A Shit Storm Over Race

Edited 041912 @1910, 2110PDT and 042012 @1245PDTEdited for clarity on my point that didn’t come through that well. Added [text is] inside []. Deleted text is struck through.  

Recently there was an article posted over on ColorLines about someone who was talking about taking a shit. The article, titled HBO’s ‘Girls’ Writer: Defecating is ‘Taking Obama to the White House’ is stoking racial concerns.... over a shit [and thats only a SMALL portion of the article].

But ColorLines has already had an issue with Lesley Arfin, story editor for 'Girls', over the fact that the show has a white cast. So, this tidbit from Arfin's 2010 blog post shouldn't really come as a surprise.

[Out of the ColorLines 704 word article, 132 words are about Arfin and only 47 dealing with the shit comment. Mention of Arfin comes 94 words in, starting with the 3rd paragraph. The remainder of the piece is a gripe about the casting on the show, namely that the pilot had only two non-white actors, one of whom plays a black homeless guy and the other an Asian editorial assistant. That is a fair gripe. I have nothing wrong with that.]

Back in 2010 Arfin wrote a blog post titled, 'When The Shit Hits The Fan' wherein she recounts a road trip in which disaster strikes her. She ends up starting her period, having a small bladder and needing to pee and, yes, the need to take a crap. [I encourage you to read the entire blog post so you can take in the totality of the quote in question and see how little of the article deals with this topic that was made the title of the article.] 

What ColorLines pointed to as proof of Arfin's racist personality are the words, "taking Obama to the White House". What ColorLines doesn’t mention is the whole sentence [or the context of the entire article, though they were good enough to link to it]. 

That Which Shall Not Be Named: You know, “dropping off the kids” or “taking Obama to the White House.” 

Now, being a pretty reasonable person, I can see that Arfin is talking about taking a shit, crapping, using the potty. One thing that's missing from the blog post is ANY reference to race. There are NONE in the article. I can also see that Arfin might not be a big Obama fan [by using this euphemism].

Just because you see race everywhere you look doesn’t mean everyone does [Here is what I see happening: When you get a new car and drive it down the road, what cars do you notice? You see cars like the one you are driving all over the place. When you get a new smartphone, what do you see? That same smartphone that everyone else owns, everywhere.. When you are caught up in the hysteria of race issues, what are you going to see? You will see race issues whether or not they are more prevalent or even there. And that is this case. It just is not there. Not in the quoted blog post.]

Being thin skinned and assuming that because the President happens to be black and turds are anywhere from tan to deep brown then this must be a racial statement and not a political one [shows that ColorLines is overly focused on the issue of race in general and less with the facts and context as a whole].

[Using] By ColorLine's 'logic' the ‘kids’, in “dropping off the kids”, must be black as well. That’s a stretch at best. Being a parent should I be offended by the 'kids' remark? Hell, I used that when I was a late teen[, except I added ‘at the pool’. That remark is no more offensive than saying you need to take a crap. Its a EUPHAMISM].

[Would people be upset over the remark if it were Clinton or Bush or Carter being ‘taken to the White House’? What about taking Quayle or Biden to the ‘Naval Observatory? No, because they are not black. It is THAT simple. Because the butt (intentional) of the euphemism is black does not make it a racial remark, period. The totality of the remarks do.]

Again, are the kids black too? Has social services been called?

[The ColoLines article's title is high art link bait. If it was so worth of the title, why is so little mentioned about it? Stoking the fire... plain and simple.]

Many thanks to Erin Kotecki Vest for posting this on her Facebook wall...  

[Here are some ephamisms for going to the bathroom... 

• 'Taking a trip to the Oval Office' - posted here 5 years ago.
  Who was President 5 years ago? Not Obama... But this is still racist according to ColorLines....  
• 'Going to give birth to a govenor' - Same as above
  The governor MUST be black as well...  
• 'Bombing the Oval Office' - Same as above
  Someone call the Secret Service, this is a threat on the President. 
• 'Take a "Schroeder" (or insert another familiar name)'  - From here (1989).
  This is OBVIOUSLY Anti German...  
• 'Dropping some rebels off at the Sarlacc pit' - From hereObviously Anti Star Wars and Anti Non Conformist too 
• 'Punching a grumpy' - from here
  This one is advocates violence ]