by John Walters

Rebel Rebel

NASCAR announces that it will ban the Confederate flag as a nation learns that a dude named Bubba Wallace is actually black. But anyway, NASCAR banning the Rebel flag? What was the headline of our lead item yesterday? (Answer: Good Luck With That).

Who wants to get paid to enforce this rule in the tailgate lots at Talladega, Bristol and Darlington? And what happens when some 280-pound lout in a T-shirt (tight) that has the Rebel flag plastered on its front tries to enter through the turnstiles with 150,000 other fans?

What I just don’t understand about these flag issues on either side: Why can’t you just let people be people? Folks ask why can’t Kap stand for the flag and I think, Shouldn’t the bigger issue (besides police brutality) be why he doesn’t believe in doing so? In other words, why does it make you happier if someone does something that you know they don’t believe in just so that they have the appearance of doing so?

Same thing with this Southern Cross. Why not just announce that it’s not welcome and that NASCAR is not in any way supportive of systemic racism? The reason you see the Rebel flag at NASCAR events and not in NBA arenas has nothing to do with one sport permitting them and one not. One sport doesn’t need to prohibit them, you know?

These Guys Got Off Clean

The syndicated television show Cops has been canceled. Amazon announced that it will not make facial recognition technology available to police departments for one year. Minneapolis is defunding its police department. Other departments nationwide are, or are being court ordered to, ban chokeholds.

And yet Sting, Stuart and Andy slip under the radar. When the world is running down, they make the best of what’s still around.

Green Day? Father’s Day

Here’s Billie Joe Armstrong with his two sons shredding Tommy James’ classic (later updated by Tiffany). It’s not only an apt song for the pandemic, but how many songs open with “Children behave!” when those lyrics are sung by a dude who spent his youth definitely not. Where did that get him?

Major Minor

We won’t print her name here, but the person who filmed the murder of George Floyd, which has become a landmark moment in race relations since it took place two weeks ago, was a 17 year-old girl. Imagine what happens if she does not record those 8 minutes and 46 seconds: Nothing happens.

She was the very definition of an innocent bystander, but you don’t need to be Clarence Darrow to realize that if she does not shoot that video, all four of those cops get a slap on the wrist at worst and a “died in police custody.” Smart phones have changed the world. And this girl’s action, while you can discuss amongst yourselves the bravery of it, is going to be responsible for a giant leap forward in race relations. Even ESPN is no longer sticking to sports.

One example: After Floyd’s death, CrossFit had a conference call with site managers and a Minneapolis employee asked CEO Greg Glassman about what the company should do to recognize George Floyd. His response: “We’re not mourning for George Floyd… Can you tell me why I should mourn for him?”

Hours later, Glassman, apparently still worked up over that question, tweeted, “Floyd-19.”

And now he’s resigned.

HBO’s Doing What Now?!?

So apparently HBO Max is pulling Gone From The Wind until it adds “historical context.” Historical context is something children used to learn in school but I guess no one does that any more.

This is only one of the universally acclaimed great American films (personally, I find it a tedious bore but no one is volunteering to add “excitement context” for me). If Americans cannot be expected to judge works of art via the prism of historical perspective on their own, we’re all done for.

In short: this is stupid and this is exactly where the Far Right wins (because they’re right). If a play or a movie is hurtful to you for any reason, don’t watch it. If it affects people in a positive or negative way, it must be saying something. You’re welcome to disagree. You’re not welcome to re-interpret the artist’s work. That’s bullsh*t.

Let’s start a line of women who decide that much of NWA’s and Naughty By Nature’s lyrics need to be rewritten because they’re littered with misogynistic lines. Let’s see how far that movement gets in this climate.

If you watch TCM, you may have seen this great little filler doc, no longer than 5 to 8 minutes, that they sometimes air between films. It’s all about black face in the movies, and they show that not only Al Jolson did it, but so did Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire (they also point to Shirley Temple, but she was probably only about eight at the time, so I’m not sure that’s quite fair… and no, this is not why she was later known as Shirley Temple Black).

Anyway, if you see the video, the people interviewed are very astute about it, particularly TCM’s own Jacqueline Stewart (who is black). They’re not all “Cancel Culture!” They’re more like, This is part of American history, it’s shameful, but it’s something that should not be altered and it helps us to understand the era in which it was made and what the racial sensitivity mores were of that time. In other words, LEARN MORE! Don’t cover your ears and shut your eyes and scream until something fits your own happy spot.

Or, as Stewart says, “Certainly it’s difficult to face things that are ugly in our history [full stop]. But denial is worse.”

Amen.