Blackface 'comedian'...

[bliss_eternal]

(Note--this is a rather dated piece. I recently learned it ran in RollingStone. I dug up the article to post here.)


Backstage at a gay bar in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, on the same block as the fountain square where slaves were sold, sits America's most appalling comedian. He's a fat, gay forty-five-year-old white man, a part-time nurse, who lives alone with two cats and who believes he's on a mission from God. Once a month, Chuck Knipp (pronounced with a hard K, like "Knievel") transforms himself into a living taboo. First, he puts on a giant housedress and a pink, curly wig. Then he smears his doughy face and neck with chocolate-brown foundation, rainbow-hued eye shadow and garish red lipstick. When he's finished, staring back at Knipp from the mirror is the blackface mask of a modern-day minstrel, and the character known to Knipp's legions of cult followers as Shirley Q. Liquor, a welfare mother with nineteen kids who guzzles malt liquor, drives a Caddy and says in an "ignunt" Gulf Coast black dialect, "I'm gonna burn me up some chitlins and put some ketchup on there and aks Jesus to forgive my sins." Shirley also shops at "Kmark," eats "Egg McMuffmans," visits her "gynechiatrist" and just loves "homosexicals."

-----------snip-------

But there's no denying that controversy over blackface has been resurging for some time, driven by a series of ill-advised fraternity parties at Southern universities. In 2001, Auburn frat brothers wore blackface and KKK robes to a party where they simulated a lynching. And this past January, similar incidents occurred at colleges throughout the South -- some Clemson students in South Carolina hosted a "gangsta" malt-liquor-and-blackface party over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

----------snip--------

Knipp routinely sells out small venues in the South, and Shirley Q. is a huge draw at Southern Decadence, the annual "Gay Mardi Gras" bacchanalia in New Orleans. "My core audience is gay men, their moms and rednecks," he says.

He is paid between $4,000 and $7,000 per gig, depending on how far he must travel from Lexington, Kentucky, where he moved after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his beachfront apartment in Mississippi. Knipp's cat Rebel miraculously survived.

Despite his appearance fees and Shirley Q. merchandise sales, Knipp claims his annual take is "about on par" with the money he made as a traveling registered nurse, around $70,000 to $90,000 a year.

----------snip---------

excerpted from:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/14474389/shirley_q_liquor_after_imus_a_black_face_comic_who_sings_12_days_of_kwanzaa



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I'll be honest, I was shocked when I learned about this guy.
That anyone would be so bold as to don blackface in this era, and dare to say it's to fight racism... :crazy:


Though I'm not surprised to hear that so many are willing to pay big money to hire him for private shows.
Some will always be more than happy to have the opportunity to go behind closed doors and say the sick things they know better than to say in public.

I was saddened to see the names of some who have allegedly done so (i.e. Sela Ward--actress who spoke out against accusations of racism during Katrina. :eyes: Apparently Sela was not the appropriate person to evaluate such issues, given her "entertainment" tastes.)

See excerpt below:

In 2005, the actress Sela Ward hired Knipp to perform at a fiftieth-birthday party she threw in New Orleans for her husband. And last year, country-music star Ronnie Dunn arranged to have Shirley Q. waiting on the tour bus after a Brooks and Dunn concert in Atlanta to surprise Dunn's wife on her birthday. "Mrs. Dunn is a big fan of mine," Knipp says. "Oooh, lawdy, we had ourselves a time."


I can no longer look at Rupaul (who supports Knipp) or the Queer Eye guys (who hired him for their wrap party) the same way. :(

[ismnotwasm]

1. Sometimes

I think people consider their own sense of deep cynicism and dark humor as a sophisticated expression (read; too cool for you)

Black face doesn't somehow become amusing or funny because a gay guy does it. Stereotypes don't become more true or any less hurtful hidden in dark, cynical humor.

You could make a case for the whole drag queen scene as a dark cynical humor, highlighting the lows of what is considered feminine. Bright shiny clothes, very high heels, lots of makeup. Kind of a black face for females.

Germaine Greer challenges this in her book "The Whole Woman" with the chapter Pantomime Dames, and certain rad fems will bring it up, but mostly it's a non-issue. Perhaps a more destructive caricature of women being is done BY women using over the top plastic surgery.

So I'm not suprised to see this. "Living taboo" means exactly what? The fact that the guy is making fun of the poor, or the fact that the guy is making fun of poor black women, or the fact that the guy is making fun of blacks, or the fact that the guy sells his painted soul to racist POS's who not only despise him, but use his show as racist entertainment?

[gaspee]

2. All of the above (n/t)

[bliss_eternal]

3. For anyone that is interested...

...a site was created in honor of Women's History Month to get the word out about this guy and provide an opportunity to get involved (per petition and listings of his appearances). Perhaps this would get more attention in a separate thread. However, given the many times and ways I've been disappointed (and surprised) by the responses of the DU community at large, I'm adding this here (also to respect bandwith).

***Warning***
There's a song sung by Knipp as his cariacature, Shirley Q. Liquor playing on the site (offensive language, etc.). It can be turned off, but just so you know if you click on this at work, etc. Link:

http://www.banshirleyqliquor.typepad.com/my_weblog/

A letter from Jasmyne Cannick to Rupaul (Rupaul has consistently defended Knipp's character as "not racist.")

http://jasmynecannick.typepad.com/jasmynecannickcom/2008/02/woman-to-woman.html

Btw--Rupaul's "opinion" is akin to the female rape apologists, as far as I'm concerned. Rupaul understandably has personal issues with black/African Americans, and has faced many forms of discrimination as a gay male of color. While I'm very sorry for his/her pain, it also saddens me to see his/her continued comments in support of this performer's work, while challenging those that are hurt and enraged by it.


Note--As a reader of Ms. Cannick's blog, I wanted others that may be interested in continuing to read her work, that she has moved to:

http://www.jasmynecannick.com/blog/

[ismnotwasm]

4. The more I read about this puke

The angrier I get. This is not a free speech issue or a freedom of expression issue either. Obviously the guy is doing what he wants, and the only way he gets stopped is when enough people tell him that he's not only a racist fuck, but not even particularly entertaining. I better not hear one fucking thing about free speech, he's GOT free speech. The question is, is this HATE speech?


He's one of the worst drag queens I've ever seen, including the guys in full drag with full beards. I used to work at a hotel that held an annual drag celebration, as well as one of my old roommates who often dressed in drag, so I've seen my share. (That roommate-- my best friend, at one time we were planning a wedding, I would wear the tux, he, the wedding dress. Well, I was young. He died of AIDS.) Knipp takes painful stereotypes, and exaggerates then to pander to assholes who like their racism hidden in innuendo so they can deny it. He simply uses tired old material from tired old jokes whites have been using for years. He is in no way talented.

He is doing BLACK FACE. What fucking part of that are people not getting? What? Because it's not a old minstrel show, black face is Ok now? Because it's not being done to a black male? What, poor black woman are fair game? Or do people honestly think the "old racism" equals the "new colorblind" and that makes everything entertainment? I find humor in just about anything, in this case I find a cynical humor not about what this guy does, but in his little thoughtless groupies hiding thier personal bullshit behind his act. At least his "redneck" audience is probably honest about what they pay to see. Shit.

God save me from being color blind. Let me always embrace and appreciate difference. Let me never think a racist, talentless hack is entertaining, living vicariously though him because I'm too chickshit to say how I REALLY feel.

[bliss_eternal]

5. Great post.

Thank you--it's refreshing to see someone understand the ramifications of this.

I think that because we are living in the times of "pc backlash", a lot of inappropriate behaviour gets a pass for some. Some are apparently nostalgic for "the good old days." :eyes: