American bigmouth
Just because you don't have a voice doesn't mean that you still can't get your foot in your mouth. Take Roger Ebert for instance. Ebert is America's foremost movie critic. Many have followed his career from back in his Sneak Previews PBS days, when he worked along side the late great Gene Siskel. Back then Siskel & Ebert kept viewers amused with their constant bickering about which movies were actually good. This made 2 good points: 1. that critics, like other experts disagree to the point where sensible people have to wonder whether their opinions are any better than the man in the street, & 2. if those two could actually agree on a flick then it just might be worth dropping ten bucks to see.a star is born
Siskel died of brain cancer and Ebert went on with other co hosts, & in a network format. Like Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks, he'd out grown the show that made him a star and was now ready for prime time. He even went on to find love, and married a high powered lawyer. It wasn't all wine and roses though, as Ebert developed a case of cancer that resulted in his lower jaw being removed. Though doctors begged him to have reconstructive surgery that might restore his voice, Ebert claimed that he was worn out from cancer treatments, and was content to leave well enough alone - in that area of his life anyway.
I've got something to share with the world - my opinion!
In other areas Ebert was still willing to stir the shit. With the use of internet technology, we hard more from Rog than ever before, as he took to Twitter and blogging to share his opinions with the world. Everything from reincarnation to Pres Obama was fair game, and Rog let fly with wanton abandon.
Huck Finn or fuck him?
Now when you run your lip that much sooner or later you're gonna say something that gets you in shit - believe me. Well sooner or later has come to pass and Rog has some explaining to do. It all started when Rog took to Twitter - the source of so much celebrity mischief - to take on the controversial Huck Finn issue.
sound and fury
To bring everyone up to speed Huck Finn was written by Mark Twain and is considered a classic of world literature. It also uses certain words that are not in accept usage anymore, like a certain pejorative term for black folk. That word begins with N, ends in G, and can cost you plenty if you say it right out. For those who doubt that words have power Dr Laura and Don Imus can probably tell you that uttering this hateful term is like playing with fire. The racially charged term cost Imus his dubious career as a talk radio crank, and it sent Dr Laura in to the wilderness of Sirius satellite radio.
ever the Twain
The term is so racially charged that it's gotten Twain banned from most high schools, and might even qualify his work as hate literature under Canadian law. That's where things get akward. Since Twain is a classic, you can't really teach modern lit without reference to him. So the compromise is a rewrite where the offensive term is replaced with the word "slave". If some simple rewrites have been good enough for the Bible, then they should be good enough for Twain. Especially since the replacement term in no way alters the spirit of the book.
license rearranged spells silence
Purist take issue though. They object to the altering of even a jot or tittle of world lit, on the grounds that good writing is sacred, and sacred means license to offend. So a classic book is untouchable, unless it's a matter of foreign language translation in which case it's free to be butchered like a chop on a meat room cutting table. To this end Ebert rushed in where angels, or anyone with even am odicum of common sense, would fear to tread, and took on the weighty Twain issue.
Twitter twister
Roger used his medium of choice - Twitter, to defend Twain's right to use the N word. he claimed for instance that slave was an even more offensive term. He went on to point out that he'd rather be called a N than a slave. I guess he felt that since he is married to black woman he had a right to such statements in the same way the Ted Danson felt that dating Whoopee Goldberg gave him the right to show up at the Friar's Club in black face. Maybe Danson felt that minstrel show black face was an important part of America's cultural heritage and dating Ms Goldberg now gave him the opportunity to defend the practice. Whoopee seemed to think different. Though she defended Danson for awhile, they went their separate ways soon enough.
in other words
I guess that Ebert caught it from his missus soon enough too. Once the fuss started to reach shit storm proportions Ebert took to Twitter once again to state the obvious, and something he probably should have thought of before sharing his opinions with the world: that since he's never been called a slave or an N he really had no business expressing such opinions. It's just plain ignorant to assume you can express knowledgeable opinions about stuff beyond your personal experience (though if professional communicators strictly adhered to that principle most of them would be out of business, or at least restricted to occasional part time out bursts). In other words Ebert is sorry.a straw for Dr Laura?
In a way the story is kind of inspiring. For one thing it shows that the handicapped can over come their barriers and limitations to go on and make the same stupid mistakes as the able bodied. Stupidity can be a great equalizer in that way. It also highlights Ebert appalling lack of judgment. For one thing we might be hearing from Dr Laura soon, claiming that this was the point she was trying to make back when she had that unfortunate on air attack of Tourette's Syndrome (and they say that Megan Fox says stupid stuff! Never would her hotness ever be heard using such discouraging words -so give the little lady a damned break already!). She might see this as her ticket out of the wilderness, and we only just got rid of her!
pissing off the missus
For another thing it highlights something really important. Ebert is married to a black woman. Marriage is a very deep human bond. It connects two people on a level deeper than race, culture, nationality, religion, friendship, or even family ("for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and the two shall become one person"). So far from giving Ebert a license to use racially charged language, it should have reminded him of something most sensible married men know, and that is that you don't piss off your wife for anything in this world. That is not unless you want your life to be made a living hell right up to the day she finally slips the arsenic into your morning coffee. That will only happen after she feels you've suffered enough, so the day won't be soon coming. It might highlight something else too, as Jerri Blank in Strangers With Candy would say "It's wrong to encourage the handicapped, they'll only go out and hurt themselves". If Mrs Ebert is reading this I can only ask her to go easy on Rog. He's not used to dealing with women. So let him off with a slap on the wrist this time. You might try asking him whether he prefers being called cripple or gimp, for instance. Or just unplug his voice modulator every now and then. That might inspire him to reflect on issues about which he has personal experience!
from old jerks to Young Turks!
Now here are those Young Turks, sans Cenk, with their always lively take on the issues!
Now here's a little music video dedication to Cenk, and his merry band of media outlaws!
In conclusion what can be said except watch for more celebrities to flirt with danger by messing with that word again sometime in the near future. They seem to have some irresistible attraction to the term the requires them to seek out excuses for using it.
