There once was a time when I used to care.
Not about good taste, mind you. Or common decency. Or a need to be fair and impartial. Blech.
Nah, I’ve only ever cared about things that really didn’t matter, like, say, Vanilla Coke.
Or Chick Tracts.
Or L. Ron Hubbard.
Or The Biggest Loser.
But of the things that I truly felt passionately about, few could top award shows.
And it really didn’t matter what award show it was. People’s Choice, the MTV Movie Awards, the Daytime Emmys — I watched them all. Times have changed though. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I watched an award show — three or four years probably. And on Sunday, you probably won’t find me watching the Oscars.
Not that I don’t keep up with who’s nominated. I do. Which is why I read the Hollywood Reporter’s recent interview with an unnamed Tinsel Town insider in which he criticized many this year’s nominees. At the top of the list: Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave.
While the insider thought the film was “well made” and “interesting,” he said “that contrary to what some have asserted, it’s not as if it required great courage to make that movie — maybe if you made it in Mississippi in 1930.” And that was all the encouragement that the racist douchebags who read the piece needed. Shortly after the post was linked to by the Drudge Report, the comment section was overtaken by I’m-not-racist-but asshats. Here are few choice nuggets:
Now, the Right’s going to tell you that these people are an anomaly. They’re going to say that racism is no longer a force in America today, and if it is, it’s in the Democratic Party; those guys are the real racists.
Which brings us to the latest Winthrop Poll by Scott Huffmon.
The City Paper’s Corey Hutchins report on the poll’s latest findings, and, well, they’re proof that bigotry is alive and well within the SCGOP. Hutchins writes:
More than half of the likely GOP voters polled have good feelings toward the Tea Party. And at 86 percent, Republicans have overwhelmingly positive feelings regarding Christians. But Republicans here are less favorable to Jews (62 percent) and far less favorable to Muslims — 12 percent.
About 25 percent of South Carolina Republicans think interracial marriage is unacceptable…
Sixty-two percent of respondents said they felt that generations of slavery and discrimination do not make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class.
Imagine that — a quarter of SCGOPers are against interracial marriage. Shocking, yes?
Equally as troubling, some 37 percent of South Carolinians believe that there’s just something unsettling about Jews, while 88 percent refuse to put Muslims on equal footing as themselves.
And don’t even get me started on those 62 percent of Republicans who think the many years of slavery and Jim Crow and institutional racism no longer negatively impact the lives of African Americans. Denial is a powerful drug.
All of which is why we have to confront the horrible and painful truth: Racism is very much alive and well in South Carolina, and the Republican Party is rife with it. Love Best of Charleston? Help the Charleston City Paper keep Best of Charleston going every year with a donation. Or sign up to become a member of the Charleston City Paper club.