Juxtaposing Joe Rogan and Whoopi Goldberg
The Monday Musings!
***Is multi-millionaire podcast host Joe Rogan a racist?
Well, I was always taught that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck. And, knowing that Spotify quietly removed over 100 of Rogan's podcast episodes last week because he was firing off the "N-word" left and right confirms that at a minimum, he is way too comfortable with saying a word that most Black people find highly offensive and, at maximum, he is a damnable racist, straight up!
Part of the problem is that Rogan has quite a few Black men who actually love his program; add to that the typical "I've got Black friends" statement that is often bandied about by white racists when they are caught in a racist cauldron of their own creation, and you get defenses like the one former Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang Tweeted (and deleted) this past weekend: "I don’t think Joe Rogan is a racist - the man interacts with and works with black people literally all of the time..."
Yeah, whatever Mr. Yang. But what's funny to me is that Mr. Rogan seems to select the right Black folks to say that word in front of because if I was on his podcast and he uttered it, the next sounds his listeners would hear would be furniture moving and the unmistakable sounds of fists on face. But that's how I and my friends roll, and it is clear that some Black men will check their dignity at the door just to be adjacent to some popular jerk that excites them for reasons that totally escape my understanding.
***The juxtaposition between how Spotify removed the Rogan podcasts with the "N-word"—but didn't suspend him—with how ABC suspended Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for statements that may have lacked nuance but were far from anti-Semitic, is rich with irony. Such is why Black owned and supported media organizations are SO very critical in this modern era, so that our voices cannot be muted by corporate powers who could not care less about our views on matters great and small!
***For months I have told you that there was a looming Republican civil war on the horizon, and with the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) heading to Orlando later this month, the opening battle between former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron Desantis will be worth watching for all politicos.
At issue is Trump's oft stated belief that he "made" Desantis, which in a manner of political speaking, is somewhat true. Before Trump endorsed Desantis in 2018, most Florida folks figured that Adam Putnam, a longtime state legislator, was a shoo-in for the Republican nod. Desantis, a congressman at the time who often appeared on Fox News to defend the Trump administration, soundly defeated Putnam before narrowly winning the general election against Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum.
In the time since Trump was beaten by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, there have been a number of conservatives who have been looking to an alternative in 2024 due to their fears that the January 6th MAGA Riots, encouraged by Trump, coupled with Trump's quixotic quest to claim that the 2020 election was stolen, could mean defeat to Biden or some other Democratic nominee in 2024.
Enter Desantis, a governor who is as popular among conservatives for being anti-mask, anti-social distancing, and anti-mask mandate as he is despised for the same reasons by Democrats.
As to the looming battle, The Hill this morning quoted an anonymous major GOP donor who has given to both Trump and Desantis as saying: “I think (Trump) definitely feels threatened by the governor...I can’t necessarily blame him, because there are a lot of people right now who are very interested in what Ron DeSantis has to say, and I think that’s especially true at CPAC.” The donor added, "...while Trump has clung to the same talking points – most notably his baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him – DeSantis is talking about Joe Biden, he’s talking about freedom from COVID lockdowns, he’s looking forward and not backward.”
Which man will prevail in a 2024 GOP primary? Stay tuned…
Black History Hobbservation: Hattie McDaniel, actress
The late Hattie McDaniel was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1895, one of 13 children born to parents Henry McDaniel, a formerly enslaved man who had fought for the Union Army in the Civil War, and her mother, Susan, who also had been enslaved. McDaniel's family moved to Denver, Colorado when she was a child, where she graduated from Denver East High School.
Upon finishing high school, McDaniel helped form a troupe with several siblings that performed traveling minstrel shows. For the next decade, McDaniel performed both live and on radio until the Stock Market crash of 1929 that led to the Great Depression. With funds from performing low, McDaniel took up work as a washroom clerk and waitress at a night club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1931, McDaniel moved to Los Angeles, where she again worked as a laundry attendant while seeking work in the entertainment industry.
By 1934, McDaniel had joined the Screen Actors Guild and was finding regular work playing maids in numerous Hollywood films. Her work allowed her to become close friends with many of the leading actors and actresses of her time, including Lionel Barrymore, Gene Harlow, Olivia De Havilland and Clarke Gable, the latter two who would appear with her in the classic film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind (GWTW)."
Producer David O. Selznick selected McDaniel to play the role of "Mammy," a perspicacious maid to the O'hara family who serves as both surrogate mother and conscience to the film's leading female character, Scarlett.
When the film debuted in Atlanta in 1939, the strict nature of Jim Crow segregation prevented McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen, who played the role of the maid "Prissy," from attending the premier. Infuriated, Clarke Gable, who played the role of the debonair Rhett Butler, threatened to boycott the premier until McDaniel urged him to reconsider.
The following year, McDaniel made history by becoming the first Black to win an Academy Award, as she took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her efforts in GWTW. Despite her success, McDaniel was still the subject of criticism from some within her own race, many of whom felt that her playing a maid in so many films was demeaning. Undaunted, McDaniel once snapped back in an interview that, she “would rather play a maid than to be one."
McDaniel later earned two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her work in radio and the other for her work in film. McDaniel died in 1952, and in 1975 she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
Black College Feature
This Black History Month, each day I will feature one of America's top HBCUs.
Next up—Howard University.
Founded: Howard University was founded in March of 1867 in Washington, D.C.—barely two years after the end of the Civil War with the goal of training preachers and teachers. Named for Union General Otis Howard, head of the Freedman's Bureau, the University quickly rose to prominence as a comprehensive University offering rigrorous liberal arts education in multiple disciplines.
Academics: Howard, a Tier 1 national university, is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the top five HBCUs and over the past several years, ranking second behind only Spelman College. Howard is the only HBCU ranked in the top 40 of the Bloomberg-Businessweek college rankings.
Howard is the most comprehensive HBCU in the nation, with undergraduates pursuing degrees in multiple disciplines within the Schools of Arts & Sciences, Communications, Engineering, Pharmacy and Social Work. The University's legendary Schools of Dentistry, Divinity, Law, and Medicine, and Dentistry have been at the vanguard of producing professionals who have healed, ministered to, and fought for Black civil rights and medical care since their inception.
Howard is one of four HBCUs with a chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society ( along with Fisk, Morehouse, and Spelman). Since 1986, the University has produced four Rhodes Scholars—second among HBCUs to only Morehouse College.
The University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) is recognized as one of the world's preeminent repositories of Black History and culture,for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent.
Motto: Veritas Et Utilitas
Mascot: Bison
Colors: Blue, Red and White
Athletics: MEAC-Division 1 in men's and women's sports.
Famous Alumni/Figures: Civil rights legend and first Black US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Civil rights legend and famed Howard Law Dean/Professor Charles Hamilton Houston, Political Science Professor and first Black Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Ralph Bunche, Civil rights legend Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael), Civil rights legend, US Ambassador, and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young; US Senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, President Jimmy Carter's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Patricia Roberts Harris, first President of Nigeria Nnamdi Azikiwe, New York City's first Black Mayor David Dinkins, President Bill Clinton's Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, US Rep. Elijah Cummings, first Black woman lawyer Charlotte Ray; Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning writer Toni Morrison, social critic Ta-Nehesi Coates; entertainment mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, Academy Award winning actress Taraji P. Henson, entertainer/producer Debbie Allen, actress Phylicia Rashad, actor Ossie Davis, actor Chadwick Boseman, and actor/comedian Anthony Anderson.
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful Monday!
You Sir, are a whole lot more polite about Joe than I because a duck, very much like a leopard, cannot change what it is !!!
I love how people think that because folks work with Black people that they don't hate them. As a former principal... I call DUCK! It's the most disheartening feeling when you know that they work with Black children.