Well, I would prefer to hear how YOU explain it, tapu.

MODERATION

Tapu,

We're placing you on time-out for a month with the hope that this will give you some time to think about how you can contribute to the community in a positive way. The mod/admin team deems your post to be racist, incredibly insensitive, and not appropriate "humor."

Jennifer

I still cant believe she's gone. My friends and I all stunned.

i never got what was funny.

Whatever. Racist. i am glad that action was taken.

It wasn't funny. Unless you're a racist.

Calling someone racist is serious business. It was way too soon to be saying such a thing and I get what she was saying even if it was in bad taste and it wasn't funny but I don't think she is racist by a long shot. She's been dealt with now maybe let it rest in peace.

Baiting people like this is not funny.

Ebon, I agree with you that calling someone a racist is serious business. In the few exchanges I have had with Tapu via rep comments and/or posts, I did not think she was in anyway being offensive toward me in a racist way. I do think all of us can hold racist, homophobic, misogynist ideas, thoughts and actions. Sometimes we are unaware of our stuff because it is subtle or we had never been called on it, yet.

I think Tapu's post was in poor taste and I think Tapu is intelligent enough that at some point she may get it. I also think I did "get it" about the Syrian people being murdered today. Their life is not worthless and yes many of us are very aware of such things.

Sad as it may seem, the Syrian people, their history and astrocities are not imbedded in our conciousness yet, like our pop culture celebrities, and yes they can be our heros too.

I didn't misunderstand what Tapu said. I got her humor all too well, and I don't say anything lightly. She thought she was "turning the tables" so to speak.

People are free to disagree with me or anyone else as to what is racist or not, but I certainly don't throw the term racist around lightly.

Bully, Ive always respected you and what you post. I UNDERSTAND what you are saying. I get it. But the problem lies in how people "hear" things. What one person might have heard as a joke, offensive or not, another may not have "heard" that same joke. "Jokes" take many forms, but sometimes it is not a joke to someone else. It is just plain hurtful. We cannot always sidestep responsibility by saying, "fuck you it was a joke. Deal with it". People get hurt and get offended whether it was meant to hurt or not. This is just my take on it.

gives me goosebumps
 

I remember watching Houston sing the Star Spangled Banner sitting on my sofa by myself and tears pouring down my face. Part of this was just the sheer depth of her voice and its power- and the timing after 9/11 and (a friend worked in Tower 1 and lost friends & co-workers- family of mine live in NYC). I was also struck by her wearing the red, white & blue running suit, not because it was those colors, but it really seemed to represent more everyday people in some way. Also, I thought about how her forceful rendition transcended a lot of how so many African Americans can certainly not always feel that our national anthem represents their true experience in this country (or Native Americans- all POC). But she seemed to draw us so close that day as a people hurting as one. Not to mention that it is perhaps the most difficult song for even the very best vocalists to sing and she not only nailed it vocally, but finally (for me, anyway) made it feel like it belonged to us all on a level that felt so much more open. Chilling in more ways than I ever knew. Brought feelings about national pride that actually felt
OK to me for once.

Something else I have been thinking about is her singing "I Will Always Love You"- her signature and written by (and sung by) Dolly Parton. Parton has said that even though she wrote it, it belongs to Whitney Houston.

She sure did. She did not have much time to put that together and I thought she nailed it.

Considering how much domestic abuse Whitney was subjected to, over and over again. I thought Chris Brown need not have been there. That was disrespectful to Whitney, I thought. Again, my opinion. I didn't give it much thought until he showed up a second time. One less appearance may not have made me think this. If Jennifer Hudson could bring something so wonderful to the show, certainly someone else could have filled a Chris Brown slot. His singing wasn't all that.