Colin Powell and 'Black Role Models' feat. Cynthia
Added 2021-10-25 17:45:47 +0000 UTCThis week, Nate and Cynthia discuss the impact of watching famous Black role models of the 1980s--people like Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, and Ben Carson--and what Black Americans of the same age as people like Cynthia feel now that their legacies are, to put it mildly, 'complicated.' Hope you enjoy!
Comments
Really hope this becomes a more regular thing! As a white guy I've in the last year or so heard more times than prior in my life the phrase, 'skinfolk is not always kinfolk.' That strikes me as getting at something important about solidarity and the intersections btwn class and all of the crucial particularities of identity; race, gender etc. Also reminded of Chris Rock's classic bit about Obama and whites going on about "oh he speaks so well." A lot of unreconstructed racists went right along with Trump and birtherism, the Harvard Review shit, etc., but a huge chunk also did the condescending and oblivious so-called ally role that Jordan Peele satirized with the dad in Get Out. I thought of Trump's instantly infamous comments after Powell's death, basically being the only famous politician / prominent DC figure to call out Iraq (for his own shitty reasons), and the outrage from asshats like Chris Cillizza: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/19/politics/donald-trump-colin-powell-death/index.html I surprised myself at how quickly everything post 9/11 rushed back and got me to break the cardinal rule of dril, wherein I did in fact hand it to Trump for doing a funny. Except ya know, thumbing the eyes of 'the establishment' is a tried and true fascist tool, yada yada. Anyway just to reiterate this was a great episode and the "I'm still here" x2 part was both sweet as hell and hysterical af. Congrats ya filthy animals <3
Michael Dola
2021-10-27 19:18:34 +0000 UTC
