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The fog crept in on giant monster claws, Surely no itty-bitty feline foots, I pray: “Feets don’t fail me now,” A line that will live in infamy, Way back in a vaudeville when, A minstrel Chitlin Circuit then, Was an actor known as the "Laziest man in the world," A character designed to stick to a Collective white consciousness, Stick like Tar-Baby, that negative Image of African-American men-- I speak of The Brothers-- Who for over a century, have been Struggling to live down a pernicious, Most persistently demeaning, Hollywood trope. Tribute is due to the black actor born: Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry. Oh, Mr. Perry, & yes, you were the First black actor to receive Screen credit in a film. Well, I guess that puts you right up there, With Jackie Robinson & Sidney Poitier, Carver or Tubman, or any of those Countless northern abolitionists-- With no personal stake in slavery, Or emancipation, but fervent nonetheless-- Color-barrier breakers & Household saints a-coming & A-marching in, in that number . . . You paid a big price, Mr. Perry: The indignity & débauche, By abject surrender to the Boss Man, Tribute, recognition is due for Feats of humility & self-abasement, Entailing total superhuman surrender, Capitulation to the dismal, prevailing State of American race relations at the time. Stepin Fetchit: a name & a persona, Not just painfully racist, but Downright subversive.
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Jul 4, 2015
Jul 4, 2015 at 1:45 AM UTC
"Stepin Fetchit: Disambiguation"
The fog crept in on giant monster claws, Surely no itty-bitty feline foots, I pray: “Feets don’t fail me now,” A line that will live in infamy, Way back in a vaudeville when, A minstrel Chitlin Circuit then, Was an actor known as the "Laziest man in the world," A character designed to stick to a Collective white consciousness, Stick like Tar-Baby, that negative Image of African-American men-- I speak of The Brothers-- Who for over a century, have been Struggling to live down a pernicious, Most persistently demeaning, Hollywood trope. Tribute is due to the black actor born: Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry. Oh, Mr. Perry, & yes, you were the First black actor to receive Screen credit in a film. Well, I guess that puts you right up there, With Jackie Robinson & Sidney Poitier, Carver or Tubman, or any of those Countless northern abolitionists-- With no personal stake in slavery, Or emancipation, but fervent nonetheless-- Color-barrier breakers & Household saints a-coming & A-marching in, in that number . . . You paid a big price, Mr. Perry: The indignity & débauche, By abject surrender to the Boss Man, Tribute, recognition is due for Feats of humility & self-abasement, Entailing total superhuman surrender, Capitulation to the dismal, prevailing State of American race relations at the time. Stepin Fetchit: a name & a persona, Not just painfully racist, but Downright subversive.
giuseppi-martino-buonaiuto
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Jul 4, 2015
Jul 4, 2015 at 1:45 AM UTC
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