"A boxing match is like a cowboy movie. There's got to be good guys and there's got to be bad guys. And that's what people pay for -- to see the bad guys get beat." Sonny Liston
December 9, 2015
By: Linda Case Gibbons
You gotta' hand it to MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry. She sure knows how to call 'em.
Harris-Perry is one of the network hosts at MSNBC who has helped make MSNBC what it is today.
She's the gal who showed what a hypocrite Mitt Romney was when he posed with his adopted black grandson on a Christmas card with his family. Imagine!
And now she has uncovered that the new Stars Wars is a racist movie.
It was Darth Vader that set her off. He wore black when he was a bad boy, and had James Earl Jones' voice, but when he doffed his black helmet, crossing over from the dark side, he was a white guy.
It really ticked her off.
I have to admit I was shocked. Racist? The Star Wars I remember was extremely inclusive.
The Cantina scene alone showed that.
There was an amazing assortment of people from all over the Empire, and no one gave them a second glance, even when they had a couple of extra eyes or a horn coming out of their head.
That didn't seem racist.
And it was touching to see the friendship, love and loyalty that existed between Chewbacca and Hans Solo.
That didn't seem racist. After all, Solo was a man and Chewie was, well, a Wookie. That's pretty accepting.
But the catch made by MSNBC couldn't have come at a better time. In these days of ISIS terrorism, it gives a whole new slant on ISIS and racism.
As ISIS takes off on a new track, now busy killing kids with Downs Syndrome, it's good to know that though these terrorists wear black hoods, they're not bad.
That's what the president has been telling us all along.
And it lines up with what Hillary Clinton is saying on the campaign trail. "We've got to do everything we can to weed out hate," she tells her audiences, "and plant love and kindness."
This is how to combat ISIS, she told a crowd of several hundred...
So here is what I think should be up the road for Ms. Harris-Perry and her discovery of racism in film. Or should I say, professor. She is a professor at Wake Forest University.
Yes, she is.
I think she should team up with New York Mayor DeBlasio and rewrite history. It'll be tough, but these are two tough liberal cookies.
They should start with cowboys.
What's with "The guy who wears a black hat is the bad guy and the guy who wears a white hat is the good guy" thing anyway?
Clearly racist.
It'll take reworking those old westerns, Gene Autry, the Duke, Tom Mix. At least Hoppy had the sensitivity to wear black when he wore a white hat, but something has to be done.
Then they should take on the Colonel.
What's the reason a bucket of the Colonel's fried chicken costs more for "white meat" than "dark meat?"
Someone has to ask the question. I'm sure it's a purely racist practice, so I think Harris-Perry is the right one to ask it. And DeBlasio.
DeBlasio has already taking care of rewriting art history in City Hall, taking down some art and hanging others, making it more "inclusive." And Harris-Perry has the racist thing covered on her TV show. But then we're left with the whole Bible thing.
Such as Lucifer.
Lucifer was a fallen angel. Before his fall from grace, according to Ezekiel 28:13, he was described as "an amazing being to behold," his name meaning "day star," or "son of the morning."
But, the story goes, pride overtook his heart and cost him everything, his beauty his position, his rights to heaven. And thereafter he was called Satan, the "Prince of Darkness."
As for Jesus, he was always associated with the Light.
Is this racism in the Bible, or simply the eternal struggle between good and evil?
Whatever it is, it looks like this all goes back a lot farther than Melissa Harris-Perry even thought, she who studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Yes, she did.
It's not easy digging out the racism that is hidden in every issue, or non-issue, in everyday life, but Harris-Perry does her level best.
She's furious at how hard it is being black. But perhaps if she interviewed Kermit the Frog and Yoda, she'd find that life is often unfair and it doesn't only happen if you have dark skin.
It's not easy being green, either.
But when it comes to fantasy film, I think it's just supposed to be fun. And sometimes a banana's just a banana.
Hold the line, America.