Uh, did Eddie Griffin REALLY think he was going to get away with this in front of a group of bougie …. uh, I mean …. not-so-young black professionals like this?!
Comedian Eddie Griffin was pulled from the stage at the 14th annual Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge after repeatedly using the “N” word.
To give you an idea of the type of folks who Griffin was performing for, all you need to know is that Al Sharpton attended the Miami conference – although not at Griffin’s performance. The crowd of 1,000 gave Black Enterprise Magazine Publisher Earl Graves a standing ovation when he came on the stage after Griffin was pulled.
I’m not mad at B.E. at all. I enjoy the publication and while I’m not sure where I stand on the whole free speech thing – especially being a journalist, I try to use the N word as little as possible.
What I choose to focus on instead is how in the world did Griffin think this was acceptable?!
B.E. hosts various events like this around the country for business professionals, often top executives. If demographic stats can be trusted, these folks are more likely to be relatively “conservative.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean registered Republicans, but just not the type of folks who would be seen laughing out loud at this kind of thing … not in public, at least … but that’s another post …
To put things in perspective, B.E. prevents their male interns from wearing dreadlocks, much less cornrows and braids. So you get the picture.
Whether Griffin’s creative freedoms were imposed upon is up in the air and somewhat irrelevant to me. Somebody needs to pull this brother aside and let him know if his comedy portfolio lacks diversity, it not only is going to hurt him professionally, but financially in the long run.
I mean Steve Harvey was able to change it up for MegaFest, one of the country’s largest Christian, family-friendly conferences led by uberpreacher Bishop T. D. Jakes. And Cedric the Entertainer managed to headline an event that had George W. Bush and his wife on the dais.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE, PEOPLE!!!
Once again, keeping it real has gone wrong. We got to do better.
Gene is a journalist in Phoenix. Check him ot at YBPguide.com.
8 comments:
Eddie Griffin hasn't been funny since Def Comedy Jam circa '90, '91. He IS the damn joke.
With all of the hype surrounding using the N-word, he should have known better.
B, I too can not remember the last time I laughed at Griffin. Seriously.
R.B., I really think Griffin is surrounded by people who defend the use, so he probably is a bit out of touch with how much some people are appalled by it. Our surroundings shape us, you know. But he really should have done more background research on B.E. Then again, they should have done more research on him.
The bottom line is somebody somewhere is probably breaking into Earl Graves' email to find one where he said the N word as we speak. The N word supporters are not going to let B.E. get away with this.
LOL. When keeping it real goes wrong. This could be the best real life example yet.
Yes...good post!!! I agree!
Once again, this demonstrates that not all black people are the same and really we have a seperation of class and education among all races
Andrew is right. The diversity of blackness really needs to be acknowledged, not only by whites and other races, but by blacks themselves.
I thought we buried that word. We need to beat the N word back into the ground!
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