How 12 Years a Slave Became a Punny Racist Trope
LatestDespite 12 Years a Slave‘s very serious subject matter—steeped in the most inglorious era of our country’s history—and all the important conversations about race that have taken place leading up to the film’s big win at this year’s Academy Awards, white people still feel super comfortable making stupid jokes and puns about the movie that are glaringly racist.
It’s not like we expect cultural sensitivity from The Opie & Anthony Show host Anthony Cumia. He’s a shock jock, so the most that we can expect is that he has both a particular skill set and a face for radio. That being said, his “joke” was so egregiously racist in that Gabourey Sidibe was not in 12 Years a Slave, so the premise here (beyond mocking the way she looks) is: haha black people.
You sort of have to be familiar with the show The Bachelor in order to “get” actor Jason Biggs’ tweet. Cassandra Ferguson, a contestant on the show’s current season, was an NBA dancer and she has a child with Rodney Stuckey who plays for the Detroit Pistons. So it would seem that Biggs was making a joke about how she’s so into black dudes—any black dudes—that she is brought to the point of arousal just looking at them, even if they are being beaten or tortured or whatever. But we’re tempted to give Biggs a pass on this one as we seriously doubt that he has any knowledge of female arousal or what it takes to make a woman wet.