The End of White Celebrity
Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, 17 November 2017
Whiteness is a birth defect.
For the mainstream media, it was a bona fide crisis. Blake Shelton, a European-American country singer and a host of The Voice, whom I had never heard of until yesterday morning, was named People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man In The World.” The result was outrage. Marlow Stern at the Daily Beast declared grandly that “people” are in a “justifiable uproar given Mr. Shelton’s history of homophobic and racist comments.” “Many on social media are blasting the magazine’s decision, calling upon Mr. Shelton’s past tweets that have been labeled as racist, misogynistic and homophobic,” sniffed Fox News. “Some are disheartened by Mr. Shelton’s history of making jokes at the expense of gays, lesbians, women and minorities,” wrote Libby Hill at the Los Angeles Times, in one of the more restrained reactions.
The decision by journalists to broadcast random leftists complaining about the decision of a supermarket tabloid is idiotic, but not surprising. Isn’t People telling us who’s sexy; not who’s slavishly conformist? But what was truly remarkable was how criticism of Mr. Shleton focused on his race. Gabriel Bell at Salon called it a “problematic pick” because it was a “reinforcement and celebration of sometimes-toxic cisgender male sexuality, the elevation of an underwhelming white man to a position of popular acclaim, the ignoring of people of color” and various other perceived sins. Fast Company echoed the complaints of many others when it wrote that Mr. Shelton was an “uninspired choice” because “in its 32-year history, the list has largely been dominated by white men.” Vox, being Vox, also complained about Mr. Shelton being white and his supposed support for Donald Trump.
Like many other outlets, Vox wanted to know why Idris Elba, last seen starring in the monumental bomb, The Dark Tower, was not given the title. (The same kind of article crops up every few years when Mr. Elba fails to become the new affirmative-action James Bond.)
Such a bizarre campaign wouldn’t be worth much notice except it coincides with yet another attempt to shame Taylor Swift for not joining the #Resistance against President Trump. Marie Claire is condemning Miss Swift for not making her last album about politics and remaining silent about the presidential election. Miss Swift is also accused of being “racist” because she doesn’t spend all her time protesting against people on the internet who make memes of her as a fascist. She does take legal action in order to get them to stop claiming she’s a fascist—but then she is accused of violating free speech. The only thing she could do, it seems, is follow Katy Perry down the hole into madness by endlessly talking about feminism and white privilege.
The real problem leftists seem to have with Taylor Swift is the fact that she is white and blonde, with Camille Paglia’s condemnation of her as “Nazi Barbie” serving as shorthand for how she is usually criticized. It’s probably no coincidence Miss Swift, for once, won no MTV VMA awards despite being nominated for five, given how MTV has become entirely dedicated to championing the #Resistance and shaming white people.
To be white and a celebrity is to be inherently controversial. Every several months, there is a predictable controversy about “whitewashing,” when a white actor plays a part that could plausibly go to a person of color. The resulting media frenzy has doomed films such as Gods of Egypt and Ghost in the Shell. Even historical dramas are not exempt from affirmative-action demands; Dunkirk was criticized for not having enough black people in it.
In contrast, transforming white characters into blacks is widely applauded. Examples include how Nick Fury suddenly became a black man in the wildly lucrative Avengers movies, or the push to put more non-whites in productions of Shakespeare or other classic stage plays. Sometimes, this is taken to ludicrous extremes, with the popular show “Dr. Who” featuring the doctor and an African-American touring England in the 19th century and seeing the streets filled with blacks. “History is a whitewash,” explains the doctor.
Is this a parody, a subtle mockery of political correctness? If it is, the joke is clearly going over the heads of most people. Consider the nothing-less-than rapturous reception given to the upcoming film, Black Panther.
“Black Panther remains socially and culturally relevant because it imagines a world where black people continuously triumph over the influences of capitalism, Western imperialism, and white supremacy,” writes Clarkisha Kent in The Root. Mic grimly informs us that all Africa would be like the futuristic black ethnostate of Wakanda if it “was allowed to pursue its own march toward spectacular progress.” Rolling Stone calls the movie “revolutionary,” a declaration that “the future is here.”
Of course, from a white perspective, Black Panther seems like the product of one of our moles. The portrayal of a black ethnostate full of futuristic technology that baffles the rest of the world is so self-discrediting it seems like a white nationalist parody. In the real Africa, the propensity to dance with corpses is bringing back the plague. And anyone who has been to Africa knows that what infrastructure exists was built by colonialism, not despite it.
Read the rest at American Renaissance.
