Not the Bell of the Ball
Not killing GIs: Wow, unbelievable. A cover-length article
about a so-called "comedian" without a single example of what W. Kamau
Bell says or thinks that suggests he deserves that designation ["Race to Fame," Reyhan Harmanci, Feature, 5/13]. Instead, we get a portrait
of a paranoid, untalented, thin-skinned man who actually thought
studying East Asian studies at Penn would be the path to becoming
another Bruce Lee — his hero at what, age 20? I had no idea the
intellectual bar for admission to Penn had sunk so low.
Then, just after preaching to the reporter about his contempt for people who prejudge others based on superficial physical and behavioral stereotypes, he works on material that mines the most tired, unimaginative, offensive clichés about women and gays. It's no wonder he didn't kill the audience of GIs in Okinawa.
Bell is not funny, nor clever. But I'll give him this much. He did show some self-awareness when referring to his "allegedly intelligent socioeconomic fare," the key word being "alleged."
Eric Peterson
San Francisco
In a bind over color-blind: Interesting how the negative comments [about this story] remark about how they have never seen W. Kamau Bell's act. How quick we judge.
I'm curious as to why white people are so quick to dismiss the existence of racism, as if the experiences of people of color are not to be believed. We live it. We see it. We experience it every day. My question is this: How do they know what does and does not happen in the life of a person of color? How do they know whether racism exists or not? The truth is they don't. So they should just stop talking and listen for once.
If you're not a part of the solution, then you are a part of the problem, and ignoring race is not the solution.
Riz
Web Comment
Nope-alito
Takes one to know one: I've tried Nopalito, and I thought the
food was blandly perfect, overrated, and overpriced ["Best Pig in Town," Eat, 5/13]. The place has a precious attitude all too typical of
the "organic" set. Upscale, Whole Foods. No fun. Unfortunately, critics
almost invariably turn into lapdogs when they walk into such places.
(I'm happy Meredith Brody had a couple of negative notes in her
review.)
On my two visits there, half the clientele presented the air of superior, critical gays, and I should know, being one.
Michael Biehl
San Francisco
Blog Comment of the Week
In response to news that SEIU voted down an accord with the
mayor's office that could have saved the city $38 million: Please
keep in mind that half of our sorry excuse for a union voted yes. I am
one of them and I can tell you our entire chapter, the Recreation and
Parks Department, voted almost unanimously "yes" to give back. We are
hostages of idiots in SEIU and we will be decertifying shortly, not
that there will be any of us still working at that point. It is going
to be a bloodbath of layoffs like no other we've ever seen.
Artdoggie
Correction
In last week's Matt Smith column ("Unsafe Words," 5/13), Smith
incorrectly attributed a quote to writer Violet Blue. The words should
have been attributed to a performer Blue quoted in her column. SF
Weekly regrets the error.
