Rent-a-Negro

[queerbychoice]

violin complained that his friends took too long to alert him to the existence of BlackPeopleLoveUs.com, so to avoid any repeat accusations of that type, I wish to be the first to draw your attention to Rent-a-Negro.com, which was pointed out to me by fightingwords.

Of course, I won't be the first for those of you who already have fightingwords on your friends list, but I guess that's just my tough luck.

Click on the author's name at the bottom of the page to see more of her work, too; it's worth the visit.

Comments

[hunterxtc.livejournal.com]

The thing I find intriguing about sites like these is that it goes to show how polarized black and white people are. While a percentage of people will look at these sites as satirical humor, more people will be offended by them. The responses the sites get are usually "hey I get it, because I am hip to satirical humor" but I don't think these responses are indicitive of the general populace. And I would hope that the people who construct the sites are aware of this; for in the end, one person's "humor" is another person's anger, depending on which side of the color line one is on. I also find it interesting how the black people who answer the site always have to say "I'm black, but I see where you are coming from", as if to say that the majority of black people "dont get it", and thus by saying "they get it", the posting black person is somehow superior. I don't really see it as an issue of superior or inferior- I see it more as a factor of those black people feeling the need to assimilate, to feel part of a private joke. But in the end, I think the joke is on them. These sites are not created to create harmony, but to expose differences... and the silly thing is that if the creators of these sites had any common sense, they wouldlook beyond the Internet and confront these differences head on. But I'm sure they are terrified of black people in general, even if they are black themselves.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

You see interestingly different things in this phenomenon than I do. What catches my attention about it is the eagerness of white people to pass the websites on - when the blackpeopleloveus.com website first came out, for example, it appeared so many million times on my friends page that the whole reason I didn't post a link to it myself (and thus failed to alert violin to its existence until he found out many many many months later from someone else) is that I thought if one single additional person linked to that place, people would surely start exploding from excessive repetition of the same hyperlink. It was even more repeated than the very worst of those quiz things that people complain about having repeated all the time. But of course no one did complain, because no one dared to complain, because it was too dangerous a thing to complain about.

See, when you look at these sites you question the motives of the black people who promote them, and you suspect them of trying to present themselves as being superior to other black people - yet you perceive the white people who promote them as being actually honestly superior to the general white populace. Whereas I see entirely the opposite: it does not occur to me to question the motives of the black people involved (extreme frustration seems like a sufficient explanation of their motives to me), but I very much question the real reason why white people promote them. I do not think it is possible for any white person to look at these websites without at least vaguely suspecting that they themselves are being made fun of - unless of course they are actual KKK members, because after all, these websites only make fun of white people who are trying in some sort of stupid bumbling way to act un-racist, so since David Duke is not trying to do any such thing, he doesn't have to feel made fun of - and I do not think it is possible for any white person who does not sympathize with the KKK to look at these websites without feeling at least vaguely helpless to ever really escape the fear of being perceived like the people satirized. So why do white people link to them anyway? In order to publicly assert that they are not bothered by them and feeling uncomfortably parodied, precisely because in fact they are feeling uncomfortably parodied and desperately wish to hide that fact. (Myself included, although I did resist the urge to pass on both links until violin complained about not having been alerted to the first one, thereby prompting me to go back and re-locate the second one for him.)

Right now I am quite puzzled, though, because I thought this new site would spread just as much as the first one, and so far no one on my friends list seems to have passed this one on, even though they all passed the first one on and I didn't. I do not currently have any theory at all as to why the two sites are being treated differently so far.

Re:

[hunterxtc.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously the black people love us site has been out there for quite awhile, and becuase it spoofs the perceived ignorance of white people, perhaps it is something that is "allowed" to be passed along... the fact that "rent a negro" may seem more offensive to black people in general (for the use of the word negro, which, unlike the word nigger, is NOT a word black people are trying to regain for themselves) may be the reason you don't see your friends passing it along.

I don't see the white people who promote these sites as being "superior" at all. As I said in my post, I think the sites just point to the polarization between black and white people in general. However, because successful black people (as the rent a negro person is, at least reading the Salon article she seems to be) don't have a (perceived) reason to take to the streets and protest that their civil rights are being destroyed because someone wants to feel their hair, they use other avenues to express their (percieved) slighting by white people. I guess if the lady who created rent a negro is so upset about the comments she gets from her white peers, perhaps she is in the wrong peer group. These slights and misconceptions are not going to go away because websites have been constructed. Again, if the problem is so acute to her, why not create a "they want to feel my hair march" and get on CNN? Perhaps she could gather a greater audience, and hit her target market in a more accurate fashion.

Why do white people like these sites, you ask? Because they think they are FUNNY. Why did white people buy Richard Pryor records in droves in the 70s? He did what these people are trying to do with these sites 100 times better, with his ripping wit. But he, unlike these people making the sites, always had a bit of a sting to the ending of one of his comedy pieces... that is the difference, and perhaps the rent a negro creator needs to realize that it's been done before, and much better. The fact that white people don't get it as a social commentary and instead see it as humor is the result of polarization, and perhaps just plain and simple ignorance.

Again, I think the "rent-a-negro" site, in name alone, is more offensive than "black people love us", and that white people can take more ownership of the former than the latter. But all things considered, I think the sites just show how different perceptions are in the black and white communities. But I say to that, "hell what's new about it?"

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'm really not terribly convinced that white people do find them that funny though, myself.