Comments on: Black History Month

By: Sharly Farley

Sharly Farley — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:53:10 +0000

I enjoyed your tribute, too…You may or may not have read Sammy Davis's autobiography "Yes I Can!" – and yes, he sure could – but he made it part of his act to include a tribute to Stepin Fetchit, among others, as performers. I remember when Sam was still part of the Will Mastin Trio, hosting The Colgate Comedy Hour. He did impressions of both Kingfish and Laurence Olivier. He was definitely a breakout performer – singer, dancer, musician…and comic extraordinaire.

By: Gardenbug

Gardenbug — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:23:53 +0000

Enjoyed the trip to the past! Thanks for excellent tribute.

By: Tonya

Tonya — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:58:00 +0000

Thanks for recognizing and honoring the African American comedians of old. Yes some of those roles are offensive to African Americans but during those times it was an accomplishment to even be on television. I know we still need to make progress in this area but I'm happy to see how far we have come as a nation. Thanks again for the tribute.

By: Linda D

Linda D — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:20:10 +0000

A nice tribute! Thank you, Marc.

By: Barb (class of 1964)

Barb (class of 1964) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:37:52 +0000

You're right…we need to accept all of our history in order to value and learn from it. As a fellow boomer, I remember those shows…and have certainly looked forward to our political correctness developing a sense of humanity along with our needing to learn how to grow up from the stereotypes of our youth.

When you get a chance, I've been thinking recently about how some of our words are gender specific put-downs (like we had with various minorities a while back (lazy, manana time, etc.) without comparable words for the other gender (nag, slut, fast, bossy, etc.) Wondering what you might be able to do with that???