KFI Tim Conway "What the Hell did Jessie Jackson Say" Racist?

[TeaPartyDude]

I had lunch with an African-American friend today and he mentioned that he thought Conway's bit on Jessie Jackson was racist. He noted that Conway seems to delight at mimicking Black dialect. It is always degrading towards Blacks, but he surmised as long he gets a laugh or ratings bump it is OK with KFI. My friend noted that KFI might be screening out the Black callers to his bit as they have an unfair advantage (familiarity with Black dialect) deciphering Jessie Jacksons script!

How do the other listeners feel?

 

[K.M. Richards]

This was actually discussed by Tim Jr. at a Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters luncheon. The "racist" charge has been leveled against him before and on those occasions when he asked the audience about it the consensus was that they want it to continue.

Nice troll try, but no.

 

[Thomps2525]

I think the "Jesse Jackson" game has gone on for far too many years and grown increasingly tiresome but it seems to be popular with the majority of Conway's listeners. Conway is making fun of Jackson for the unintelligible speech, not for the man's race or color. The late sportscaster Jim Healy used to poke fun at certain athletes' mumblings---again, for the unintelligible speech and not because of race or color. What I do think is racist is the description of some people as "African-American." That term not only identifies by them by their color, it implies that they are not true Americans; rather, they are a sub-category. Why can't we all be simply "Americans"?

 

[ChannelFlipper]

I think the "Jesse Jackson" game has gone on for far too many years and grown increasingly tiresome but it seems to be popular with the majority of Conway's listeners. Conway is making fun of Jackson for the unintelligible speech, not for the man's race or color. The late sportscaster Jim Healy used to poke fun at certain athletes' mumblings---again, for the unintelligible speech and not because of race or color. What I do think is racist is the description of some people as "African-American." That term not only identifies by them by their color, it implies that they are not true Americans; rather, they are a sub-category. Why can't we all be simply "Americans"?

The irony here of course is that it was Jackson himself who coined the term.

 

[DrAkbar]

It's time to stick a fork in the bit...or update it to "What the hell did Al Sharpton say"? There's a lot more timely material to mine.

 

[JeffM]

Hey, he didn't inherit any of his dad's talent, maybe it's the best he can do. (Can you say "one-trick pony"?)

 

[TeaPartyDude]

This was actually discussed by Tim Jr. at a Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters luncheon. The "racist" charge has been leveled against him before and on those occasions when he asked the audience about it the consensus was that they want it to continue.

Nice troll try, but no.

Why is it when one raises an uncomfortable question they are immediately called a troll? I didn't know there was a list of topics and issues that are not to be discussed here. Perhaps you can share that list with us? We're there any Blacks in the audience at this dinner where this consensus was formed? No, you can't include the wait staff in your consensus!

 

[TeaPartyDude]

Hey, he didn't inherit any of his dad's talent, maybe it's the best he can do. (Can you say "one-trick pony"?)

Do you notice he keeps on telling the same old stories over and over again? How many times have we heard the origin of Ding Dong?

 

[TeaPartyDude]

I think the "Jesse Jackson" game has gone on for far too many years and grown increasingly tiresome but it seems to be popular with the majority of Conway's listeners. Conway is making fun of Jackson for the unintelligible speech, not for the man's race or color. The late sportscaster Jim Healy used to poke fun at certain athletes' mumblings---again, for the unintelligible speech and not because of race or color. What I do think is racist is the description of some people as "African-American." That term not only identifies by them by their color, it implies that they are not true Americans; rather, they are a sub-category. Why can't we all be simply "Americans"?

So are you offended by Italian, Jewish, Irish- American monikers?

 

[Robnoxious]

Finding offense is this century's new defense if you ask me.
Go watch more movies from the 70's when society wasn't so tightly wound up on language and could still function.
That would mean several recent generations would have to acknowledge that cinema predated Star Wars and Back To The Future.
A huge hurdle.

 

[DrAkbar]

So glad Nurse Jeff and I bought a copy of Blazing Saddles years ago. The sanitized version running on cable is an affront to Mel Brooks and the actors who made that movie a classic. As far as TCjr goes, we listen to him every night at the Buckeye Media Hut....it's either him or Glenn Beck or Dave Ramsey. The guy definitely has a schnitzengruben!

 

[K.M. Richards]

So glad Nurse Jeff and I bought a copy of Blazing Saddles years ago. The sanitized version running on cable is an affront to Mel Brooks and the actors who made that movie a classic.

Best movie Brooks ever made, and -- in keeping with the topic -- a movie that could never be made today (and almost wasn't back when it was).

I think the full story actually keeps to the topic at this point: Blazing Saddles was to be the first of several movies Brooks contracted for at Warner Bros., but as executives started seeing the daily "rushes" they grew increasingly nervous, because (as "suits" are prone to do) they started imagining all the protests that would come if they released it. Trouble for them was that Brooks himself had the authority under the contract to insist upon its release, which WB did ... but backing out of the multi-picture deal in the process.

Of course, what the WB executives didn't "get" was that the movie was precisely the opposite of what they perceived. Brooks deliberately put in stereotypical racist and discriminatory situations then turned them on their side to make hilariously funny parodies of those stereotypes. ("We'll take the 'chinks' and the Jews, but we don't want the Irish!")

Brooks, of course, went over to 20th Century Fox, where he proceeded to make Young Frankenstein.

None of which makes Tim Conway Jr. a racist or anything else implied by the OP. As for his lack of talent, as long as the numbers are satisfactory to his employer, that argument is going to fall on deaf ears. And I'm pretty sure that if people stopped calling in to participate in the "What the hell did ..." segment it would disappear pretty damned quickly.

 

[Thomps2525]

To answer TeaPartyDude's question, no, I am not "offended" by all the hyphenated designations but I do think they are ridiculous and unnecessary. When I was in school---back in the last century---I never heard any of these terms. We were all Americans. Nowadays it seems that there are very few real Americans. Almost everyone is a sub-category: African-Americans (Really? You came here from Africa?), Italo-Americans, Greek-Americans, Armenian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Filipino-Americans and hundreds of other "Hyphen American" groups. What is more racist than pigeonholing every American according to race and color?

K.M., as long as the subject has been broached---and you all know I'm not the broacher I used to be---did you ever see Mel Brooks' silent movie titled Mel Brooks' Silent Movie? It included several background gags that were reminiscent of the silly gags that filled the backgrounds of stories in Mad magazine in the 1950s-60s. Only one word is spoken in the film and I think the scene with that one word is the cleverest gag that Brooks ever put on film. I won't reveal it here because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not seen the film.

 

[K.M. Richards]

To answer TeaPartyDude's question, no, I am not "offended" by all the hyphenated designations but I do think they are ridiculous and unnecessary. When I was in school---back in the last century---I never heard any of these terms. We were all Americans. Nowadays it seems that there are very few real Americans. Almost everyone is a sub-category: African-Americans (Really? You came here from Africa?), Italo-Americans, Greek-Americans, Armenian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Filipino-Americans and hundreds of other "Hyphen American" groups. What is more racist than pigeonholing every American according to race and color?

My personal position is that if any individual wants to identify his or herself with such a hyphenated term, I will honor their feelings and use the term. But I tend otherwise to use just the ethnic identifier without the clumsy additional "-Americans" tacked on. For example, I refer sometimes to the large Armenian population in Glendale, and no one I've ever said that to misunderstood me to mean that Glendale was somewhere in Armenia itself.

K.M., as long as the subject has been broached---and you all know I'm not the broacher I used to be---did you ever see Mel Brooks' silent movie titled Mel Brooks' Silent Movie? It included several background gags that were reminiscent of the silly gags that filled the backgrounds of stories in Mad magazine in the 1950s-60s. Only one word is spoken in the film and I think the scene with that one word is the cleverest gag that Brooks ever put on film. I won't reveal it here because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not seen the film.

I have a box set of eight Mel Brooks movies. Silent Movie is among them (the only two of Brooks' movies that I deem "missing" are The Producers and Spaceball) and I think the gag you refer to was inspired.

 

[Art Landing]

I'll agree that its not a racist gig because it is indeed directed at his intelligibility not the color of his skin. That said, 8:00 on Thursday is perhaps the only time i personally refuse to listen to KFI simply because I find the gambit inane and boring. But like the playing of music that I don't like on other stations it doesn't matter.It is the ratings that will govern, not my or anyone else's opinion.

As to the hyphenated American issue, I too wish it would stop - but as with KM i will extend the courtesy of using it in reference to specific individuals if and when desired. How often is it needful to refer to anyone's racial or ethnic heritage anyway?

Trivia question for KFI buffs - who and when was the first entertainer of color to be featured in a special on KFI? Clue: he was a vaudevillian most people have never heard of..

 

[TeaPartyDude]

Thats a good question, I don't have any idea who the entertainer of color on KFI was, but I will take a stab in the dark: Stepin Fetch?

KFI has a dubious history of employing people of color. In fact until a Black Lesbian took them to task over nasty comments about the late Whitney Houston, they had no Black or other minority broadcasters. Since this woman took them to task they have notably hired a number of Hispanic and Black broadcasters. Here is a video of KFI getting schooled on diversity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNq3AcZjCYo

 

[Thomps2525]

"KFI has a dubious history of employing people of color." As opposed to what? People who have no color? People who are clear and transparent like window glass? Referring to certain people as "people of color" is another example of racism. And radio stations should hire the best broadcasters regardless of color, just as the NHL hires the best hockey players regardless of color...and I never hear anyone complain that there are not enough black players in the NHL! I also never hear anyone complain that there are not enough white people on basketball teams or on BET television shows.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Steve, leave him alone. He's just baiting you by continued use of the race card.

 

[TGunn]

I had lunch with an African-American friend today and he mentioned that he thought Conway's bit on Jessie Jackson was racist. He noted that Conway seems to delight at mimicking Black dialect. It is always degrading towards Blacks, but he surmised as long he gets a laugh or ratings bump it is OK with KFI. My friend noted that KFI might be screening out the Black callers to his bit as they have an unfair advantage (familiarity with Black dialect) deciphering Jessie Jacksons script!

How do the other listeners feel?

You believe the stereotype that all blacks calling in would use "black dialect" ...and be screened out. You are not a racist, just ill informed. Jessie Jackson is famous for running for president..having an affair and a child with a paid mistress. Jackson uses the media to get attention..
Paul Barksy did a great song parody on Jackson when he had the affair.. I wish I could find it. Is Paul Barsky racist because he made fun of Jackson's extra marital affair? NO....
Reverend Jim Bakker of PTL is White...we made fun of him and Tammy back in the 80's. Many of us mimicked the Bakker's voices on radio and in comedy clubs. Are the blacks who did this racist and the whites not?

 

[Thomps2525]

Ventriloquist Willie Tyler and his dummy Lester were regulars on the final season (1972-73) of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. On one episode, a man came out and imitated Bill Cosby. Tyler asked, "Who was that?" Lester replied, "It's either a white guy doing a good impression of Bill Cosby...or Bill Cosby doing a great impression of a white guy!"

TGunn, in 2008, a San Diego man named Josh Board wrote a parody about Jesse Jackson to the tune of Rick Springfield's Jessie's Girl. If you know the tune, you can sing the lyrics which are posted at http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/daily-crasher/2008/jul/10/jessies-girl-song-parody/#