Words

 There’s a radio talk show host named Chris Plante who often uses the phrase, “They use the words, but don’t know what they mean,” when he refers to politicians and wokesters among the living.

 

Plante has been a staple of Washington, DC’s WMAL radio station for many years and tells the unvarnished truth Monday through Friday, peppering his three-hour show with profound takes on current news, plus added levity to assist with digestion.

 

Today, I’m borrowing that phrase to help us navigate the oversaturated world of “victimhood.”

 

Our first stop is Salt Lake City, Utah, when back in 2018, an 18-year old attended her final high school prom.  Keziah Daum located her perfect dress at a vintage clothing shop, appreciating its style and lines and color, all of which accentuated her youthful charm.  I would describe it as a kimono.

 

Keziah Daum and her qipao

She proudly posted photos of herself wearing this dress on Twitter, hoping to share her glee; unfortunately, that didn’t travel as far as Keziah had hoped.  Evidently critics who often surface to make themselves sound educated began bandying the words “cultural appropriation,” as a means to chastise Keziah.

 

At least one detractor posted a vulgarity, accusing Keziah of not even knowing the proper name of her dress which is appropriately called a “qipao.”  Who knew?

 

This young lady apologized and groveled for her love of this qipao, and wearing it with style; alas, the on-line torture continued.  That ought to be a lesson for her to ignore cultures other than hers.  By the way, if that qipao is so sacred and germane to the Chinese culture, I suggest they burn them rather than resell them after they are no longer wanted.

 

Let’s segue to June 2020, when pious United States Senators and Congresssleazes donned Ghana kente cloth for a photo op during the Saint George Floyd riots.  I’m pretty certain Nancy Pelosi – who couldn’t locate Ghana on a wall map – only wore her kente cloth stole for virtue signaling, not necessarily for style, as Keziah wore her qipao.

 

Ghanaians didn’t crawl out of the ceiling cracks to protest this phony display of Kabuki Theater by Pelosi along with Chuck Schumer, to “victim signal” the damage to their hearts, minds, and souls.  It was just another scam perpetrated by professional scammers.

 

Just the other day I also heard more disturbing news, this time coming from the world of fine arts.  It seems an American Sign Language interpreter was fired for being white.  Yep, you read that right.  A white guy was fired for being white.

 

A Broadway production of “The Lion King” entered the “Enough Already” arena when this play turned into a dumpster fire over the race of an interpreter.  Keith Wann was asked to fill in for a minority sign language interpreter being used in this play.

 

According to WCTI News 12, there were three minority interpreters working on this play when, by chance, two of whom were not available when Wann received an email explaining how because he had worked with this production company before, he would be a good fill in.

 

A few days after accepting the gig, Wann received an email elucidating why Wann would not be used; Wann is white, and the replacement for him was black.  Amen.

 

Wisely, Wann is now embroiled in a lawsuit over discrimination based on race.  But here’s the rub: The Lion King is an African-oriented cartoon and, so, should employ only Africans.  Uh, huh.

 

As an aside, I’m not sure why Africans Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were not given roles in this stage production, given their Ghana heritage, however there’s still time.

 

But having people of varying races portray other races is nothing new.  The popular Bing Crosby movie, “Holiday Inn,” is a feel-good Christmas flick about a retired general who purchases an inn that is only open on holidays.  Hence, the name.

 

As the movie progresses, all major holidays are celebrated including Lincoln’s Birthday, once a federal holiday.  During this early idea of a dinner theater, Bing Crosby appears as a grateful freed slave.  It should be noted that Crosby is white, while his stage character was black, thereby requiring blackface makeup.  I’ll stop writing until you awaken from your coma.

 

This movie was made in 1942 and contained blacks acting as a beloved house maid and her children.  Recent interweb reviews include those easily offended who largely would like to see this movie remade without the “offensive racist” depictions causing shuddering during the Lincoln’s Birthday scene.

 

While that sounds virtuous, the entire movie cast is now dead, Abraham Lincoln no longer has a federal holiday honoring him, and racism – in general – is now, well, subjective.

 

Back in 2016, a place called Gibson’s Bakery in Oberlin, Ohio, found itself in a quandary.  Several black Oberlin College students made their way into Gibson’s and wound up stealing bottled wine.

 

Caught red-handed, these proud black women refused to apologize, opting for very public boycotts and demonstrations.  Gibson’s business faltered after Oberlin College itself took up the cause of anti-discrimination against the bakery.

 

A trial resulted in an award of $36,590,000, to be paid to Gibson’s Bakery’s owners, because the words protestors, as well as Oberlin College officials, used in an effort to smear Gibson’s.

 

Of course this case was not about race, but rather about shoplifting and associated slandering and libel based on fake claims of discrimination.  Still, the mere charge of racism should have been enough to stop this juggernaut in its tracks; alas, it wasn’t.

 

As has been evident throughout history, using the language to control the conversation through redefining words is both sleazy and dangerous.

 

And for our last stop, visiting another movie whose second iteration was desperately needed has discovered more turmoil that must be address in the court of public opinion.

 

Evidently, a movie titled “Avatar 2: The Way of the Water,” was recently released in theaters to boffo reviews, reflected in their box office take.  Everything was going along ‘swimmingly,’ (See what I did there?) when someone with too much time and too little life decided to point out the movie’s shortcoming.

 

This latest Avatar movie is comprised of all computer generated characters – in a cartoonlike fashion – with voice-overs done by actors.  The characters are largely freaky in appearance, wearing blue skin.  Clearly these are inaccurate depictions of anyone or anything I’ve ever seen, unique to the Avatar series and associated merchandise.

 

The gist of this fantasy movie is that futuristic travelers are searching for a more habitable planet as Earth’s resources are becoming depleted.  This effort finds the blue humans colonizing a newly discovered planet previously pristine much like the Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America.

 

Still, those few malcontents who complained, citing the racism and land appropriation this movie apparently glorifies, remain unapologetic.  They don’t see a fantasy movie, computer graphics, or a well-written script.  Rather, they see another axe to grind.

 

But here’s the rub.  Blacks get upset when an actor dons black face, Asians get angry because a second hand dress was worn to a high school event, and voice-overs for cartoons and animated movies are frowned upon for theft of cultural appropriation.  On the other hand, when blacks proudly steal historical characters, such as Alexander Hamilton, they are applauded are creative and innovative.

 

All of these examples of chafing – imagined and actual – need to end because each complaint helps recall the proverb of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.  And I, for one, am no longer paying attention to these whiners.