullshit is somehow causally related to the state of disenfranchisement of poor blacks it's not the cause of disenfranchisement by any means, you are correct about that ... however, it's not going to help them become enfranchised and will probably hinder them

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:51:55 -0800

people who go around fucking people's shit up get marginalized ? people who believe in conspiracy theories aren't effective advocates for anything positive because they're regarded as nuts ??

By: pax digita

pax digita — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:13:47 -0800

Not to mention that any of the women in question would seriously fuck your shit up if you suggested that they had a victim complex. If they're engaging in the sort of paranoid conspiracy thinking you're describing, devoid of any critical analysis, I question whether they'd understand the notion of "victim complex" well enough to be sufficiently motivated by the label to fuck up anybody's shit, seriously or otherwise. They'd probably get the "victim" part and aver that they are, indeed, being held down by the Man, but the "complex" part requires some objective thinking they're probably not used to doing. (Kinda like 99.9% of the people I deal with every day) Sounds like an entertaining job, though. Considering at Xmas dinner I listened to yet another iteration of this lame urban legend -- this time, that he was a Ranger -- from a graduate student at OSU, I'm sure people are prepared to believe whatever sounds good to them.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:17:16 -0800

NIGGA, please ! (video, nsfw, need minimum brain)

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:20:23 -0800

Being a suburban raised white boy, I've never had to deal with my skin color as a life issue in any real context, so I can only project my feelings on those who have been disenfranchised because of their skin tone (either in reality or in their minds). That said, I'm always puzzled by people and movements whose intention is to empower black people. It seems that a group of people that had been repressed for many generations needs or has needed a kind of wake up call and galvanizing force to help them change their own perceptions and the perceptions of those who were repressing them. But the same force that is meant to help them become empowered so easily turns around and isolates them into another subgroup. In that regard, I admire James Brown because he spoke about being proud of being black, but at the same time refused to fit the mold of a black power activist and did his own thing, thank God.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:26:57 -0800

The only "empowerment" or "self-esteem building" I've ever seen that works seems to be a steady paycheck in exchange for hard work. For many people it has the additional salutary side effect of helping them see past their own peer group's excuse-making conspiracy theories. I think I might look for Ms. Lamb's book at the library, though, and dhammond, I'm grateful for your FPP -- I might never have heard of this otherwise.

By: VulcanMike

VulcanMike — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:29:13 -0800

Rumors such as the expiration of black people's right to vote in 2007 and that Social Security Numbers are racially coded are dispelled by her sardonic wit. I don't know how this jives with the "oil prices under Bush are bullshit" piece of the video, because even if it wasn't completely accurate, it was more or less correct. If the author is encouraging people to research their assumptions and overheard rumors before perpetuating them, I'm all for it -- ignorance thrives when people are too busy talking when they should be listening. Interestingly, Cambridge House Press seems to be a self-publishing house with some interesting terms, based on this thread. The only other major publication I found from them was a book on creationism by one author I couldn't identify (unless he actually is a 19-year-old freelance writer who dropped out of the University of Texas per Googlism) and another author who has only otherwise published books on international business culture for "the largest English-language book publishing and distribution company in Asia." Even odder, the creationism book's title includes "The Family of Ree Series" which seems to belong to a series of books that "teach good values and morals." Needless to say, I'm a bit perplexed.

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:31:24 -0800

I question whether they'd understand the notion of "victim complex" well enough to be sufficiently motivated by the label to fuck up anybody's shit, seriously or otherwise. I don't think there's higher order cognitive processes involved in grasping a concept (the "complex") that has been simplified and popularized for decades (guilt complex, inferiority complex, etc.). I really do think that the people in question have the facilities to understand the meaning of "victim complex," especially as I think it's used by this author in it's simplified and politically charged context (i.e., "culture of blame," etc.) and not as a formal Jungian construct. I'm also not sure why you would conflate magical type thinking and higher order processes, I sort of remember from cultural psychology class that the two can coexist quite comfortably.

By: I Foody

I Foody — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:17:42 -0800

The video was stupid. I can't imagine the book not being stupid. I don't think most people that suffer from self identifying as victims believe that they suffer from self identifying as victims. This is an entirely seperate thing from understanding in the abstract that one might suffer from self identifying as a victim. Neither requires a great deal of cognitive muscle, but the former requires a rare amount of introspection. I would guess that those that do believe that a sinister cabal is out harvesting organs have a victim complex. In order to believe this you need to believe that society places so little value on your life that society will casually break the rules, and overlook some powerful taboos in order to use you for spare parts. This is a seriously damaging belief. Raising a child with this belief is a good way to help him have a worse life. The fact that these women are willing would be so angry at being told that they have a victim complex that they would be physically violent does not dispell the notion that they have a victim complex any more than the fact that calling an alcoholic an alcoholic might cause him to hit you makes him not an alcoholic. I'm probably making a bigger deal out of this than it is, but it is more than trivially bad.

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:34:55 -0800

I don't think it is more than trivially bad at all but then again maybe I have different perspective on things because I have first hand knowledge of the people involved. I mean, this is just casual shit talk we're talking about here, much like the toss off bullshiting in the video. I don't know where the sinister cabal thing is coming from. It's was killing time talk on a car ride across town, not a group meeting to discuss the contents of a letter to the editor or hatch a plot against "the Man." I'm not really sure why anyone feels the need to take it there. But before this gets any more ridiculous let me explain how I think this goes. Lot's of kids die in Temple University Hospital, many of whom have suffered gunshots and other severe trauma (Temple's hospital is in the heart of North Philly and surrounded by some of the city's most violent territory). Somebody witnesses their kid, or hear's about someone's kid, or hears from someone about someone else's kid five fucking times removed that before they died of a gunshot wound they were wheeled off somewhere by the hospital staff. Now, anyone could tell you that there's a host of probably reasons for that and a doctor could probably tell you exactly why. But all this person knows is that when their son or their friends son or their son's boy got wheeled off he was alive and when they brought him back he was dead. Conjecture and speculation ensues, colored by grief and distress. Said person finds therapeutic value in telling everyone they know in the neighborhood about what happened that fateful night in Temple hospital. Others in the neighborhood had similar experiences (i.e., someone they knew or knew of went into Temple with a gunshot wound and came out dead) and the tale perpetuates itself. Bang. Urban legend. When you and the host of people involved in the spreading the tale don't have much by way of knowledge of the health care industry, nor the finer points of correlation and causation and are suspicious of institutions because you've only had bad experiences with them (because yours tend to be underfunded, understaffed, unequipped, etc.) these conclusions are perfectly natural.

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:36:45 -0800

Sorry for the typos, I have to go see one of my clients who says "the evil spirits" are back (seriously) so I'm in a bit of a rush.

By: I Foody

I Foody — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:51:04 -0800

I'm not saying that the casual shit talk is itself the problem, I'm saying it is a symptem of the problem. You could have the same situation, the same ignorance, but without the strong feelings of alienation and persecution people would probably not make the jump from "many people die in hospitals" to "the hospitals let our people die so they can harvest our organs" That is a seriously big jump.

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 09:19:12 -0800

What is the big deal? She sounds like any other black comedian who preforms for black crowds. Americans love making fun of stupid people within their own race (but professionals avoid mocking other races).

By: MaxVonCretin

MaxVonCretin — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 10:25:05 -0800

Identity politics is bullshit.

By: Rubbstone

Rubbstone — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 12:10:28 -0800

Now, anyone could tell you that there's a host of probably reasons for that and a doctor could probably tell you exactly why. But all this person knows is that when their son or their friends son or their son's boy got wheeled off he was alive and when they brought him back he was dead. Conjecture and speculation ensues, colored by grief and distress. Said person finds therapeutic value in telling everyone they know in the neighborhood about what happened that fateful night in Temple hospital. Others in the neighborhood had similar experiences (i.e., someone they knew or knew of went into Temple with a gunshot wound and came out dead) and the tale perpetuates itself. Perhaps bechasue the resident who was searching for the bullet couldn't find it or didn't notice the ancillary damage and so he bled out in the chair because black people recieve poor health care and poor black people recieve dismal health care. Which is a fact backed up by multiple studies. Well.... at least they don't let them bleed out for the organs.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:00:01 -0800

Ignorance is bullshit. It's cured by education. The state of health care for the poor in America is more than bullshit, and could at least be ameliorated by socialized medicine. Imho.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:20:31 -0800

Ignorance is bullshit. It's cured by education. I don't know about that. Sometimes it seems that people hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe regardless of education. Teaching is not a cure-all.

By: dglynn

dglynn — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:26:38 -0800

The ACLU wants to ban religion. Saddam was involved in 9/11. Republicans in Washington spend less money than Democrats. Gay people can turn straight people gay. California is being swamped with illegal aliens with the explicit goal of taking over the West coast and returing it to Mexican control. White people wallow in their own bullshit all the time(usually on the AM band). You would have a hard time proving that anything about this human frailty is racially exclusive. Once again we have another example of how different races actually have much in common. In other words, everyone has a gullible and misinformed aunt and uncle, and must listen to their random bullshit at holiday gatherings.

By: teleri025

teleri025 — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:38:15 -0800

I know a great number of poor white folks who believe similar bullshit. It's a symptom of being human. Shit ain't going your way. You've done everything you know to do to change that, but you're still broke and busted. Therefore, someone has to be keeping you down. Whether it's the Jews, the White devils, the Blacks or Those Damn Martians...someone is keeping you down. This of course doesn't rule out the possibilty that someone actually is responsible for keeping you down...it just means that the bullshit you're babbling about on your front step with a beer in one hand and a cig in the other doesn't really have to be the truth. And for the record, there is no Library of Congress record for the book. Which lends creedence to the idea that this is a vanity press-type book.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 14:49:58 -0800

Creedence Credence Cree Dance

By: teleri025

teleri025 — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:14:30 -0800

Whoops. My bad. Turns out I believe my own bullshit that I knew how to speel...err spell.

By: Afreemind2007

Afreemind2007 — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 22:32:28 -0800

I don't get this. are these people like the black Penn & Teller?

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 23:39:19 -0800

dglynn you forgot : Jesus and/or good heterosexual healin' can turn gay people strait.

By: quin

quin — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 23:45:31 -0800

Afreemind2007. No. they are not. Love them or hate them, Penn and Teller have proved to be clever. This is not. There might have been moments of cleverness here, but based on what I watched, it was accidental. What was shown here is a shtick, and not a great one at that. It was an attempt at showing the failing parts of black culture, in an attempt to hold them up to the light and show how every group hold the seeds of their own destruction or something. All I came away from in this is angry. Angry because I work in a mostly black environment where people work their asses off daily for a paycheck. Angrier because it used the "man on the street" interview cliché by which non-black people will see the stereotype they are looking for, and blacks will just see the lowest common denominator of their culture. This exact same trailer could have been made using nothing but white Southerners and it would have, at the end of the day, provided the same message. Uneducated people are silly, smart people exist in groups that don't fit their stereotype. Isn't that interesting? To which I have to answer, No. Not really.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 00:43:37 -0800

This exact same trailer could have been made using nothing but white Southerners and it would have, at the end of the day, provided the same message. Well, shucks, I'm a white Southerner, and I ain't never been ta no fancy Northern college r'nuthin, but I hear tell there's some pretty fuckin' dumb people up there. You know, up north. I reckon out in the midwest and the west coast, too, like out in Cali-for-nigh-ay. Then agin, what would I know? I'm just a dumb white Southerner...

By: quin

quin — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 02:26:40 -0800

flapjax at midnite; precisely my point. Stupid people abound. It's not endemic to a particular culture. If you want to be stereotypical, it's easy to do, if you want to be honest, it's much harder. There are dumb people in every level of life, if your goal is to point out those people to make an example of their behavior, it does any group a disservice to make it based on a specific racial or geographical trait. Because it's one thing that all cultures share.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 02:51:17 -0800

Because it's one thing that all cultures share. I hear you, quin. I just found it a little odd and/or predictable that you chose "white Southerners" to make your point, as opposed to, say "white people".

By: tattle

tattle — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 07:28:14 -0800

I co-sign with the sentiments of Teleri05, sinisterpurpose, IFoody, TheStraightener, PyramidTermite and particularly JeffBurges. Doesn't anyone remember the tome entitled "On Bullshit" by some Oxford Professor from a few years ago? And other Bullshit titles that came out after that? Why is anyone taking a discussion of Bullshit seriously? Face it, black people, just like other human beings have bullshit tendencies! I thought the video was hilarious...and in the manner it was intended....either chuckle 'cause you too are tired of bullshit or recognize that you know some bullshit artists...in or out of the black community...relax people...no one is talking about you....it ain't that serious!:)

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:53:46 -0800

I hear you, quin. I just found it a little odd and/or predictable that you chose "white Southerners" to make your point, as opposed to, say "white people". So the stereotype is unearned?

By: Snyder

Snyder — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:08:19 -0800

Yes. Do you really think stupid people are more common among certain cultural/ethnic backgrounds?

By: quin

quin — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:14:52 -0800

I hear you, quin. I just found it a little odd and/or predictable that you chose "white Southerners" to make your point, as opposed to, say "white people". I was looking for an oft stereotyped group, and I thought 'white people' was too broad. I could have gone with 'white British' people, but I figured since the referenced material was concerning American blacks, it would make more sense to stick with the same country.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 11:18:12 -0800

I could have gone with 'white British' people You mean Red Coats.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 22:56:23 -0800

Do you really think stupid people are more common among certain cultural/ethnic backgrounds? I believe there are factors more important than culture or ethnicity. In fact, I find it a little surprising you came up with that association.

By: Snyder

Snyder — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 08:33:06 -0800

I believe there are factors more important than culture or ethnicity. In fact, I find it a little surprising you came up with that association. You implied that southern whites either had more stupid people or were stupider, on average, then other folks. Most people, when making broad generalizations like that, attribute it to either race/ethnicity or culture, sometimes a mixture of both. Do you attribute it something like geographical location, or have I somehow misread you entirely?

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:11:51 -0800

Do you attribute it something like geographical location... I attribute it to eating possum.

By: tattle

tattle — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 11:33:54 -0800

tkchrist...now that's funny...lol!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 18:41:23 -0800

Sorry, my confusion. I didn't manage to "see" that white southerner would in fact be a racial thing. I'd attribute it to religion, actually. I think the South Baptist-style religions have a vested interest in keeping their membership stupid. There's a lotta money to be made from a mega-church filled with idiots.

By: tattle

tattle — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 08:54:48 -0800

Five Fresh Fish: and will the church say 'Amen". In addition, if a lot of the 'isms' were eradicated tomorrow...a lot of people would be unemployed. so there is vested interests for some in keeping the Bullshit going.