I was surfing YouTube today for some fun old school videos & ran across this video clip of “The Electric Company“. While looking & reminiscing, I was like, wait, this Negro looks & sounds a little familiar, then I realized that it is my boy Morgan Freeman.
Looking at this as an adult now (based on body language), it seems like Easy Reader was riding Carmelita way before he was driving Ms Daisy.
While in the midst of writing this post I stumbled across the article below, on a racist furniture label found in Toronto. Upon seeing the image, I threw up in my mouth a little bit. Not only was I turned of by the color description, I was also turned off by the drawn on eyebrows. Only certain woman can rock this look & she is not one of them. Actually, I just do not understand the concept of shaving one’s eyebrows only to paint on some. My mother & sister both do this & I think they do it well so maybe I am biased.
According to the Internet Bible Wikipedia, the main function of the eyebrows is to prevent moisture, mostly salty sweat and rain, from flowing into the eye. Anyway the point is not her eyebrows but this fucking sofa color.
Toronto Star: Jim Wilkes
When the new chocolate-coloured sofa set was delivered to her Brampton home, Doris Moore was stunned to see packing labels describing the shade as “Nigger-brown.”
She and husband Douglas purchased a sofa, loveseat and chair in dark brown leather last week from Vanaik Furniture and Mattress store on Dundas St. E.
Moore, 30, who describes herself as an African-American born and raised in New York, said it was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out the label just after delivery men from the Mississauga furniture store left.
“She’s very curious and she started reading the labels,” Moore explained. “She said, `Mommy, what is nigger brown?’ I went over and just couldn’t believe my eyes.”
She said yesterday each piece had a similar label affixed to the woven protective covering wrapped around the furniture.
“In this day and age, that’s totally unacceptable,” Moore said.
Douglas explained the origins of the word to daughter Olivia, telling how it was a bad name that blacks were called during the days of slavery in the United States.
“It was tough, because she really didn’t understand,” Moore said. “She’d never heard that word before and didn’t really understand the concept of it.”
Moore, who has a younger son and daughter, said she’s heard the word used many times, although it has never been directed in anger at her.
“But it’s a very, very bad word that makes you feel degraded, like you’re a nobody,” she said.
Moore said she called the furniture store the following day and three other times since, and feels discouraged that no one has returned her calls.
When interviewed yesterday by the Star, Romesh Kumar, Vanaik’s assistant manager, passed the buck to his supplier, Cosmos Furniture in Scarborough. (Read More Here)
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Back to me:
How in the fuck did someone come up with this shit & do they have an Indian Red or China Yellow etc? The store owner is a damn fool & should be just as outraged as he is a brown person himself. The label could as easily been slated toward his people & shit as well all know, there are some pretty dark East Indians.
If you got this sofa & saw the same label, what would you do?
daez / April 15, 2007
Byg..do you belong to the dish? Dude you wouldn’t believe what’s going on over there! Holla at me when you get a chance…
Anyway, I happened to be watching CNN on Tuesday when they broke the story…the little girl is cute as a bug, bi-racial…the interesting thing is her daddy was sitting on the couch either watching tv or playing a video game while they were interviewing mom, like nothing was going on…
It was really sad that Olivia had to learn the word in her own home like that when she’d never been exposed to it…at the dish they questioned the mom notifying the media…I woulda done the same thang, cuz in 2007 you should be able to go buy furniture without having a racial slur written on it!
Some folks are trying to say the word was used by mistake because it was lost in translation by the Chinese…well the translation they CHOSE to use was American slang…if you could actually see how big the tag is in real life you’d trip!
I’m also racially drained Byg…(sigh)…this week has been a mental rollercoaster …(((HUGS)))
….just me…daez
Francis L. Holland Blog / April 15, 2007
I love Morgan Freeman, but that clip is pretty embarrassing in retrospect. Back then, we were happy to see Black people on television at all, since there had been a pretty clear bar agains the practice of putting Black people on television.
It seems that we’re rapidly heading backward to Jim Crow in terms of white people’s compulsion to insult and demean Black people. The only solution is to demand even more than we had accomplished to keep from rolling backward.
Today at my blog, on this sixtieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first game in Major League Baseball, I published an article entitled “The Enduring Importance of Firsts,” making an argument that breaking into new areas that were once off-limits to us is an important part of securing our place in America and establishing ourselves as equals.
I first published this article at DailyKos with the title “Ending the White Male Monopoly of the Presidency,” and I was banned from participation at DailyKos a few days later.
field Negro / April 15, 2007
“If you got this sofa & saw the same label, what would you do?”
bygbaby, that’s a trick question right:) Seriously, you know what I do for a living; I would sue the mother fu****s!
I would try to own that f*****g company, or at least a percentage of the distribution profits in Canada.
dcsavvystar / April 16, 2007
I just read about the couch incident the other night in class.. how disappointing…. truly sad that a child had to experience this.
Bygbaby / April 16, 2007
Daez – As always, I enjoyed our convo on this + other racially draining topics. We re truly kindred spirits.
Francis – Man I guess we had to start somewhere & it was & is cool to see someone on TV who looks like you or at least the people in your hood.
Field – My momma always says that in order to make the man listen, you gotta hit his ass in the pocket. As a matter of fact, she said this again today.
DCSavvyStar – Thx for checking out the Mindspill. This situation is fucked up 360ø’s.
Keith / April 16, 2007
Yo bygbaby,
What would I do? I get a sofa delivered to my house and my child reads a label saying it’s “nigger brown?? I’m a Detroiter, so what you think?
But seriously speaking for a minute without trying to jump all bad over the internet, this story is actually a good thing. Just like the Don Imus story was a good thing. Nowadays things travel at the speed of electricity, and more and more of the stories that many of us may never have been aware of before are now being posted for all the world to see. The truth of where we stand vs. where we wish we were standing is doing us more good than many of us would prefer to admit.
Dig, you gotta know where you are before you can plot your course to make your next move.
sunsail / April 16, 2007
Engrish!!! Engrish!!! Engrish!!! The Chinese/Japanese strike again!!
Stephen Bess / April 16, 2007
It’s unbelievable! I wouldn’t know what to do?
byrdparker / April 16, 2007
hi bygbaby
a) return the sofa quick u do not need it .
b) electric company : i hate to say it , but it was those type of programs , which bred “nappy headed hos” talking yt today .
c) Why can’t we keep our culture seperate. Why do we always have to let yt join in … With that said Eminem was the worst thing that happened to hip hop…
d) human life / development is infinite , you can’t control what happens after you give a stimulus . Now you have pat buchanan , and most all other yt journalist , saying that these negative words started in the our community … I never heard a rap song saying nappy headed ho . I saw happy feet trailer , with a stevie wonder song saying when i was a “nappy headed boy “.
lets get it straight
“nappy head is term that slave owners used for slaves because of the grade of their hair… “
e) why can’t our black journalists learn how to debate . it is obvious we did not come up with the word nigger , or nappy head , Why didn’t they mention the insitution of slavery from which this all began . No we can’t mention it , because yt does not want to hear it . But we can hear about the holocaust , all day long because jews run the media .
so bob jhonson had bet and he sold it >>> Now our voice , is one of mtv copycat shows , and reruns , of the wb ..
talk about being bamboozeled!
Lyrically speaking / April 16, 2007
Why am I not surprised by this? we are constantly targeted whether some want to admit it. So sad that her own daughter stumbled upon the slip that read “nigger brown”.
My sister also shaves her eyebrows, I don’t understand it myself, it looks good on her but at night when she removes her makeup, well, you know 🙂 to me it’s not an appealing sight
byrdparker / April 16, 2007
does anybody know what is going on in tenn about the murder case of channon christian?
Starr / April 17, 2007
To byrdparker…I’m surprised the Channon Christian case wasn’t all over the media. I mean she’s an attractive, blonde, white girl who was brutally raped and murdered by four black men. I don’t know how the national media missed this one but the Don Imus “Nappy-headed HOs” incident got full coverage. I only know about it through the Internet; and the message boards are filled with hate, of course, as if white folks never commit heinous crimes. No matter what, any time it’s a black on white crime all black folks are crazy, depraved, savages to many of our fellow white American citizens. Anyway, to answer your question I believe the men (animals) have made an initial appearance in court. I feel terrible for the couple who lost their lives and these dudes must know that Tennessee will be itching to put them to death.
Now to the N-word colored furniture….I can’t believe that. I think I’d have to return it.
I’m drained now…racism, Virginia Tech shooting…..the world is going to hell, rapidly.
Peace
Cluizel / April 17, 2007
Nothing intelligent to add about the sofa…but I must agree with the eyebrows…
I could never do that…I am so lazy/absentminded in the morning I would be out the door many a day with no eyebrows. lol.
byrdparker / April 17, 2007
starr ,
I came across this case , on the david duke site , i like to catch up with what the racist’s are doing everynow and then . He actually has a lot of info on his site about 9/11/ iraq , isreali controlling lobbyists, that u never hear on the news but usually when u google actual events they are true…
There is also a website if u google “st nicolas thief “, who is leading a black movement against privaliged white people , where he saids it is ok to kill them , because of slavery … he saids there that the girl went down the for drugs , and sex and possibly to have her boyfriend killed. He states there is not one reason to travel that area if you do not have friends. I really thought this was a hoax !
Why aren’t they saying why the carjacking turned murderous … alot of the talking on the web especially on utube , are painting these people as murderous serial killers. But newspapers are saying most of what is on the web re what happened during the killings is false…
I find it interesting that the south where so many atrocities took place against black people , was the new hot spot for buppies to move … With st nicholas thief , i guess he is proving racism , is still alive and kicking ., Read about the ross girl who was murdered on dec 25 2006 , she was a direct descendent of one of the wealthiest/ notorious slave owners.. Her killer was named turtle , and one of the slaves on her great grandads plantation was named turtle .
what did gill scott heron say ” the revolution will not be televised.”
For v tech it is unbeliveable , and i agree it’s draining . the world is going to hell starr you are right.
anyway i am drained as well ,
Bygbaby / April 17, 2007
What it do peoples???
Keith – I hear you load & clear on the being from Detroit piece. I can make my west side come out at the drop of a dime!!!
Sunsail – talk about being lost in translation. They really fucked that up. In fact I saw something on TV recently discussing how French & English college instructors were going to China to help them with their poorly translated signage. Some of their translations were hilarious but now I’m thinking no so funny based on this example.
ByrdParker – As always, you bring the heat & knowledge. “Why can’t we keep our culture separate. Why do we always have to let yt join in … With that said Eminem was the worst thing that happened to hip hop…” IMHO integration caused a big down fall in our community’s strength; I see is a double edged sword. We let them join in because if there is a white person at the table, we are all of the sudden valid.
I have seen instances of a Black speaker making a point that got no reaction from a crowd & later a white person said the same thing & damn near got a standing O. White is not always right!!!
“why can’t our black journalists learn how to debate.” good point. One thing that I hoped would come up last week was why are we so wrapped up into the white standard of beauty & this is in the larger sense across the Diaspora, specifically with light vs dark skin, hair texture or lack thereof etc.
Thanks for checking me out!!!
Aulelia mentioned on Asabagan’s blog recently that Bob J needed to be Afrospeared & I could not agree more!!!
Lyrically Speaking & Cluziel – Thanks for picking up on the lite piece embedded within this post. As I was pulling it together I started to realize that I was becoming “Racially Drained” & needed to break things up a week.
On a related note, I remember when my sister was about 6, she got a hold of one of my mothers shavers & whacked off her left eyebrow, trying to be like mom. When my mom saw her, she flipped her wig but my brother & I though it was so funny. She had to run around looking like a damn fool for about 2 months.
byrdparker (1 mo gin) – I had not heard of the case & Starr thanks for dropping the facts!!! I am going to check this out this evening over cocktails for one.
Starr – I am surprised as well, maybe the media is not reporting on this, because it is possible to hot for TV. There is no excuse for rape let alone senseless murder!!! I mean, do you need some power & pussy that bad??? They need to get what’s coming to them.
Thanks to you as well for checking me out.
byrdparker (1 mo gin, again) – “what did gill scott heron say ” the revolution will not be televised.”” – OK!!!!!!!!!!! That shit is on TV, in high definition & with surround muthafuckin’ sound.
St Nicolas Thief sounds off the hook! I was telling my wife last night, that I thing the Panthers need to be revived.
The V Tech incident is very saddening & makes you wonder, what in the world would make a mother fucker lose his damn mind like that.
I was hoping that the national discussion about race & healing would continue this week, but I guess not. I think the CIA had something to do with the murders because they wanted to stop the conversation on race. This is the conspiracy theorist in me talking.
Peace,
Bygbaby
Bygbaby / April 18, 2007
Byrdparker. I went to David Dukes website & read the information on Channon & all I can say is damn!!!! The people that did that are sick as fuck.
Why did they have to cut her breast off???
It is weird on how this is “Black out” in t he media. My heart goes out to her & Christopher’s family.
The purps most def deserve what they have coming to them.
I cannot hate on D Duke with his comparison to the Byrd case but I did notice how he tried to put that victim down on the sly. Black ex-con (who was in and out of prison 7 times). He did not point on if the white purps history, only that they were ex-cons.
If anyone else is interested in reading up on this case, you can get it @ http://tinyurl.com/3xjqm6
Peace,
Bygbaby
Cluizel / April 18, 2007
Ohmigoodness…that is so…wow…
byrdparker / April 18, 2007
bygbaby
what is interesting about david duke site was his take on george bush regime . Although we must remember he is a white supremecist , he does not like blacks and likens us to animals . My recent foray there was to see what he thought of obama running .
What I am wondering is the south getting ready to explode , first the katrina situation , where the leavees blown >? and now this case , which is only on internet , never mentioned on the news , not even olberman . The St Nicolas Thief guy …
This is something out of a bad novel …
Lola Gets / April 19, 2007
If I recieved a couch with that description, it would be returned to the store, I would demmand that my money be refunded, and I might think about further action against the company…but if its an overseas one, might be too much I could do. In other countries (Japan and China, for example) they use negative images and names for Blacks in a variety of their products. I believe Japan had a Sambo toothpaste once…but I might be wrong.
I had not heard about that rape case – Imma have to look that up.
L
Bygbaby / April 20, 2007
Hey Lola – I have a post on a Asian commercial for Black Herbal toothpaste, that is a fucking mess here http://tinyurl.com/2tluty
Peace,
Bygbaby
Bygbaby / April 20, 2007
Cluziel, I am still tripping on the fact that they cut that woman’s titty off. That is some sick ass shit!
Byrdparker, you know I forgot all about David Duke until you mentioned him the other day. How soon we forget. I am happy to have visitors like you to keep me in the loop.
Bygbaby
Anonymous / May 19, 2007
I’m white but if the label said “honkie white” I’d laugh and throw the label away. Don’t you think that life is just to short for this kind of crap. If you don’t then you really need to get a personality adjustment.
Imtoast
Bygbaby / May 19, 2007
Hi Lmtoast, thanks for checking me out! It is easy to not take things serious when they do not affect you. As Blacks, we are constantly under the racial gun & when the trigger is pulled like in this case, we cannot take that lightly.
I think you are wearing rose colored glasses & missing the big picture & that’s OK because many whites do but you cannot minimize the struggle(s) that we have to endure across the diaspora etc.
I look forward to hearing more form you!!!
Bygbaby
Anonymous / September 13, 2009
"If you got this sofa & saw the same label, what would you do?"
I would have been pretty upset. I would want to makes some calls and some noise to find out who is responsible.
But after a few minutes of thinking, it is me who fills these dead words with energy through my anger. I mean, in the true sense the words, it is easier for me as a black not to take it seriously. I mean literally, I need more energy to get pissed off about it than laugh.
I don't see us as constantly attacked rather than constantly pissed. Someone calling me something im not is a lier, not an attacker.
Donno if I would have had the strength or the wisdom but one thing I would never do is think for one moment not to keep the couch. I mean the minute I think about not keeping it is the moment I tell myself to get over myself.
"There is no opponent" (Bruce Lee)
Tafari / September 13, 2009
Anonymous – You made some valid points! "I don't see us as constantly attacked rather than constantly pissed. Someone calling me something im not is a lier, not an attacker." Now that's on point!
Thx for stopping by to share your thoughts!
Tafari