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A memory that I have of experiencing prejudice and bias happened about a month ago. Late one night around 11:30 or 12:00, my husband and I were watching television. We were watching the old show, "The Jeffersons." In the show, Mr. George Jefferson was answering the door. He was letting Mrs. Louise Jeffersons' uncle in (all African Americans). Apparently, her uncle was a butler and George thought that it was lowly of him to be a butler. When the uncle came in, he turned to the doorman(Caucasian) of the apartment, who was helping him with his bags, and said thank you sir, and was about to give him a tip. George tipped the man instead, and the doorman said, "Thank you sir." The three men went back and forth saying "thank you sir." The doorman left, George shut the door, and turned to the uncle and said, "Look! You don't have to say sir to my doorman, just because he's a honky." When I heard this statement, I turned to my husband and said, "Did you hear that?!" I could not believe what I had heard. Now I know that during our class, everything we have learned about prejudices, and racism has had to do with being against all other races besides white people. However, I feel that this statement was a prejudice/racist statement against white people. The term, honky is a racial slur towards white people, it diminshes equity between the races because it labels white people.
The feelings that I felt when I heard this statement was shock and disbelief that it was ever aired on national television. Nowadays, if any kind of racial slur towards any group of people is used a protest and big fight breaks out. At times, the whole situation turns to chaos. In order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity, instead of George using the racial slur to refer to the doorman, he could have turned to the uncle and simply said, "Just because my doorman is white, does not mean you have to call him sir." In my opinion, this would be better because this statement is referring to the color of a man's skin, instead of giving him a label because of his color.
Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI understand your concern about the comment made about the doorman and by no means do I condone any type of racial slurs. This particular comedy portrays a man who was working at a low end job whose situation changed and placed him in a different economic situation which did not change how people saw him as a person but now saw him a s person with money. The show ran from 1975 -1985 as a spin off from All in The Family which also had racial innuendos in it. Does that justify what he says?, no. But until we as a nation decide to sit down and address past issues and acknowledge current issues instead of using humor to desensitize the issues, there will still be animosity among Blacks and Whites things will not change much. This show I believe just was portraying the reality of how things were still uneasy back them.
History was made when for the first time a Black president was elected but yet many still struggle with the idea and use racial slurs and pictures when talking about the president of the United States. So I believe that although things are not like they use to be in the past, we need to acknowledge there was a terrible past that never needs to be repeated and not act like it wasn't all that bad.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteThank you for you post. I do agree with you that the past needs to be acknowledged. The comment made by George Jefferson did not bother me as much as shock me, I like the show and I continue to watch it. I have also watched All in the Family and I am aware of the racial innuendos in it as well. Because me seeing The Jefferson's episode so recently, I used it as my example.
Hi Rachel Walters,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that he made that statement but I do feel that was very racist what he did. Most people are so mean that the things that they do hurts other people feelings. If you would have said a racist statement to him it would of been a fight. Somethings I just don't think is funny.
Student Name: Angie Woods