Guess Who?

So I went and saw the film Guess Who? with Ashton and Bernie Mac. And while I actually liked it alot, I won't really be using this space to talk about the film.

You see, this film was supposed to be controversial and groundbreaking, and to some degrees it was. It brought up a lot of different views and points about white male/black female relationships that I hadn't seen portrayed on film, and I think it was most successful in the parts that weren't so heavy handed.

The problem with heavy handed scenes are they are heavy handed to the point of being anvillicious. Take, for example, the dinner table scene. You automatically know that there is going to be controversy and you already start to feel uncomfortable before the dialog even begins. This of course should be the point of the scene, but the problem is that it's completely expected. You know you're supposed to be uncomfortable so you brace yourself for it, and then when it comes, it becomes a bit of a let down.

Anyhow, this blurb isn't about that necessarily. I remember watching the dinner scene, and Ashton made some remark about something that his grandmother said. Everyone kind of got up in arms about it, and that was all well and good, but then Bernie said something to the effect of "Tell us a black joke [Ashton]. I know you've heard some." Now instead of just shutting up, Ashton decides to be all proactive and jumps into it head first.

Now, it's not really the jokes that upset me. I could really care less, some were cute, some were rude, whatev. The thing that got me was that this one scene completely validated the one thing that black people have always wondered about for years. And now that the question has been answered, it only raises more questions? What question is that you ask? Well, the obvious, do white people really sit around telling black jokes? I mean, I know that as a black person, I talk a lot of crap about white people, but never in my life have I ever sat in a pow wow circle all, "What did the one white man say to the other white man who applied for a job at his company? You're hired! Ha Ha Ha!" I mean, that never happens. Most times our disgust is at some sort of event that is so crazy that only white people could be behind it. "Did you hear that people are now getting their backs and sides pierced to look like corsets? Man, white people just run out of things to do!". Those are the kind of jokes we do.

So I need to know, who are these white people that sit around all, "What did the white man say to the other white man who was eating chicken? It's a good thing I'm not black, because I would take that chicken from you! HA! Get it? Because black people like chicken!" "And watermelon!" "Oh yeah! Man, that's rich, we should write that down!". And why are they doing this? Who started these jokes, who repeated them, who co-signed this idea?

Now I know black folk get on your nerves sometimes, they get on my nerves too and I'm one of them. I don't begrudge you the need to get amoungst yourselves and be all politically incorrect and vent, but for the love of all that is good, stop with the black knock knock jokes!

That is all.