leslie jones' 'saturday night live' slavery skit... (read description)
- 10 years ago
there's so many points i wanted to talk about, but did not in the video- so they're here.
jones spoke of emphasizing what is deemed as 'usefulness', when it comes to what is 'beautiful'. what is societally determined as 'beautiful' is not decided by us. 'usefulness' to her is apparently breeding babies for massa, who so kindly hooked her up with a black man as strong as she.
to sexualize pain is just. not. funny. this is the same critique russell simmons, destorm and others involved with the 'harriet tubman sex diaries' got; it's the same critique lil wayne got for disrespectfully utilizing emitt till's name in one of his songs, as well as nicki minaj using malcolm x's picture. none of the people jones names in her twitter feed are immune from critique, and each of them have been on the end of it.
looking at her other comedy; out of the clips i saw, the dominant subject is how she wants a partner (as she puts herself down). there are people who have made a career out of something like that; it doesn't make it any less sad. in this as well as the SNL skit, she dehumanized herself, as well as anyone who went through the maafa, delivering the same message as those who were the slave owners... all we are are bodies to be exploited. 'usefulness' in her case has nothing to do with how we could utilize resources and defeat the slave master (now THAT is satire!), but how we produce more slaves.
comedy without any real context for the audience you're performing can be disasterous; and it appeared to be the case in this instance. i have a feeling the people in that audience who were laughing, were NOT laughing with her. shifting around and widely grinning and bugging out your eyes... many people would recognize that as minstrelsy. this is what jones has done in both her standup act as well as the SNL skit.
jones spoke of emphasizing what is deemed as 'usefulness', when it comes to what is 'beautiful'. what is societally determined as 'beautiful' is not decided by us. 'usefulness' to her is apparently breeding babies for massa, who so kindly hooked her up with a black man as strong as she.
to sexualize pain is just. not. funny. this is the same critique russell simmons, destorm and others involved with the 'harriet tubman sex diaries' got; it's the same critique lil wayne got for disrespectfully utilizing emitt till's name in one of his songs, as well as nicki minaj using malcolm x's picture. none of the people jones names in her twitter feed are immune from critique, and each of them have been on the end of it.
looking at her other comedy; out of the clips i saw, the dominant subject is how she wants a partner (as she puts herself down). there are people who have made a career out of something like that; it doesn't make it any less sad. in this as well as the SNL skit, she dehumanized herself, as well as anyone who went through the maafa, delivering the same message as those who were the slave owners... all we are are bodies to be exploited. 'usefulness' in her case has nothing to do with how we could utilize resources and defeat the slave master (now THAT is satire!), but how we produce more slaves.
comedy without any real context for the audience you're performing can be disasterous; and it appeared to be the case in this instance. i have a feeling the people in that audience who were laughing, were NOT laughing with her. shifting around and widely grinning and bugging out your eyes... many people would recognize that as minstrelsy. this is what jones has done in both her standup act as well as the SNL skit.