racism-related stories
Posted Jul 22nd 2008 2:21PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Celebrities, Reality-Free

Liquid Generation has put together the
10 Most Racist Moments in TV. While the moments were extremely racist, I was expecting some more clips from primetime television, cartoons, and soaps. Most of the moments were just evidence of how some people are idiots (idiotic to think the way they do and idiotic to think that they should say something like that on television). I had other choice words in place of "idiot," but it will have to suffice -- trying to keep it clean.
My favorite moment from the video is from
Jeopardy. Alex Trebek tells the Indian-American contestant, "Yeah, it hurts to miss that one" after he missed New Dehli as an answer. Got to love the Trebek.
Check out the video below and let me know what you think. Also, they play M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" throughout the video which is a little distracting. I'd rather just hear audio from the clips.
[via
Digg]
Continue reading Shockingly racist moments of TV - VIDEO
Posted Oct 26th 2007 7:02AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews
(S04E05) There were a lot of complaints
last week that
The Office was moving in an unwanted dramatic direction. Whereas I thought last week's episode was brilliant and moving, a lot of the comments asked "What happened to the funny!? I thought this show was supposed to be a comedy!" The writers of those comments then threw their laptops against the wall in anger like
the viking from that Snickers' commercial.I've always told you guys that NBC reads these reviews and reacts instantly to any criticism that we give the show. You want funny? Tonight's episode served it to you like it was Frosted Flakes at an all cereal restaurant...
Continue reading The Office: Local Ad
Posted Apr 10th 2007 1:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities

Our corporate siblings at AOL have
a fun interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfus posted to their "TV Tattler" site. My colleague Geoff Bennett asks her some questions about her Emmy win for
Old Christine -- she took the statuette to work the next day and placed it on the craft services table -- casting Blair Underwood as a love interest, and what it's like to play a working mother while being one herself.
But the question that got my attention was when Geoff asked Julia about her reaction to the Michael Richards incident. While she wouldn't condemn her friend and
Seinfeld co-star, Julia was pretty truthful about how she felt at the time it happened: "At first I thought someone was kidding. I couldn't believe it. The whole thing was just so profoundly sad and heart-breaking. I was just really devastated by it."
Continue reading Julia Louis-Dreyfus "devastated" by Michael Richards incident
Posted Apr 10th 2007 7:33AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities
Talk show host Don Imus has been suspended from his show by both CBS Radio and MSNBC, which telecasts his radio show every morning. The suspension is for two weeks but doesn't start until next Monday.
This is because Imus referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Imus went on Al Sharpton's radio show on Monday and, as Howard Stern pointed out today, probably made things worse by the apology he made there and other comments he made.
MSNBC says that any "any future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word." I wonder why the suspension doesn't start til next Monday. Do they want the ratings bump the controversy is going to create? Will Imus talk about it on his show the next four days? CNN has certainly been talking about it all day.
Posted Mar 8th 2007 11:42AM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: American Idol, Celebrities, News and Gossip

Rosie O'Donnell weighed in on the
Frenchie/Antonella controversy this week on
The View. Like other critics, Rosie accused
Idol of being
"racist" and "weightist" in their decision to disqualify Frenchie for racy photos, while basically ignoring Antonella's sexy pics.
In a written statement,
Idol Excutive Producer Nigel Lythgoe called Rosie's claims of racism and weightism "absurd and ridiculous."
Lythgoe also said, "Ms. O'Donnell has, once again, spoken without thought or knowledge. Viewers need only look at the show tonight to realize that
American Idol constantly confirms to America that talent has nothing to do with weight or color."
Continue reading Idol responds to Rosie's accusations of racism and weightism
Posted Mar 7th 2007 11:42PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, South Park, Comedy Central
(S11E01)
Cartman: Token forfeits! Whites win!
Given Michael Richards' tirade at a comedy club last November, it would have been easy for South Park to dedicate a show to ruthlessly bashing Richards and people who use the N-word, but South Park has never been about simple approaches. Ultimately, Stan realizes that a person who isn't black can never really understand the effect that word can have, but the episode also ingeniously shows how none of us are completely immune to thoughts of prejudice, it's just that some forms of intolerance are more, well, tolerated than others.
Continue reading South Park: With Apologies to Jesse Jackson (season premiere)
Posted Feb 15th 2007 10:42AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Friday Night Lights
(S01E16) After where we left off last week, it was pretty clear what direction we would be heading this week. Where we would end up, that was the mystery. The resolution to the "Blinders" cliff-hanger wasn't all that was on the agenda though. And as good as it was, it wasn't even my favorite part of the episode.
This week, that title goes to the Taylor family drama. While part of that plays off of the controversy surrounding the team, there were also a couple great scenes as a result of Eric and Tami's struggles with Julie. Her fall from grace has come about a little quickly, but I'm willing to chalk that up to the compressed time of the television season.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Black Eyes and Broken Hearts
Posted Feb 8th 2007 8:40AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Friday Night Lights
(S01E15) The previews for this episode gave away the main part of the story. Really though, it's something that has been coming all along. It just took fifteen episodes to get to it. They did a nice job pointing to that with the scene between Riggins and Smash at the diner.
If you remember, when we first met these two in the pilot, another reporter tried to play up the racial angle between them. From there, it was clear that at some point it would be an issue to be dealt with. Waiting this long to do it was a good idea. It's a heavy episode, and it carries more even weight after having 14 hours of background to help get us invested in these characters.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Blinders
Posted Jan 26th 2007 6:00PM by Martin Conaghan
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, News, TV Royalty, Big Brother (UK), Celebrities

If you're of a sensitive disposition, and are planning to watch tonight's live eviction of
Celebrity Big Brother on your Sky+ PVR, look away now, as we're about to get all spoilery on you.
Following a total debacle earlier this week when no fewer than five housemates were nominated for eviction, Channel Four had to issue an apology after messing up the telephone appeal by asking viewers to save Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, not evict her.
Of course, Shlipa was at the centre of last week's racism row, starring none other than former housemate Jade Goody, and was waiting patiently tonight for host Davina McCall to announce the last two people to be dumped out of the house by the public.
Warning: spoilers after the jump.
Continue reading Celebrity Big Brother UK update: Friday evictions announced
Posted Jan 25th 2007 8:35AM by Martin Conaghan
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, News, TV Royalty, Programming, Big Brother (UK), Celebrities

In a new twist to
Celebrity Big Brother here in the UK, no fewer than five of the remaining seven housemates have been nominated for eviction.
The public vote will take place on Friday, with
Dirk Benedict, Jo O'Meara, Ian 'H' Watkins, Shilpa Shetty and Cleo Rocos all facing the possibility of an exit from the show before the finale.
Oddly enough, Danielle Lloyd, one of the key figures in the recent racism and bullying scandal, is not facing eviction.
The show concludes on Sunday night, with Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty still the firm favourite to win.
Posted Dec 7th 2006 2:32PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Showtime, Celebrities

A couple of more TV celeb-related incidents post-Michael Richards rant have been making the news. First up, Andy Dick. You know him from
News Radio,
Less than Perfect and his MTV series
The Assistant. He jumped on the stage at the Improv during Ian Bragg's set and, in an attempt at "too soon" humor, brandished the n-bomb. He's been
apologizing ever since.
A legitimately funny and meaningful use of the "n-word," however, came from
Damon Wayans' of Showtime's The Underground. Wayans took the stage at the now famous Laugh Factory last night with a stack of twenties. Since Richards' rant, the
club owner has banned the word - levying a $20 per usage fee and three month ban on any comedian who uses the word. Wayans proceeded to drop the n-word sixteen times saying, "I'll be damned if the white man uses that word last." That's $320 price tag for a little freedom of speech, if you're counting.
Posted Nov 21st 2006 3:57PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, Late Night, Celebrities
If you missed Michael Richards' appearance on Letterman's show last night after his racist tirade at a comedy club in West Hollywood, CBS' Late Show Web site has the video, which you can see here.
Setting aside Richards' racial slurs aside for a moment, watching the video of his onstage meltdown made me think of the kind of heated exchanges people get into where one becomes so enraged they reach deep into their reserves for the ultimate atomic bomb of an insult, the one word or phrase they can say that will completely flatten the person who is attacking them, and in Richard's case his racist comments . During his appearance on Letterman's show, Richards acknowledged that he lost his temper, and it seems fairly obvious to me that whatever self-censoring mechanism he had was overrode by his need to take down the people who were heckling him.
Continue reading Watch Michael Richards' appearance on Letterman
Posted Nov 20th 2006 3:02PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Web, Celebrities, Seinfeld
TMZ will be the downfall of more than one celebrity. The LA gossip hounds have posted
video of Michael Richards' soon-to-be infamous Laugh Factory performance in West Hollywood.
On Friday night, Richards proved that trying to shake the
Seinfeld curse can get to a guy. In the middle of his stand-up routine, Richards took on two hecklers with a racist tirade that included your standard issue racial epithets along with this charmer, "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a fucking fork up your ass." It was, of course, caught on tape by someone in attendance. Richards has already told the press that he's sorry and will "make amends." I'm tempted to take bets on whether he'll enter rehab, offer a tearful apology to Diane Sawyer or both.
Less you think this incident came out of nowhere, check out hip-hop theater artist
Danny Hoch's monologue from Jails, Hospitals and Hip-Hop on his brush with the
Seinfeld cast.
Posted Nov 13th 2006 10:43AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel
(S02E01) I'd have to go back and look at my recordings of the first season to verify this, but I think creator Dino Stamatopoulos has the writing credit on most of, if not all the episodes from the first season. It was nice to see Nick Wiedenfeld's and Scott Adsit's name alongside Dino's in the opening credits. As the old cliche goes, too many cooks make the broth totally awesome.
As any god-fearing protestant knows, God made us in his image, at least, those of us who are white. After all, Jesus was white, as we can easily tell by all those pictures of him. Also, why else would they make Band-Aids that color?
Continue reading Moral Orel: God's Image
Posted Aug 12th 2006 2:03PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Animation, Celebrities, MTV
The animated MTV2 series Where My Dogs At? from comedians Jeffrey Ross and Tracy Morgan came under fire recently because of a segment that featured two women on leashes, a scene meant to parody an actual appearance involving Snoop Dogg with two women in tow on chains. Some insisted it was a simple spoof of a real event, while others found it misogynist and racist. This may end up being a moot argument, however, as MTV has not decided whether or not the show is going to return for a second season. As I said in my previous post, I never watched the show, and the little bit I've seen of it on MTV2's site didn't impress me very much. I didn't find it offensive, I just didn't think it was very good. A shame, really, because I like both Jeffrey Ross and Tracy Morgan quite a bit. Were any of you readers a fan of the show?
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