What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander
People have a catastrophic way of blocking their own blessings.
When some men marry the woman of their dreams, what do they do to celebrate?
They cheat on their wives and lose her forever or lose her trust forever.
When President Richard Nixon prepared to run for his second term in office, he could not make himself satisfied that he already resided in the White House.
No, he had to go commit a crime by breaking into the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., which led to the resignation of his Vice President Spiro Agnew and ultimately his own resignation.
When Roseanne Barr rebooted her classic sitcom, “Roseanne,” she just could not simply enjoy the 18 million viewers she garnered.
She could not revel in the fact that hundreds of employees, behind and in front of the camera, had jobs to feed their families.
She could not just be quiet and enjoy the millions of dollars entering her bank account.
Barr could not enjoy the Cultural Revolution that she created by having a conservative, working class family back on major television.
No, she had to ruin everything by tweeting one of the most racist and repugnant things any White person can say to an African-American.
She compared Valerie Jarrett to “Planet of the Apes.”
Many say, maybe she did not know that comparing African-Americans to apes, gorillas and monkeys could offend an entire race.
Then, why have I not seen any instance where Barr compared White people to apes, gorillas and monkeys?
And why is this not the first time for her to compare African-Americans to monkeys?
She hurled a similar insult Susan Rice’s way years ago.
Critics of ABC (the television home of “Roseanne”) argue that Joy Behar, Joy Ann Reid and Bill Maher have made comments insulting towards Christians, members of the LGBT community and African-Americans, respectively, so why haven’t they faced termination from their television gigs.
That question requires a simple answer, ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey.
Barr made her mistake by insulting African-Americans, not for the first time, even though her boss, Dungey, is African-American.
The star of “Roseanne” met her demise in the same way that blackballed former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick met his in professional football.
Kaepernick’s bosses (NFL team owners) are predominantly White and arguably conservative.
By kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and systemic racism, Kaepernick pissed off his White conservative bosses by taking a progressive, pro-Black stance.
If you piss off the boss, you might find yourself in the unemployment line.
Many White conservatives laughed and celebrated Kaepernick’s plight, but now seem bent out of shape that the shoe is on the other foot now.
Barr insulted African-Americans, even though she works for an African-American.
Not smart.
Many African-American bosses would have fired her.
Likewise, if African-Americans say something derogatory about White people and their boss is White, they might find themselves unemployed too, and rightfully so.
Bigotry of any kind has no place in American society.
But, blatant hypocrisy and double standards have no place in American society either.
Many critics say that Barr simply expressed her First Amendment rights of freedom of speech.
The funny thing is, some of those same critics said that Kaepernick does not enjoy First Amendment rights at the job and that is definitely true.
Freedom of speech, with some limitations like perjury and terroristic threats, simply means that a person will not go to jail for expressing their views.
The First Amendment prevents the government from restricting your speech.
So, why does Barr get to enjoy First Amendment privileges on the job when Kaepernick and other protesting NFL players like Eric Reed do not.
Critics might say that her social media presence is not a part of her job.
I disagree completely because any public figure like a media personality or entertainer uses social media to promote their work.
It is virtually impossible to be successful in entertainment, sports or media of any kind without using social media as a part of your job.
Some critics might say that African-Americans are simply being overly sensitive and should not let racist words upset them.
Tell that same thing to a member of the Jewish community or the gay community and your career in entertainment might be over, and rightfully so.
Again, bigotry in any form, whether it is racism, homophobia or anti-Semitism has no place in society as a whole or the entertainment industry.
When Houston born actor Isiah Washington of “Grey’s Anatomy” called a co-star the F-word twice, he got fired and his career has yet to recover to the level that he enjoyed with “Grey’s.”
When filmmaker Spike Lee portrayed a couple of Jewish characters as racist in “Mo’ Betta Blues” he had to issue an apology to the Jewish community if he wanted to work in Hollywood again.
When pop icon Michael Jackson used an anti-Semitic slur in “They Don’t Really Care About Us,” he received backlash and had to edit the lyric.
No one criticized the Jewish or LGBT community for policing what others say about them, so why is it only a problem when African-Americans get offended by hatred, ignorance and bigotry?
The same rules should apply to all demographics.
If it is wrong to offend the Jewish community and the LGBT community, it should be wrong to offend the African-American community.
Since the Middle Passage, African-Americans have faced comparisons to animals like monkeys, apes and gorillas.
The United States census even counted African-Americans with the animals.
The reason for comparing African-Americans to animals has a simple explanation.
The Western form of enslaving Africans took slavery to new and barbaric levels.
All groups in history had slaves, but slavery did not reach the levels of atrocities until people with White skin enslaved people from Africa just because they had darker skin.
Before the Middle Passage, the social construct of race did not even exist.
Race was created, and therefore racism, to justify the way White slave owners treated Black slaves.
How could anyone treat another human being in such barbaric fashion?
Easy, by convincing themselves that Black people were animals and obviously not humans.
And to convince themselves that White meant superiority and Black meant inferiority.
Some White slave owners even convinced themselves that this represented God’s order.
So throughout the history of African-Americans, we have been called monkeys and treated horribly because someone convinced himself or herself that African-Americans were not even human beings.
That is why calling a White person a monkey would not result in the same outrage.
Many racists still have the mentality that African-Americans are inferior or even animals.
The problem that people with this mentality face in the 21st century is that too many Africa-Americans have power in Hollywood and corporate America.
With that power, employment opportunities or the lack of opportunities rest in the hands of African-Americans like Dungey.
And unfortunately, Barr found out that when you offend the boss, like President Donald Trump would say, “you’re fired!”
