CNN Panel Calls Kanye West a "Token Negro" For Supporting Trump.

[The Diplomat]

I hate that I have to defend Trump or Kanye West due to facts over brushed aside racism. This is retarded.

 

[Armbars]

A guy I work with feeds on CNN, MSM and Noah what's his name. He is just seething with hate for Trump, Republicans and Conservatives. He's about 30, pretty big guy. He doesn't want to have kids because of global warming and how awful things are.

Things are great. He sounds like a terrible miserable friend.

 

[panamaican]

What's the problem with "token negro" in that context?

I believe the comment was "Kanye is the token negro of the Trump administration" which would just mean he's the only black person in the Trump administration simply there because the Trump administration doesn't have any blacks within it and needed one to fulfill their quota.

An obvious joke considering, well Kanye isn't in the Trump administration--yet.

I didn't personally see it as problematic but I can see how "token negro" would bother a broad section of viewers.

I don't think "token negro" is problematic because it's a well known, descriptive phrase for a specific scenario and it was being used to describe that exact perceived scenario. But it's also a phrase that people are concerned about when they hear it. So, I get that.

But this whole line of posts is why I generally avoid discussing black vernacular. It occasionally uses language that is offensive if applied in another circumstance and the acceptability is really specific to the speaker, the subject, and the context.

I mean we're talking about a rapper who has frequently made reference to common black issues via the vernacular and I'm supposed to believe that when other black people who probably listened to his music and share that culture and that vernacular refer to him in line with the very culture that Kanye is a part of...that's racist?

I don't buy it. It's a culturally internal dialogue playing out in front of the mainstream and the lack of familiarity leads the mainstream to label is as something it's not.

 

[The Diplomat]

I mean we're talking about a rapper who has frequently made reference to common black issues via the vernacular and I'm supposed to believe that when other black people who probably listened to his music and share that culture and that vernacular refer to him in line with the very culture that Kanye is a part of...that's racist?

I don't buy it. It's a culturally internal dialogue playing out in front of the mainstream and the lack of familiarity leads the mainstream to label is as something it's not.

Context is important. Are we going to pretend that people calling him a token negro, weren't using it as a racial insult? If he was a country singer, or Ted Nugent, they wouldn't have used that term.

 

[vengeful]

Not into interracial gay porn, really could have done without seeing two old men going in for a kiss

 

[panamaican]

Yes, but the term token negro was used. You were some how arguing over the semantics of the term "negro", without utilizing any of the actual context in the scenario. It's like you were trying your damnedest not to admit that what was said, was racist as hell.

No, I was talking about "that's what happens when negros don't read".

 

[panamaican]

Context is important. Are we going to pretend that people calling him a token negro, weren't using it as a racial insult? If he was a country singer, or Ted Nugent, they wouldn't have used that term.

See my other post for why you're pretty much on the wrong train regarding what I'm talking about.

 

[The Diplomat]

No, I was talking about "that's what happens when negros don't read".

So you switched the conversation.

Either way, they all sound pretty bad. Not sure why you put so much effort into playing defense.

 

[Bamboozled]

lol-well, he's married to a white guy, so house negroes like him know his place

This was the first thing I thought of when I saw this. He has a white boyfriend or husband or whatever.

 

[TheFirstEMP]

Chris Cuomo's comment on this was bizarre.

 

[tehJameson]

Lol @ alt right crying racism. Gold.

 

[panamaican]

So you switched the conversation.

Either way, they all sound pretty bad. Not sure why you put so much effort into playing defense.

Don't be stupid. My original comment was:

..."This is what happens when X doesn't read" isn't particularly vitriolic in the current tv environment.

Notice that it's about the reading commnet?

Of course, I'm playing defense after you spent multiple posts not even knowing which comment I was talking about. Yeah...ok.

Why tastefully acknowledge that you're wrong when you can just try and deflect instead.

 

[HereticBD]

Notice that it's about the reading commnet?

Yeah, we noticed. We also noticed that you're purposefully excluding the controversial part of the statement, and treating it as some non-racial comment about a nondescript person being ignorant. In other words, you're downplaying it.

No Pan, "This is what happens when a NEGRO doesn't read" is most certainly a particularly vitriolic comment in today's TV environment.

 

[SBJJ]

Don Lemon didnt say anything

His giggling like a high school valley girl was just as bad

 

[panamaican]

Yeah, we noticed. We also noticed that you're purposefully excluding the controversial part of the statement, and treating it as some non-racial comment about a nondescript person being ignorant. In other words, you're downplaying it.

No Pan, "This is what happens when a NEGRO doesn't read" is most certainly a particularly vitriolic comment in today's TV environment.

No, I've been very clear that there are 2 comments, said by 2 different people, deserving of 2 different treatments.

Yes, I'm downplaying it. I've never claimed otherwise. I think you and others are overplaying it. It's not vitriolic just because you're unfamiliar with the numerous slang usages of "negro" in the black community.

Which is the point I keep making and you don't address. If it's common vernacular in the community from which Kanye originates and the speakers arise from the self-same community - what's the problem? You keep telling me that simply because of the word "negro", we should be concerned but that simply fails to address my question: If it's common, non-racist, vernacular in the community from which Kanye originates and the speakers arise from that self-same community - what's the problem?

 

[ShadowRun]

Pretty disgusting and the fact the left doesn't speak against it, but hey keep losing and crying that's what you are good at. I forgot if a black person is on the right they are no longer black therefore not subject to racism.

 

[HereticBD]

No, I've been very clear that there are 2 comments, said by 2 different people, deserving of 2 different treatments.

Yes, I'm downplaying it. I've never claimed otherwise. I think you and others are overplaying it. It's not vitriolic just because you're unfamiliar with the numerous slang usages of "negro" in the black community.

Which is the point I keep making and you don't address. If it's common vernacular in the community from which Kanye originates and the speakers arise from the self-same community - what's the problem? You keep telling me that simply because of the word "negro", we should be concerned but that simply fails to address my question: If it's common, non-racist, vernacular in the community from which Kanye originates and the speakers arise from that self-same community - what's the problem?

I've addressed your question. You're simply ignoring the context in which the word was used, to make it seem harmless. You're laughably trying to state that since in some instances its used in a non-racist vernacular within the community, that it somehow negates it's racist intent here.

Stop being dishonest.

 

[nac386]

@HereticBD are you saying that the black commentator was using the word "negro" as an insult?

 

[panamaican]

I've addressed your question. You're simply ignoring the context in which the word was used, to make it seem harmless. You're laughably trying to state that since in some instances its used in a non-racist vernacular within the community, that it somehow negates it's racist intent here.

Stop being dishonest.

I'm perfectly aware of the context. And you are overplaying it within that context.

There's no racist intent here just because you don't like the vernacular. If a black person says to another black person "Silly negro...", it doesn't gain racist intent just because a passerby finds it offensive. It might very well be offensive but that doesn't make it racist.

That is what you don't seem to get. You are stating that because the speaker insults Kanye while also using a slang word that refers to race that the underlying insult is "racist". That's absurd. It's racist if the basis of the insult turns on the race of the subject hence the token comment being more problematic. The entire insult there is about Kanye's black persona relative to the white administration.

The reading insult is about Kanye's noted lack of information, not surprising given that Kanye has stated that he doesn't read history. If the speaker had said "This is what happens when a black rapper married to Kim Kardashian doesn't read," would that also be racist? Of course not, so whether or not this particular sentence was racist turns entirely on whether or not the use of "negro" at that point creates racist intent. And it doesn't.

 

[HereticBD]

@HereticBD are you saying that the black commentator was using the word "negro" as an insult?

In the way it was used, yes. He's using it to point out Kanye's inferiority within his own race.

What the fuck does race have to do with someone being ignorant, if that's what you think of them? Granted, the guy is naturally going to get more leeway, because he is talking about someone within his own race, but it doesn't make it harmless, and inoffensive. It also wasn't a comment solely for black audiences. I would've loved to have seen the reaction they got, if they happened to have had a white democrat on there, who laughed along with them. Shit would've gotten weird real quick.