News Gripes: Saying No To Smoking, "Sexy" Girls, and Racism

The recent adjustment to the smoking ban is just another of the many reasons people can cite for why they love New York. In addition to being prohibited indoors, smoking is now also prohibited in pedestrian areas, parks, and public beaches and I can’t help but rejoice. As a non-smoker, there is nothing I hate more than having to walk through a cloud of smoke or the blowback from a smoker walking in front of me. I chose to say ‘No’ to cigarettes so there is no reason why I should have to inhale someone else’s poison. New York has been making strides with its battle against cigarettes for years and I distinctly remember a time, about a decade ago, when I was unable to leave an establishment without the stench of smoke clinging to my hair and permeating my clothing. Sweet relief was the result the first time I entered a nightclub and noticed the absence of smoke and I have since come to base my enjoyment of places on whether or not they allow smoking indoors. Now, with the new ban, I no longer have to fear the press of smoke clogging up my lungs while I picnic in the park, take in an outdoor concert or take advantage of the myriad of activities that the city sponsors year after year. So, bravo New York! My lungs thank you.

Here are a couple other interesting articles I came across recently but haven’t had time to share:

1.) While listening to The Breakfast Club this morning, I heard this story about a Canadian man who filed a false report claiming that two men, one Black and one Hispanic, robbed him of his tickets to Oprah’s farewell show. Apparently, he did not want to disappoint his wife but felt comfortable with the old standby of using "minorities" as scapegoats (remember this woman’s acid hoax?). It’s obvious that we still have a long way to go with race relations.

2.) Someone sent this opinion piece by CNN’s LZ Granderson to me over a month ago and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind since. Fact is, as disturbing as it was to hear him describing an eight-year-old girl in such a manner, I don’t find fault with Granderson's opinion that some of the clothes made for young girls are way too provocative or that parents bear some of the responsibility in the way that they choose to spend their dollars. I have young girls in my family and have often wondered why certain skintight, midriff-baring, cut-outs outfits were designed for children. Cute as it may look on a grown woman, the last thing I want to do is send out the young girls in my family in anything that would attract unsavory attention. In the world that we live in, a healthy dose of paranoia is often necessary.

Comedy Gripes: No Fairplay in Comedy

I might have mentioned that I had a few friends visit me this summer, all arriving within a week or two of each other. Whenever I have visitors, I try to plan activities that I know will interest them and while I think I did an okay job of it this time around, I would sometimes find myself thinking of activities that might have made for an even better visit for my friends. Such was the case when I casually mentioned to G. that I wish I had thought to get tickets to the Chelsea Lately show when she is in town. Chelsea’s comedy style is often dry and biting and can be summed up with the expression ‘take it or leave’. I thought G. would fall into the former group, and she did for a time, but now she is firmly in the other camp. She could think of nothing worst than sitting in the audience at the Chelsea Lately show.

Because it sometimes seems as though I live under a rock, G. sent me this clip as explanation for why she is no longer a fan of Chelsea Handler. Apparently, the comedian went much too far in perpetuating existing race stereotypes (i.e. all black women want to marry ex-cons and all black men end up in prison) and criticizing other minority groups. According to G., this has been going on for some time and even minority comedians who sit on Chelsea’s panel during the opening set are not immune from her criticism. So, while she was initially okay with it, G. feels that is has gone too far and that Chelsea’s joke are in poor taste. And, they’re not funny!

Now, I watch the show on occasion as a sort of nightcap before I fall asleep and thus far, I haven’t heard anything that I found offensive. Additionally, I watched the video and while it is not the most comfortable thing to hear, I wondered how this was different from the jokes that black comedians tell about people from other racial groups. Fair is fair, right? Not so, says G. Rather, she feels that blacks have hardly been on the receiving end of fair and instead, often have to be accommodating. I had to pause and think about this because on the one hand, G. is right. Blacks are still rebounding from a few hundred years of neglect and while some may think that we are at a point where we can say that everyone is equal, there is still evidence to the contrary. For instance, when blacks speak up or act out in any way, they are viewed as confrontational and reprimanded in some way. For whites, overly emotional behavior is simply seen as a personality trait and shrugged off. Obviously, we live in a world where there are shades of gray and things are far from clear. But consider this example and you’ll see G.’s point.

On the other hand, do we have any right to expect that whites will hold back when we so freely paint insulting images of them and of each other, all in the name of comedy? Should jokes about minorities be limited to minority comedians while white jokes are open to all? Will we ever get to a point where we can say fair is fair and have evidence to support that expression? Something to think about…

A Charge of Racial Profiling

Lately, I have been so enmeshed in my own pathetic life that I completely missed the news about an affront to prominent black scholar, Henry Louis Gates Jr. (thanks to C. for telling me about it). The story goes as follows: Gates returned home from a trip to find his front door jammed. He enlisted the aid of his driver to help him to force the door open. Apparently, while this was going on a neighbor called the police and reported that two black men were breaking into the house. The story should have ended once Gates produced identification with his address thereby ascertaining that he was in fact a resident of the home but instead he was arrested, allegedly for disorderly conduct. Now I can imagine that Gates had some harsh words for the officers and I can’t say that I blame him. If you were accused of burglarizing your own home (added to the stress of traveling and fighting to gain entrance) I’m sure you’d be a little upset too.

Racism is such a messy topic and I really hate to revisit and rehash but sometimes we really have no choice. I do believe that racism is alive and well in America. It is visible and ever present. More than anything, I’m really tired of the automatic dismissal of people who believe that they have a legitimate right to claim that they were targeted because of their race, simply because we now have a black president. Give me a break! Finally, after dozens of white men before him, a black man was finally elected to the highest position and racism suddenly becomes a non-issue? That’s an easy enough statement to make when you haven’t ever been a victim of racism. Unfortunately the history that this country was built on cannot be wiped out simply because of one act.

Personally, racism is the very last option that I allow my mind to consider whenever I encounter anything that seems foul for no good reason. But incidents such as the one involving Gates are not uncommon throughout America. As I read about it, I was reminded of another incident in Boston where blacks were essentially stripped of their basic rights and were treated as criminals. All because of a white man’s accusation that a black man killed his wife. Ironically, it turned out that the ‘grieving husband’ was the was the killer but police action sent a message that blacks are and will forever be second class citizens whose rights could be stripped at will. America still has a long way to go but that’s just my opinion. Read some of the comments that follow this article to see why I still worry.