jimi izrael

Single Father, Author, Screenwriter, Award-Winning Journalist, NPR Moderator, Lecturer and College Professor. Habitual Line-Stepper

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    2009

    Tracy Morgan: Man on Fire

    October 23, 2009 at 1:58 PM

    The hipsters are musing over Tracy Morgan's recent appearances on Terry Gross and at a reading for his book, wondering why he is so "unstable." I think it's sad that people expect him to be pulling his shirt off and talking about malt liquor all the time. Even Richard Pryor was occasionally somber and introspective.  There's some sense that if he's sober and doesn't want to be funny on cue, Morgan may be irrelevant.

    I sometimes think that white people wonder whimsically about the idea that we are all not here for their collective amusement. That somehow, even black people who broker in their collective amusement have a whole other range of feelings. I see shades of Chapelle and Rob and Big in how white folks deal with Morgan on 30 Rock: Hipsters get to feel as if they can own and get down with a black "friend" they would normally cross the street to avoid. Television is a cage of sorts that provides a comfortable space to laugh at the Otherness of it all.

    Yeah.

    Dude had a compelling story to tell. And some are disappointed to find out that Tracy Morgan is a whole person after all.

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