Jewish World Review Oct. 1, 2002 / 25 Tishrei, 5763

Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Leonard Pitts, Jr.
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

Sharpton, crossing swords with the white corporate dragon, needs to learn what the civil rights movement really was about

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | He's back.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, fresh from his recent campaign to help Michael Jackson make the world safe for white Negroes everywhere, has undertaken a new crusade. He wants to cut "Barbershop."

Well, actually, he wants to censor one scene from the hit movie. That scene lampoons several African-American icons, including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Jesse Jackson.

If you haven't seen "Barbershop" yet, well ... you should. It's funnier than a Jerry Falwell interview.

The movie chronicles a day in the life of a tonsorial establishment on Chicago's storied South Side. In the scene in question, Eddie, a crusty old barber, launches a tirade against some black sacred cows. He preaches that O.J. did it and Rodney King deserved it. Other characters start shouting him down, but he won't be silenced. Martin Luther King was "a ho." "Rosa Parks did nothing but sit her black a-- down. And as for Jackson? "Bleep Jackson," he says.

Except he doesn't say bleep.

Sharpton - supported by Jackson and a spokeswoman for the 89-year-old Parks - has pronounced himself offended. He's demanding that MGM, the studio that released the movie, issue an apology and excise the scene from the eventual DVD and home video versions.

Not that anyone asked, but I think the Rev has a right to be upset. Still, his response amounts to misplaced overkill.

If you've ever been in one, you know the black barbershop is more than a place to get your ears lowered. Back in the day, the barbershop was a meeting room, one of the few places black men had that belonged wholly to them. One of the few where they felt free to drop the masks and debate, raucously and with outrageous political incorrectness, pressing issues of sports, sex and politics.

It's that freewheeling spirit that the scene in question sought to capture. Unfortunately, the writers miscalculated what they could get away with. They crossed the line. Granted, that line is a subjective one. On the other hand, when you find yourself denigrating a martyred Nobel Prize winner and a frail old woman, you can be reasonably sure you've stepped over it.

That trespass has caused Sharpton to focus his ire - reflexively and somewhat predictably - on the big white company that released the film. But what about the black actors who starred in it, the black-owned production company that helped shape it, and the black test audiences that reportedly laughed themselves breathless after screening it? What's their responsibility here?

The issue, you see, is not racial, but generational. The civil rights movement ended 34 years ago - before most members of the movie's principal cast were born. They are children of a different time.

More to the point, they are members of a generation raised to be impious and irreverent, a generation for which too far is never far enough. By definition, they will have trouble truly understanding - much less embracing - the sacrifices made by their elders once upon a time in a world far away.

Add to that the fact that the civil rights movement has been poorly and inconsistently taught, too frequently reduced to caricature and Hallmark sentiment. It becomes an endless loop of M.L. King repeating "I have a dream" instead of what it was - something daring and dangerous.

To understand this is to suspect that, if the writers miscalculated, if the actors crossed a line, maybe it's because they cannot revere what they only imperfectly understand. Perhaps that scene in "Barbershop" represented an opportunity to help them understand, had the issue been approached less confrontationally and at a lower decibel level.

Instead, Sharpton took it as a chance to cross swords with the white corporate dragon and, perhaps not incidentally, to get his name in the paper. Which is a pity. "Barbershop" is a black movie white audiences have been lining up to see. Top movie in the country the first weeks of its release.

Maybe the Rev needs to be reminded just what it was Rosa and Martin were fighting for.

Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


Comment on JWR contributor Leonard Pitts, Jr.'s column by clicking here.

09/25/02: A skewed sense of compassion
09/18/02: On death and a pop-culture mindset
09/10/02: Inconvenience me, PLEASE!
09/06/02: Latest CBS joke isn't funny
09/03/02: A rewarding life as a working stiff
08/30/02: We infants in men's clothing
08/27/02: Sept. 11 - How much is too much?
08/23/02: Cut it out already, media!
08/20/02: Brace yourself for attacks of the stealth ads
08/16/02: Russia, please, pretty please let the rocker hitch a ride into space
08/12/02: Racial 'colorblindness' is silly
07/30/02: Oh, to be famous
07/19/02: In Pop-Music Thriller, Jacko Takes on Sony
07/09/02: The password is 'frustration'
06/25/02: My Head And Heart Are At Odds - I Can't Watch Video Of Pearl's Beheading
06/21/02: Your kid's going to pay for cheating --- eventually
06/18/02: Stuffy 'correctness' robs races of give and take
06/07/02: A gift of the Masai
06/04/02: Now what? Use your 9/11 pain to combat complacency
05/24/02: Has your life changed since 9/11?
05/19/02: New world disorder is nothing to smile about
05/14/02: White men can jump, so why do black kids come up short in the classroom?
05/03/02: Catholic Church should be ashamed for blaming abuse victims
04/19/02: A reminder of how small the world has become
04/16/02: 100 death-penalty mistakes and counting
04/12/02: Until all the bad guys wear black hats
04/10/02: Connecting with history with hope for future
04/08/02: Just me and the boys: A black father's road trip
03/26/02: It's time to give up fighting the good fight and join the masses
03/22/02: It's not the art, it's the artist who's troubling
03/19/02: Don't ask, don't tell when it comes to police work
03/15/02: Do we have an inalienable right to TV?
03/12/02: What will we learn about ourselves as war toll grows?
03/08/02: Marriage madness --- oh, please!
03/05/02: A risk free life
03/01/02: Pentagon's idea of lying to media was breathtaking' in its stupidity
02/16/02: Will the Afghans forgive the U.S. for the beating of innocents?
02/15/02: In search of manhood, some make a fatal decision
02/08/02: Time for blacks to give the same respect they demand
02/05/02: A question of character and "unlawful combatants"
01/31/02: There's only so much a parent can influence a child
01/29/02: Mike Tyson is incapable of embarrassment
01/25/02: Acts of patriotism or acts of desecration?
01/18/02: Waiting for tears in the rain at Ground Zero
01/15/02: A little cultural respect works both ways
01/11/02: Can blacks be racist?
01/07/02: What price for the priceless?
12/21/01: An intriguing study on race
12/18/01: To err is me
12/14/01: Admit it, folks, If you've ever been 16, you can probably relate to Walker
12/11/01: Blacks-on-blacks poll is a healthy project
12/07/01: The best defense against government excesses
12/05/01: Better hoist caution flag
12/03/01: Martin Luther Ka-CHING!
11/27/01: Beauty reflects an ugly truth
11/22/01: Another reason to be thankful
11/19/01: If only they knew our names
11/12/01: Watching a 'dying' man live
08/01/01: Should a man be put in jail for what he's thinking?
07/27/01: It's your responsibility to invade their privacy
07/20/01: Is optimism for fools?
07/17/01: Everybody should have a white man

© 2002, The Miami Herald