Mary Cheney Makes A Good Point On Rupaul & Drag vs. Blackface

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As the gay daughter of Dick Cheney, Mary Cheney has undergone enough scrutiny from the media. Now she’s dealing with more, all because she had the balls to say what most people wouldn’t.

This all started when she saw an ad for RuPaul’s show Drag Race. We pretty much all know that even though RuPaul is technically a man (I think) he is a cross dresser. While men dressing as women have become more socially acceptable now than in the past, other equally bizarre behaviors aren’t so acceptable and Cheney expressed her feelings about it. Her whole point was that it is okay for men to dress as women but white people can’t pose as black people. Of course this got people’s panties in a bunch and now we’re dealing with all the resulting hoopla.

God forbid a white person pose as a black person, lord knows we just can’t handle that. How that is all that different from a man dressing as a woman, I don’t know and probably never will.

The fact is that, yes, there are a lot of stereotypes out there about black people that seem to annoy them. But here’s the thing; most of them are true, whether black people like it or not. And yes, I call them black people as opposed to African Americans. Look, I’m white, but I don’t insist on being referred to as a Caucasian American so let’s drop the African American crap and call them black.

Anyway, back to the stereotypes and white people posing as black people. What’s your problem? No sense of humor? Well boo hoo for you, but plenty of other people do have a sense of humor and they can see the entertainment value in a white person posing as a black one. As for the stereotypes, my take is if you don’t want your race associated with them don’t perpetrate them to begin with.

And while we’re at it, other races mention black stereotypes and no one seems to care. I will never forget a stand -up routine by Gabriel Iglesias (who is Latino if you’re not familiar with him) where he told a true story of how he and one of his comedian friends pulled a practical joke on their other comedian friend, who just happens to be black, They went to the grocery store and put together a gift basket of foods and items that stereotypically black people love, including pork rinds, collard greens, watermelon, fried chicken and Newport cigarettes. They personally delivered the basket to their friend at his hotel room and he thought it was hilarious.

So someone please explain to me what the issue is.

So what if a black person goes to a costume shop and purchases a George H.W. Bush Halloween mask and proceeds to act like a white person? Somehow I don’t think anyone would say a word. But reverse it and people are up in arms. Why?

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am sick of the double standards. Sorry, but it seems like black people can do whatever they want, no matter how offensive it is to white people, and if we protest what they do, no one cares. But a white cop shoots a black criminal and the world goes crazy. Stop.

If we ever want blacks and whites to truly be equal in this society we need to stop with the double standards. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander…or it should be anyway. Either we allow for the portrayal of white stereotypes and black stereotypes or we don’t allow for the portrayal of either. The world will never be a level playing field as long as the double standards continue.

It seems to me that, in this country, where we have freedoms citizens of other countries don’t, we need to give blacks and whites the freedom to express themselves just as cross dressers do. And when it comes to that issue, there is physical evidence that both blacks and whites cross dress, so why can’t whites embrace typically black stereotypes?

There has always been a stigma surrounding white people impersonating black people in any way. It seems to me that whites are more tolerant of these actions than blacks are.

We need to get to a point in society where what’s acceptable for one race is acceptable for the other race too. The fact is that Mary Cheney’s point about white people disguising themselves as black people speaks to much bigger issues that society has been struggling with. She really opened a can of worms with her statement, and I for one, am glad she did. It is about time we stand up and take action against the unfairness of having certain practices accepted by one race and not another. The color of our skin should have nothing to do with how we choose to express ourselves as human beings and the reactions of others when we do so.

I think a large part of the problem here is that because Mary Cheney is a lesbian there are some out there who will have a problem with anything she says, simply because they want to cause problems for her. Look at the hoopla that the media created when she came out as a lesbian. Ever since then she has been under scrutiny no matter what she does.

Which brings me to my next point; the statement she made that started this all was one that she posted on her Facebook page that only her Facebook friends were supposed to see. However, some dishonest person somewhere accessed posts they had no right to access and made them public without the knowledge or consent of Mary Cheney herself. Being in the public eye because of who her father is does not give anyone the right to put her private words out there, leaving her vulnerable to criticism from those who dislike her.

Editor’s Note: While I am not in agreement with this article, we value the opinions of all our writers, but we value free speech even more so we will never edit their words to our liking as that does nothing to further discussion on subjects such as these. We would rather let people hear a voice from both sides of a topic and make their own informed decisions. You can read the opposing view here.

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