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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5016
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 09:31 am: | 
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Shirley Q: comedy in error?
Monday, Mar 26, 2007
Posted on Sun, Mar. 25, 2007
Charles Knipp, a gay white man living in
Lexington, tours as black "welfare mama"
Shirley Q. Liquor. (Ross Gordon)
By Amy Wilson
Chuck Knipp is tired of trying to prove he is not a racist.
It is an impossible task because no explanation he gives to his critics makes a dent in their suppositions. They are not in the mood to be placated. They cannot read his heart, though they are sure they have already done so.
His supporters are equally sure of Knipp's abiding humanity. They cannot recall a single instance in which he has done or said anything racist, even in private. They find him funny. Some call him a comic genius. They cannot read his heart, though they are sure they have already done so.
Chuck Knipp is many things. He is a 45-year-old gay white man who recently moved to Lexington after his apartment in Long Beach, Miss., was obliterated by Hurricane Katrina.
He is a registered nurse who works with psychiatric patients. He regularly volunteers in hospices.
He is an ordained Quaker minister and belongs to a Lexington Episcopal church.
He is a natural-born mimic and has fashioned many characters, including a pill-popping, church-addicted Texan named Betty Butterfield, whom he plays with large sunglasses, off-the-mark lipstick and a liberal slathering of white foundation.
He is also the man behind Shirley Q. Liquor, a black welfare mother with 19 children, whom he plays in a pink wig, vibrant eye shadow and a liberal slathering of dark-skin foundation.
It is the latter creation that's the source of much of his income and all of his trouble. It also has become an unexpected litmus test for American culture.
Shirley Q. Liquor draws fire because Knipp plays her as a bundle of all the worst stereotypes attributed to poor black welfare mothers. Shirley Q. -- Chuck Knipp in over-the-counter cosmetics intended for black women -- speaks with a free-flowing Ebonics syntax, prefacing all conversations with a pleasant "How you durrring?" She smokes and drinks and finds nothing wrong with some righteous shoplifting, though she doesn't usually miss church. The names of her children are inventive derivatives of venereal diseases and consumer goods. She sings, in free verse, about wanting to know "Who is my babydaddy?" She has her own version of The 12 Days of Christmas,The 12 Days of Kwanzaa.
She is also the one who had sold out mostly white, gay clubs regularly until protesters forced the cancellation of recent shows in Los Angeles; Hartford, Conn.; and New Orleans. She is the one selling a lot of spoken-word CDs, singing ringtones and T-shirts online.
She's not new. (In 1996, Shirley Q. Liquor ran for office in southeast Texas, hailing from the Cocktail Party and promising to reduce humidity by 50 percent.) But the heated nationwide debate around her in recent years has taken on new life in the wake of the protests and cancellations.
It's a cabaret show, Knipp reiterates. And while it's OK not to find Shirley Q. funny, to find her a symbol of Knipp's failure as a human being is wrong, he says.
"I don't think that black people should be exempt from parody," he says. "We should act like nothing is funny about any of them? That's a form of racism in itself."
Who decides who's a racist, and what's the definition these days, anyway?
Still Shirley Q. and the debate over her is raising lots of questions. Who, after all, decides who is racist? If you are called a racist, must you apologize even if you don't think you are one?
Is Knipp's inclusion as a member of the privileged class of white males what makes his portrayal of a black woman, per se, racist? Does it matter that he's gay?
American popular culture has evolved to the point where urban hip-hop culture reaches into the whitest American suburbs and white Eminen represents the street culture of Detroit, one of the most black American cities. Where black comedian Dave Chappelle's humor crosses almost every ethnic line. Where black songbird Patti Austin can embrace George Gershwin's almost taboo Swanee because, she says, "It's time."
Yet the question remains: Has our culture evolved to the point that a white man can don blackface and a brassiere and commit comedy without shame?
The debate over Shirley Q. Liquor -- for the most part previously confined to the black and gay media -- is about to spill over into the mainstream, with among other things a profile in Rolling Stone magazine. The issues have raised questions about whether Knipp is shining light on something that the rest of the country has politely refused to discuss for decades. It has called into question the motives, as well, of his audience. That is, if we laugh at Knipp, who are we deep down, anyway?
"Blackface is a charged and wild symbol," says journalist Gary Dauphin, who is black. "It gets out of your control quickly no matter your intentions."
Dauphin, a film critic for The Village Voice and for Essence and Vibe magazines, has written extensively on race and blackface. The problem with Knipp is that he doesn't realize that "things are bigger than his intentions," Dauphin says. "You have to have the maturity to say some things are bigger than me."
Knipp comes from a background that seems anything but racist
Chuck Knipp is a funny man in person. He is warm and welcoming. He lives in a suburban Lexington apartment complex with his three beloved cats, a collection of large flags (none Confederate) and the few things he could bring with him when he left Mississippi in 2005. Of his reasons for coming to Central Kentucky, he says, "I prayed to find someplace high and pretty, and I was led here."
Knipp grew up in Orange, Texas, near Louisiana. Although he is being accused of the worst kind of racism, nothing in his background appears to suggest that he is. In fact, quite the opposite. He says he helped organize a black-white student union in seventh grade and was elected president of his diverse nursing class at Lamar University in 1984. As a Quaker minister, he performs same-sex and traditional marriages between people "of age and who love one another," he says.
He is a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union, he says. Since being named Young Republican of the Year in 1978 at Lutcher Stark High School in Orange, Texas, he has ditched his zeal for the GOP and become a campaigner for Democratic and Libertarian candidates.
He says he has been part of the Teaching Tolerance educational initiative organized by the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala. (The SPLC did not confirm nor deny this, saying privacy concerns prevent release of information about its members and donors.)
Knipp says he fell in love with black people when he was 11 and his all-white school suddenly became integrated. His world, he says, suddenly got wider and more interesting. "It was like The Wizard of Oz when it goes from black and white to full color. I wasn't just stuck in a world with all those boring white people."
Knipp's mother worked full-time when he was young, so from early on he was nurtured by Fannie Mae Turner, whom he describes as "a smart black woman who had 16 kids and loved her snuff." She invited him to Starlit Baptist Church, where he sang the songs and waved his arms when he was supposed to.
Shirley Q.'s trademark line, "How you durrring?" is a direct lift from Turner, he says.
Knipp started doing the Shirley Q. voice in the early '90s, when his mother asked him to do something funny as a greeting on her answering machine. Soon after, she reported back to her son that she was having to get an additional phone number because that line was always busy and she couldn't sleep for all the calls it was receiving.
Students at the colleges in the area had apparently spread word of Knipp's impersonation. Soon, the local newspaper, The Orange Leader, did a feature story on Knipp. Local radio stations climbed aboard. Then the American Comedy Network, a syndicator of radio programming, asked Knipp to record 60- and 90-second bits that the company would buy and distribute nationwide.
It was not until February 1997, when a theater group in Orange decided to add the Shirley Q. character to a play under production, that Knipp had to figure out how to physically portray her. He went to the drugstore and bought "black-lady foundation," he says. He went to the Palais Royal and spent $100 on some big muumuus, creating Shirley Q. as a large clownish presence because, he says, "first, I can't pull off a skinny anything," and second, he liked the pink wig, thinking he was performing what some would call "theater of the absurd."
He worked gay bars in Houston; Austin, Texas; and Baton Rouge. He had a regular morning gig on a St. Louis radio station. He was booked for private events including the 50th birthday party of actress Sela Ward's husband and the CSI: Miami cast party.
He performed in Louisville at The Connection in November and is booked for a show there on Derby Day, May 5, at Club Fuzion. He has not performed in Lexington, though. His bookings have included large venues in New York and Los Angeles and smaller places in such cities as Morgantown, W.Va., and Columbus, Ohio.
Knipp's work as a performance artist has never interfered with his day job, which until recently was as a traveling nurse, touring the United States and Canada by taking temporary positions in various cities.
In 2002, Knipp performed to a sell-out audience in New York. The next night, a protest closed the bar. On one placard, the word "minstrel show" caught his attention.
And he wondered for the first time, he says, "Is that what I am?"
Shows are packed, but at least one critic would argue they're packed with racists
There are plenty of critics of Chuck Knipp, chief among them a Los Angeles woman named Jasmyne Cannick.
Cannick, who is African-American and lesbian, says the black community has been offended by Knipp's act for a long time. In late 2006, she had had enough of hearing about Shirley Q.'s increasing popularity and decided "there is so much out there that's wrong that I can't do anything about, but this is something I can."
In January, she launched a national campaign to ban Shirley Q. Liquor from public clubs. It was then, after much prompting, that the Los Angeles chapter of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation condemned "performance artist Charles Knipp's 'Shirley Q. Liquor' character for promoting and perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes."
That statement, in addition to what Cannick called "thousands" of calls and e-mails from people planning to protest the show, eventually forced the hand of a West Hollywood, Calif., club owner who canceled Knipp's already-booked performance.
Last month, Cannick alerted activists in Hartford, Conn., who persuaded city officials to pass a resolution objecting to Knipp's scheduled engagement at the city's Club Chez EST. Club Chez EST's owner, Gary Bechard, dropped the show, but not before noting it was not a solid business decision. His manager had told The Hartford Courant that Shirley Q was the club's most requested performer.
Later in the month, Shirley Q.'s Mardi Gras date at New Orleans' Bourbon Pub was canceled because of threats of protest.
On various Web sites including Cannick's own, the war of words over Shirley Q. surges. Many are hurt and upset about the negative stereotypes Knipp seems to be reveling in. They note that black women are the least socially privileged and easiest targets. There are those who think Knipp's performance is, per se, racist because it comes from the mouth of a person of majority privilege.
On the other side, there are those who think Knipp is speaking a profound social truth that the rest of us are too polite to acknowledge. And some say Knipp does no more than Tyler Perry in his stage and screen persona Madea, a large aging black woman; Eddie Murphy, most recently appearing as the obese female character Rasputia in the movie Norbit; or Martin Lawrence, who has starred as a large black woman in two Big Momma's House movies.
One of Knipp's biggest advocates is RuPaul Charles, a black man who performs famously in drag using only his first name. "If I had sensed any malicious intent in his comedy routine, I would not be able to laugh at it," Charles said in a 2002 post on his Web site, www.rupaul.com, and reiterated for this story.
Charles calls the boycott "a group of unsophisticated barbarians with misguided rage." He says Knipp "can be misunderstood if taken out of context. ... People who are not adept at using their intuition would not be able to sense the love and respect that Mr. Knipp has for black culture."
Many in the black community, even when not backing Knipp, do not support Cannick's protest.
"I'm not interested in banning and boycotts," says Dauphin, the journalist, adding that he doesn't think Knipp is a racist, but "I do think he's being kind of a jerk."
And still the shows, when unpoliced, are packed. To that end, Knipp is looking forward to keeping, even expanding, his fan base by going outside the gay-club circuit.
He already has his Best of Shirley, Vol. 2 CD out. The number of orders for his T-shirts, baby bibs and personalized phone messages is way up since the cancellations.
"Racism is a big boil on the butt of America," says Knipp. "We take pills for it, but nobody has put a needle to it. Maybe Shirley does that."
Jasmyne Cannick responds: "We won't stop doing what we're doing until he does. He's racist, and the people who defend him are racists."
Then, she adds as kind of postscript, "I don't expect anyone not black to understand it."
http://www.kentucky.com/109/story/25807.html |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3968
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 11:02 am: |
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Sounds like it's racist to me. It lacks a point. Richard Pryor or Whoopi Goldberg's portrayals could be seen as racist--but they showed different dimensions to these characters, which we cannot deny really exist. They humanized them, showing their limitations (Pryor did winoes and junkies, and Whoopi had a black junkie named Fontaine or something)
This guy is just poking fun--notice he didn't do anything about flamboyant fat gay males--if he had one of those in his act I might be looking different.
This is not new. White men have been putting on black face to make fun of us for years--another thing, if he just did the voice, and didn't slather up in the costume, I might feel differently about it.
I hope he gets arrested for something and gets thrown in the tank with a bunch of rabid sodomizers and he can see what THEY think of his routine.
If they think it is funny then I will buy it. |
Fortified
Regular Poster
Username: Fortified
Post Number: 466
Registered: 04-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 11:13 am: |
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LMAO!!!! @ Chrishayden |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4206
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 11:40 am: |
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Somebody needs to kick Shirley's ass!
Rabid sodomizers? You wouldn't happen to be referring to GAY people, would you? Are you no longer their advocate???
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9036
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 11:48 am: |
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There's always some fool out there - White, Black or Brown - who's willing to do anything for cash. So I'm not surprised by what Knipp's doing. I am, however, INTRIGUED by who pays to attend his outlandish performances. I mean, are they ADVERTISED in local newpapers and sh*t? |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3971
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 4 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 11:49 am: |
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Rabid sodomizers? You wouldn't happen to be referring to GAY people, would you? Are you no longer their advocate???
(You can sodomize someone without being gay. In fact, a man can sodomize a woman. You can sodomize someone without having the least bit of sexual attraction toward them, or without even using a part of your body--
I hope you got your tubes tied. With the ignorace you have displayed here you would stay knocked up all the time--
("You cain't git pregnant, Mzuri. Only way you can do that is if we knock boots durin' the full moon!;
"Really, Jethro? Let's git to it, then!") |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4208
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 11:54 am: |
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Don't you worry your fuzzy little brain, ChrisHayden. My child-bearing years are ovah. What about your flamboyant fat gay males comment? Do I detect a turnaround??? Are you no longer the defender of the fags???
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8034
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 12:09 pm: |
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Chrishayden is so busy trying to perfect his Mother Teresa impersonation tha he doesn't have time to defend the gays. But he does pay homage to them by dressing up like this nun who encouraged poor women to be fruitful and multiply so she could get more business and more praise. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3976
Registered: 03-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 12:21 pm: |
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What about your flamboyant fat gay males comment? Do I detect a turnaround??? Are you no longer the defender of the fags???
(Say, you aren't Terri McMillain, are you?)
Chrishayden is so busy trying to perfect his Mother Teresa impersonation tha he doesn't have time to defend the gays. But he does pay homage to them by dressing up like this nun who encouraged poor women to be fruitful and multiply so she could get more business and more praise.
(More ignorance. This ignores the gay person who dresses and acts straight, as well as the hyper masculine, super macho type gay male as would be represented by those Spartans in "300".
Cynique, I know this discussion of being sodomized by nuns brings forth painful (rectal) memories for you, but bear with us for a few-- |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8037
Registered: 01-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 12:33 pm: |
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This discussion isn't about being sodomized by nuns, crissy. Keep your fantasies to yourself. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4212
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 01:42 pm: |
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Cynique - I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but you and I are ignant. LOLOL! |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8040
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 03:05 pm: |
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If it comes to the point where it's us against the board, Mzuri, as long as I got you "riding shotgun" and as long as you got me watching your back us 2 "ignat byatches" ain't got nothing to worry about. ROTFLOL |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4220
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 07:27 pm: |
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Veritas  |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8056
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 09:24 pm: |
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Veritae pulchrae est! snicker. |
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