Should black comedians get a pass for making racially insensitive jokes about African-Americans?
Steve Harvey, one of the most popular comedians on TV and radio, got into trouble in the past for joking about Asian men, and lately he’s tested the limits with his mostly black listening audience.
Last week, the comedian was disagreeing with a man who called in to his radio show, “The Steve Harvey Morning Show,” about the Golden State Warriors’ victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA finals. The man was from Flint, Mich., where problems with lead-contaminated water have had a devastating effect on African-Americans, particularly children.
“You from Flint?” Harvey asked the caller. “That why y’all ain’t even got clean water. When was the last time you touched water and it didn’t have lead in it?”
Before hanging up, Harvey added, “Enjoy your nice brown glass of water.”
For many people, particularly African-Americans, the water crisis in Flint is no laughing matter. Twitter attacks on Harvey have been fierce.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver sent a letter to the comedian asking for an apology.
“To make a joke out of a tragedy such as this was in very poor taste, especially coming from someone of your stature,” she wrote.
Weaver acknowledged that Harvey probably wasn’t trying to intentionally insult the residents of Flint. And he defended his joke as “simply trash-talking about sports.”
But the joke raises important questions.
Was it also racist?
Is it even possible for African-Americans to be racist?
Recently, I explored that question with a young author named Ibram X. Kendi, an assistant professor of African-American history at the University of Florida, who asserts that everyone, including African-Americans, can be racist.
Kendi’s new book, “Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America,” won the 2016 National Book Award for nonfiction. It is a provocative read that challenges us to re-examine our own ideas about race and consider how we might be contributing to the volatile climate in America.
The debate about who can be deemed racist is not new.
There are many who argue, with great passion, that it’s absurd to think African-Americans can be racist. Racism, they say, requires economic, political and social power over a segment of the population. Black people don’t have that power. So while they might be bigoted or prejudiced, they can never be accurately described as racist.
But Kendi implores us to think about it differently.
According to Kendi, a racist idea is any idea that suggests a racial group is superior or inferior to another racial group in any way. And under that definition, even the most well-meaning people who promote racial equality can espouse racist ideas.
Subscribing to “assimilationist” thinking, he says, serves up racist beliefs about black inferiority. Racist ideas flourish in our society, he says, when people ignore racial discrimination or when they see racial disparities and blame black people for them. Such ideas accept that inequalities and hierarchies are normal and that only certain lives matter — and the other lives dispensable.
We didn’t talk specifically about Harvey, but we did talk about others throughout history who, he says, have espoused “well-meaning” racist ideas.
W.E.B. Du Bois, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Jefferson and Angela Davis are among them.
Harvey might very well fall into that category for making a joke that, though unintentional, promotes the stereotype that poor African-American neighborhoods aren’t entitled to the same level of dignity as affluent, white neighborhoods.
A government-appointed civil rights commission found that systemic racism helped cause the water crisis in Flint, where the population is 57 percent black. Because of insufficient water treatment, more than 100,000 residents were potentially exposed to high levels of lead in their drinking water. Between 6,000 and 12,000 children might have been exposed, and as a result, could experience serious health problems.
Harvey is an interesting case study because he is an African-American who worked his way up from humble beginnings. When he talks, a lot of people listen. He must take that responsibility seriously.
Harvey might consider reading Kendi’s book. Maybe then he can begin to figure out whether he’s actually helping ease racism or contributing to it.
Dahleen Glanton is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Readers can email her at dglanton@chicagotribune.com.
