Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Joe Buck Discusting Acts of the Week: Just below the surface...

The Joe Buck Disgusting Act of the Week is awarded to whatever event/person best deserves Joe Buck's unnecessary and over the top outrage after a 2004 Randy Moss' touchdown celebration.

Since there is seriously racist subtext to much of Joe Buck's blowhard commentary (the Moss incident just being one example), I feel like this is appropriate. As sad as it is, racist tones are never too far from the mainstream culture in this country and two stories today act depressing reminders.

One comes from a golf analyst of TV:
The Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman will serve a two-week suspension after saying during a recent broadcast that one way younger players could best Tiger Woods would be to "lynch him in a back alley."
The other from a surrogate for a leading presidential candidate:
It's not a TV crazed race. Frankly you can't buy your way into it," Cuomo said, according to Albany Times Union reporter Rick Karlin. He then added, "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's living room."

According to Joan Houston Hall's Dictionary of American Regional English, the phrase "shuck and jive" means, "To be deceptive or evasive; to tell tall tales or lies; to fool around. esp freq among Black speakers," and "stalling or obfuscating, especially to avoid having to admit that you did not know something or were trying to divert someone's attention."
Our country has come a long way, and we still have a long way to go. We have advanced to the point that the cowards who wear sheets have been forced to the margins of society, but racism still resides in our culture today, even if it has been pushed just below the surface.

1 comment:

  1. It's sad as hell... my aunt couldn't contain her excitement after Obama's Iowa victory speech, saying how much she felt things were changing in this country. I didn't want to be as cynical as to say "things haven't changed that much," I could only muster cautious optimism, telling her "let's just wait and see what happens." For both of these remarks to be made on the same day just reiterates how little is different in this country, whether or not they were intended to be racist. The truth is still there, as you said J, just below the surface. At least back in the day you knew where everybody stood, no matter how hateful they were. Nowadays, people will smile to your face & discriminate against you behind your back.

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