I don’t like this man. And at the same time I sometimes feel like we see racism where it ain’t.
Howard Cosell (not old enough to remember who this is?) lost his job over a “monkey” remark.
I can see this clip as racist, or given my opionion of Washington in general I can see it as a statement of the reality of the place.
What do you think?
I didn’t take it as racist. I guess it depends on your view. Short-term view of the current administration (Obama being black and Blunt being white), I can see how pro-Obama followers could twist it to be racist.
But he used the analogy as a comparison to how things work in Washington, not just with the current administration. So I am viewing it with a longer-term view and under the leadership of George W. or Clinton, or under a Republican or Democratic controlled congress, the ‘rules of the game’ are not established to ensure a ‘fair’ game, but rather a political advantage. And the rules change with each new administration and/or new congressional control. So it doesn’t matter what is ‘right’ and what ‘should’ be done, the only thing that matters is how can the politicians gain a political advantage in the view of the people. To hell with the people and the country as the ‘rules’ were established by our founding fathers, the game has changed and political advantage is the game. So congressional bills are introduced to address issues the people are concerned about in an attempt to gain votes and re-election rather than resolving the issue. The oil crisis of the 70’s was presented as a middle-East dependency rather than a foreign dependency so 40 years later we are now dependent on oil from Canada and Mexico, rather than the middle-East. Our dependency is still there, just switched to stable, friendly foreign countries from unstable, unfriendly foreign countries. The original problem of ‘dependency’ still exists. Instead of addressing the issue of dependency on foreign suppliers, they twisted the issue to be a middle-East problem. Yes, the USA has experienced cheap gasoline prices for the last 40 years compared to the rest of the world, but the original issue of dependency was not addressed and has resurfaced over the last few years.
I didn’t take it as a racist joke, I took it as a joke about Washington.
GOOD JOKE, BUT BAD TIMING. I SEE WHAT HE WAS GETTING AROUND TO, BUT THIS JOKE WAS AT THE WRONG TIME.
I would not in anyway interpret this as Racist. It was not directed at a person or at a race of people at all. I did not even see it as a “Joke” in particular — but a humerous story to paint a picture of how things are. You know, we really must quit trying to create racisim where it is not. We have become a society that is so dogone sensitive that we can no longer exist without turning something bad and allowing it to make us angry. Sadly, the media stirs this pot with a vigor. Time for us to use our heads and our intelligence and quit this nonsense. It does not take a great deal of intelligence to fight over nothing — let us use our minds to hear the story for what it really was.
It all depends on who he is referencing as the monkey!!!
As a Black/Afro/African American, I would say “CAN HE BE MORE ‘BLUNT’ ABOUT WHAT HE WAS ACTUALLY TRYING TO GET ACROSS?!?!?!?!?” (Absolutely a pun intended here!) The interpretation of the “joke” depends on the listener. We all wear our “colored” shades of interpretation of everything. (Yes, another pun intended here!)
(On a side issue: WHY ARE BLACKS AND HISPANICS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS ‘PEOPLE OF COLOR’. DO OTHER RACES NOT HAVE COLOR?!?!?!)
Personally, I cringed in his use of the “monkey” reference in regards to DC, but being (I’d like to think) a forward-thinking individual, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was NOT AWARE of the derogatory reference of Blacks as “monkeys”. Given his apparant age and political ambitions, I would think that he would be more selective in his choice of jokes.
Depending on his true intentions (and namely his intended audience), the “joke” got across in the manner in which he intended: either the way the game is or always has been played in DC or the way the game is determined by the current “monkey” tossing the ball on the field of play.
Being POLITICALLY CORRECT (absolutely another pun intended here too!) was just not coined for us common people, but also for POLITICIANS!!!! You just have to have SOME modicum of common sense when telling JOKES (?!?!?!?), especially in today’s age of recording capabilities AND intelligence/lack of intelligence of your audience. Has Senator Blunt ever heard of prefacing a joke that should not be told with “Since we are in mixed company…”?