With controversy swirling around the set of Grey's Anatomy, someone needs to step in and heal the wounds that embattled star Isaiah Washington has inflicted.
Know who's up to the task? John Mayer.
In his official blog, Mayer suggests a great way to unite the cast and right the wrongs Washington caused with his gay slur about co-star T.R. Knight - make Washington's character, Dr. Preston Burke, a homosexual.
"What better way for an actor to get to the roots of his discrimination," Mayer writes, "than by portraying the very subject of his own ire for the remainder of his contract?"
It'd be an interesting concept, and Jessica Simpson's annoying boyfriend didn't stop there.
He even outlined two scenes; one painting Washington/Burke as the webmaster of the fan site for the glam rock band Scissor Sisters - who also bakes tea cookies. The other suggests that a caged tiger be on set at all times to keep Washington in line.
THG NOTE: How about a script in which John Mayer, Crazy Joe Simpson and a pack of caged, rabid wolves all fight to the death?
Okay, sorry. We admit it - Mayer's ideas are kinda funny. If the whole music thing doesn't work out, Mayer might have a career in writing for television. Or maybe, given the way his buxom girlfriend's career is headed, he has a future in soft porn.
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January 19th, 2007 8:05 PM
JASMYME CANNICK: The Hypocrisy of White Gay America
Gays Can Protest Isaiah Washington, but Remain Silent on White Gay Man Who Performs Blackface Minstrel ShowAfter 24 hours of protest by white gay America towards "Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington after accusations from fellow gay co-actor T.R. Knight of Washington referring to him as the f-word and Washington's mistake of using the word at a press conference at the Golden Globes, the gays have won.
In an editorial I penned yesterday (scroll down below), I referred to the protest as something that reminds of 1876 in the Deep South, when a white woman would scream rape at the hands of a Black man, and that Black man was then dragged out of his home into the middle of the night and beaten and lynched by an angry white mob without any proof or evidence, just the word of his accuser. It was another case of guilty until proven innocent.
At the end of the day, the issue for me and many Black Americans was the fact that in the beginning this was the issue of one man's word against another and without any further evidence, all of white gay America pounced on Washington defending their beloved Knight.
But for the most part that's the way it always goes.
And in the end, as I said yesterday, Isaiah was wrong for using the word at the Golden Globes, he could have said "the f-word" instead of repeating the entire slur again. However, it really didn't matter because the gay mafia's wheels were in motion and they smelled meat, dark meat. And whether Isaiah apologized or not, it was all down hill for him anyway. Once you're labeled as a homophobe in the entertainment industry it's pretty hard to shake that wrap.
But something about this whole thing reeks of white privilege, gay power, and what I commonly refer to as the hypocrisy of white gay America.
The gay mafia didn't have a problem defending their pretty boy Knight whose career will probably sky rocket now that's he's out of the closet. However, at the same time, there's been no protest launched against Charles Knipp, a white gay man who dresses up in blackface as a character he calls Shirley Q. Liquor and describes as an "inarticulate Black women on welfare with 19 kids."
Set to perform during Black History Month in West Hollywood, this self-described comic has built an entire career of promoting the most negative and vicious stereotypes of Blacks, in particular Black women. In broken English, Liquor makes comments like "axe your mamma how she durrin" and misuses words like "ignunt." Knipp mocks the Black American holiday Kwanzaa and makes fun of stereotypical Black names in a music video entitled, "Who Is My Baby's Daddy?," even going as far as to use sexually transmitted diseases as names of Black children. Knipp's characterizations of Black woman played out on stage in city after city are ones that portray Black women as being on welfare, living in the projects, illiterate, sexually promiscuous mothers who don't know who their children's fathers are, alcoholics, and drug addicts.
But let's look a bit closer at the hypocrisy I spoke of.
I already mentioned that the gay mafia has said nothing about Knipp, but do you want to know why? Because they're the ones responsible for selling out his shows as he tours around the country.
Knipp doesn't bring his shows to the people he's degrading. No, he books his shows in white gay Mecca's like L.A.'s West Hollywood, New York's Chelsea District, San Francisco's Castro District.
So let me get this straight, no pun intended, it's not ok for the Black guy to use the f-word, but it is ok for the white gay guy to dress up in blackface and perform parodies that mock Blacks.
I once made the comment that if Knipp were making fun of Jews his act would have been canceled a long time ago, but I think I'll change that to include gays as well given the recent incident with Washington.
I learned a long time ago that as a Black lesbian, my place was with Blacks. The same racism and classism issues that exists between Blacks and whites in general, applies to the gay community as well. I may have issues with the occasional homophobic Black pastor or rapper, but at the end of the day, we as Blacks know what discrimination and racism is because we've dealt with it all of our lives. So when it happens, we can call it out. Unfortunately, when it comes to the gay community, if it's not affecting their rosy white lives, then they couldn't give a damn. But hey, isn't that what white privilege is all about?
Jasmyne Cannick is a social commentator and activist who is known for addressing the issues others can't or simply won't.