Words From a Wicked Woman

Jasmyne Cannick wrote today that the white gay intelligentsia/power structure is hypocritical for demanding actor Isaiah Washington’s head due to his use of the word “faggot” in reference to Grey’s Anatomy cast mate T.R. Knight, who has subsequently come out as gay, while failing to demand that supposed comic Charles Knipp’s performances of a blackface character he calls Shirley Q. Liquor be canceled whenever and where ever they may be. Yep, I agree. The two are both vile, disgusting and have no place in modern society. I also agree that the white gay power structure in this country is often hypocritical, racist and dismissive of the concerns of black people in general and black gays in particular. Why, then, can’t I get all that upset about various white gay folks calling for Washington’s termination from a television show? Maybe it’s because I can’t see two wrongs making anything right here.

I think the petition demanding that ABC/Disney fire Washington for his escapades is overkill. That’s not to say that the option shouldn’t be open to the network; just that the petition, which isn’t really worded as a petition, requires far more energy than the incident warrants. Washington deserves censure, for sure. He probably needs to get himself into counseling as well, especially if Washington has a history of violence as the petition alleges. I’d even go so far as to say that ABC/Disney should make counseling a condition of future employment–ever–at the network and at Disney Studios and its subsidiaries. Washington is a man with a problem. In fact, I think it’s the same problem that plagues actor/comic Michael Richards: rampant bigotry. Both men display a rage toward their objects of derision that is pathological, destroying themselves and everything (or everyone) around them. Bigots have a bad habit of thinking that it is only the people toward whom their hatred is directed who are hurt. That’s not at all true. They also hurt all of the people who look like or identify with their targets, people who are higher on the intellectual evolutionary ladder, friends and family on both sides as well as any witnesses to their hateful diatribes. In this case, as in the Richards case, that includes millions of people–and that’s only in the U.S. If one includes those around the world, that’s tens of millions of people. That’s an awful lot of hurt folks.

Cannick has written about “comic” Charles Knipp for some years now, as has author/lecturer/activist Keith Boykin, as have a host of others. I have yet to see Knipp’s act, but can draw some conclusions about it by reading news accounts of his shows being canceled in Boston and New York City and the negative press he has garnered thus far. Oh, and there is that MySpace page.

The first thing I gather is that the character Shirley Q. Liquor is egregiously offensive to a great many people. Knipp says the character is based on a woman he’s only barely smart enough not to call his “Mammy”–his childhood housekeeper in Texas. His reflections on pleasant childhood memories are stomach-churning in their familiarity based on movies like Gone With the Wind. “While there were many factors leading up to the creation of the character, Knipp said that Shirley Q. Liquor’s voice is partly inspired by Fannie Mae, his family’s housekeeper when he was growing up,” reads a 2002 Daily Free Press article written shortly after the Boston show was canceled. “Fannie had 16 children and taught me to say ‘how you durrin’ just like she did when I was five years old. She thinks my character is hilarious,” says Knipp. The character Liquor frequently misuses and mispronounces words and is mother to 19 children. She’s also big, fat and juicy in a mumu that serves as a dress. I have nothing against fat women, since I am one. However, I do have something against fat women who are made to look sloppy and slovenly as Knipp does with his character.

The comic says that he has many supporters, including RuPaul, Patti LaBelle, the Dixie Chicks and others. I write RuPaul off right away given her penchant for straight, blond wigs. I do, however, have to wonder why LaBelle would be supportive. Is she really, or is she just too polite to tell this guy that he’s an ass? Only LaBelle knows for sure.

The second thing that I can conclude is that Charles Knipp is a purposeful racist. At this point, I have to believe that he continues to perform his offensive act out of sheer spite. There have been too many protests and articles written in the press for him to be unaware of how hurtful and hated he is. There is no higher message here. There is no redeeming value. The mere fact that his act is performed in blackface is a major clue that this guy is an arrogant, willful racist who has every intention of demeaning black people. His act is not a loving homage to Southern black women. It is an insult. There is no doubt that the South is filled with black women who didn’t have the advantages that black women in the North had then or now. They didn’t have the access whites and many Northern blacks had to education and birth control. Therefore, it wasn’t uncommon for them to have very little book knowledge but a great deal of common sense. The one thing most of them had in common was the desire to keep their own children from having the lives they had. They wanted better for their children and worked very hard to make that happen. These are the qualities worthy of emulation, but they aren’t funny. No, those are deeply serious hurdles black women had to overcome to hold their heads up high. So although she may have raised some white chick’s kids because their mother couldn’t be bothered, Knipp’s black housekeeper did so in order to give her own a better life. Frankly, it pisses me off that Knipp would dare make fun of that.

Today, there is a black straight man who is a homophobe and a white gay man who is a racist. Both forms of bigotry are evil and insidious in our society. Knipp will be performing at the Factory in West Hollywood on February 11; The Bourbon Pub/Parade during Mardi Gras in New Orleans on February 15 and 20 and; Chez Est in Hartford, CT on February 23. It is my dearest hope that civil rights groups, gay rights groups and outraged citizens will protest each and every one of this man’s performances, raising a nasty stink that will make promoters think twice about hiring this racial assassin again. It’s not like the guy doesn’t have other characters, he does, but Shirley Q. Liquor is the one that gets him hired.

In contrast, Isaiah Washington only has his own intrinsic talent with which to earn a living as an actor. I think it is good and healthy that his despicable actions and words are being challenged. I also think that termination of employment should be an option that is put on the table for serious discussion. However, in the end, I think Washington may be redeemable given time, education and counseling. It is in Disney’s best interests to do so given their family image. By “family image,” I do not mean “family” as in Focus On the Family. I do mean “family” as in accepting of people who are decent, contributing members of society in all their varied forms. I also mean “family” as in LGBT people who go down to Disney World every year, pouring millions of dollars into corporate coffers and the local economy. In this case, money should talk while the bullshit that Washington has spewed should walk, even if he doesn’t.

The homophobe and the racist are both bad actors (pun intended). Neither one of them should get away with their misdeeds. In reading about Knipp, I learned that the overall gay community hasn’t been completely silent about the offensiveness of Knipp’s act, but they haven’t been very vocal either, with few exceptions. The way to solve that problem is not to give Washington a pass because that just perpetuates the wrong he’s already done. The thing to do is to hold groups like GLAAD, HRC and others accountable to black LGBT for their lack of presence in the Shirley Q. Liquor debate. The very last thing these groups want is to be held up to be racists themselves. That, frankly, would do a heck of a lot more damage to them as organizations than Charles Knipp can ever do to us as black people.

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