March 3, 2008
On February 15, 2008 blackface performer Charles Knipp superimposed the head of Black journalist Jasmyne Cannick onto the body of a nude porn star and posted it on the homepage of his website ShirleyQLiquor.com.
See screenshot:
http://jasmynecannick.typepad.com/shirleyqliquor_defamation.jpg
Since the photo appeared on the Internet, it has been forwarded and emailed repeatedly.
Meanwhile, Charles Knipp has been booked to perform his racist character Shirley Q. Liquor in Miami Beach, Florida, Memphis Tennessee, San Jose, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana. With the exception of the Miami Beach performance, these are all gay nightclubs and or pride celebrations.
As reported in Rolling Stone Magazine, Shirley Q. Liquor is a favorite among Knipp’s core audience described as being “gay men, their moms, and rednecks.”
Read Rolling Stone Magazine Article:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/14474389/shirley_q_liquor_after_imus_a_black_face_comic_who_sings_12_days_of_kwanzaa/print
Black women do not name their kids after venereal diseases. For many Black Americans poverty is reality and not entertainment. From living in the projects to spending an entire day in the County office just to find out why a check didn’t come, that is a chapter in the story of some Black woman’s life.
Since Black women were brought to America as slaves, they have been forced to endure every form of racism and sexism there. Generations of strong Black women, including those that gay America likes to quote in an effort to show how diverse they are, paved the way for sistas today so that they could have the same access that came so easy to those with white colored skin. Some of those women died without ever seeing the fruits of their labor. Black women and men who were forced to go to work at the age of 12 to help support their families, never had the opportunity to finish grade school and learn how to speak and write English properly, today they depend on their grandchildren to fill out forms for them and read them their mail. There is nothing funny about that.
For years, it was the Massuh Black women had to contend with and his penchant for darker skin. Then it was the racist police officer, landlord, or boss. Fast forward forty years and we’re nappy headed hoes and being found in shacks, raped, beaten and urinated on. Our behinds are being analyzed during tennis matches on live television for the world to see. Misogynistic lyrics recited by Black men and financed by white, continue to portray Black women as sexual objects to the point where some of us are so confused that we’ve gladly taken on the roll. And as if all of that wasn’t enough, now we have to contend with a white gay man making a mockery of us and our ancestors.
So today, we calling out and challenging the gay community to clean up their own backyard starting with Charles Knipp.
TAKE ACTION:
The reason for gay America’s refusal to focus on any other civil rights issue but gay marriage is because race and poverty aren’t of any real relevance to their movement because they’re too busy laughing at it, as they make up the core of Knipp’s audience.
BanShirleyQLiquor.com urges you to write to GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, and the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce and voice your concerns. Tell them it is unacceptable to be silent on the issue of Charles Knipp and his racist blackface performance as Shirley Q. Liquor. Tell them that it’s also hypocritical of the gay community to be so silent on this issue considering how vocal they were against actor Isaiah Washington. Demand that the these organizations publicly condemn Charles Knipp’s performance and his defamation of character of Black journalist Jasmyne Cannick, and publicly disavow relationships with venues, clubs, and pride organizations that continue to book him to perform Shirley Q. Liquor. Let them know that their silence is seen as form of condoning Knipp’s behavior.
Keep reading for phone and fax numbers, as well as email addresses.
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