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There's a part in Trainwreck where Amy Schumer's character, giving a eulogy for her father, says: "I know he fucked up, and I know he probably offended every person here, but raise your hand if he was your favorite person." It's a touching moment that comes after we've seen Schumer's character riff on her father for being racist, misogynist, homophobic, and overall, a terrible person.Although I laughed along with the film when I saw it a few weeks ago, I couldn't help but reflect on a similar situation: There I was, sitting in a movie theater, enjoying a movie that was written by and starring a public figure who I had recently vowed to stop supporting due to some of her previous racist remarks.It will always be difficult to enjoy popular culture as a person of color.
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With all the recent buzz about political correctness destroying comedy, I constantly struggle with my anger. It's just a joke, right? I don't want to be the Debbie Downer that turns everything into a racial attack.Black people have been at the butt of the joke in popular culture for longer than the term 'pop culture' has existed.
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I've asked myself that question more times than I can count. In the February 2015 issue of The Gentlewoman, Björk said, "Sound is the nigger of the world, man." She was discussing the subpar quality of museum speakers. Justin Bieber came under similar scrutiny when a four-year-old video surfaced of him unapologetically telling a joke with a disgustingly racist punchline. Even Tina Fey, who is frequently lumped in with the current wave of white feminists like Amy Schumer, wrote in her 2011 memoir Bossypants that it was OK for her father to warn her about black kids "coming from West Philly to steal bikes" because, after all, "this wasn't racism; it was experience."On Thump: Kele Okereke on Being Gay and Black in the Dance and Rock Worlds
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