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Who has the most "black attitude?"
In my previous post The Chinese Women/White Men Epidemic, I neglected to emphasize, although it should be clear from my presentation, that Julie Chen's failing show The Talk has a panel without a straight, white, American woman. The straight, white, American women she has (or had) on her show have some Jewish ancestry. Leah Remini is half Jewish from her mother's side and both parents of Marissa Winokur are Jewish.
Remini claims that she was fired from the original The Talk panel (here are her comments on her firing). Perhaps Remini's outspoken and boisterous Jewishness was just too much for Chen to handle, as she was often in contradiction to Chen's views and beliefs. Winokur, who seemed to have left the show on relatively good terms, nevertheless complained that there was "no time" for some of the segments she had planned (how can there be no time for a "Mom in the Street" segment?). Here are Winokur's complaints.
The lesbian Sara Gilbert is Jewish from both her parents. Chen chose her, and keeps her on her show, because she is the antithesis of the straight, white woman. Whatever she says or does will have no affinity for the straight, white woman.
Sharon Osbourne traces her Jewish identity through her father, which would not technically make her Jewish since the transfer of the Jewish racial and ethnic identity is through a Jewish mother, but she provides that diluted, superficial, ethnic Jewish mix to Chen's panel.
Chen is married to white/Jewish CBS CEO Les Moonves, so her Jewish affinity is personal. Yet, these authentic (or closer to the authentic) Jews on her show probably remind her that her own race has no association with theirs, and she can never be Jewish (or white). So why does Chen "act black" on her show, rather than Asian, white, Jewish or gay? I will try to answer that below.
Chen has filled her current panel with two new blacks. This time, she made sure that they would be the kind that would toe the line, unlike the no nonsense Holly Robinson Peete from the original panel, who says she was fired (along with Remini) for her outspokenness. These new panelists are desperate, forgotten black actresses who are trying to make a comeback on television. One is Sheryl Underwood, who is a relatively unknown stand-up comedian, and the other is Aisha Tyler, a second rate T.V. personality and actress who is mainly cast in supporting roles. Tyler is married to a white man, and is less of a "militant" black, and diffuses some of Underwood's belligerence. There are now two blacks on The Talk, one up from Robinson Peete, and make 40% of the current panel.
I recently watched the excruciation show, with Chen's untalented reign (and reins) lacking any humor, style or charisma. Then Chen suddenly started talking black, shaking her head and wiggling her index figure with "black attitude." Underwood, the black comedian, had a pleased expression on her face, clearly happy that her boss shows her solidarity by "turning black" once in a while. Tyler, the other black panelist, sat clueless and unaware of Chen's antics. Osbourne cackled with approval. I turned the TV off.
I think "acting black" is the the best strategy Chen can use to undermine, if not ignore, her adversaries: straight, white women. After all, she married one of their men. By siding with blacks around the common theme of white antagonism, she gains the trust and friendship of blacks, and can thus evade having to deal with white women. But this evasion is probably affecting her show's unpromising ratings, since it is white women who drive up the ratings of afternoon shows.
Acting lesbian (those other "haters" of straight, white women) would turn the fierce homosexual lobby against her. Any mimicry of gays by straights, however much filled with good intentions, could be a recipe for homosexual wrath. Chen cleverly avoids this ugly reaction (who knows what could set it off) partly by having a token homosexual (the lesbian Gilbert) on the show, and by promoting gay-friendly programs. And I doubt that Chen, as a straight woman, would want to have her sexuality questioned ("anyone" can turn gay, but one is born into one's race), so she won't go further than having a lesbian co-host and gay-friendly programs to avoid any stir up concerning her own sexual identity. She is not going to "act lesbian."
Chen flatters blacks by having two black panelists out of five on her show. And this enables her to "act black" all she wants. But this is filled with pot holes also, since she can never predict what could set off the wrath of blacks. But someone as clever as Chen can assiduously gauge how far she can go, and put limits to her "blackness."
Unlike turning into a lesbian, Chen can never be black, so she needn't fear losing her non-black identity or have it questioned while "acting black," as she might have her sexuality questioned if she "acted gay." So she can "act black" in superficial solidarity with all those blacks out there. And, since about half her panel is made of black women, her black critics would be more lenient with her impersonations, not taking insult, and even being charmed by her attempts. She's doing all she can to appease them, after all.
A white woman's head-shaking, finger-waving antics will never be appreciated by blacks (unless she humbles and prostrates herself repeatedly and humiliatingly, and even then she might only get mixed reviews), since she comes from that line of people who enslaved, then oppressed blacks. She is, and will always be, a racist, and cannot remove that blemish no matter how much she tries. And any white woman who "acts" white would be deemed a superior elitist (and, here we go again, racist), and would be shunned, mocked or even attacked. So, white women have always to downplay their (natural) whiteness. And of course, white women have become so defeatist, that they have also stopped defending themselves, and have come to accept (and even believe) the anti-white rhetoric and sentiment that surrounds them, and they readily take on these identity-effacing roles.
Chen, the Asian, plays around with all these dynamics like a pro.
Such is the war that is being waged on the West, where its multicultural population is aggressively dismantling it at its core.
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