Barbara Walters Still Puzzled By Black Women

[ecstatic]

A couple of weeks ago R&B singer Brandy dropped by The View. Judging by the way Barbara Walters teased her and pawed at her hair, you’d think Barbara had never sat next to a black woman before. Well, not by choice, anyway.

I was willing to brush the hair pulling aside (no pun intended) and write it off as an isolated incident… but that was up until Tanika Ray came in today. Now I know it wasn’t a one-time thing. It’s an epidemic. And Barbara Walters must be stopped. See for yourself.


http://www.bestweekever.tv/2006/07/18/icymi-barbara-still-puzzled-by-black-women/#comments



:wtf: Barbara Walter should know by now that her behavior is WAY inappropriate. You'd think she was born yesterday or something.

[msgadget]

1. What the...

I once admired BW but now...I tell ya, the world stays the same more than it changes. How demeaning and racist was that? Brandy's got a wig and hair line, right? Was this supposed to help her promote them??

[bliss_eternal]

5. Didn't you know...?

Barbara is out of her mind. :eyes: What's worse is she's friends with Oprah, but Oprah's always got her head in celebs asses, so I doubt she would take the time to let her know she's inappropriate.

:hi: How you doing, girl? Good to see you--I've missed chatting with you!

[msgadget]

7. No, as I've said repeatedly, I remember 'when'

BW was the sh*t for women when she garnered a top spot and million dollar contract. She's a First among women on TV and I can't even begin to express how disappointed I've been at The View. The concept of a female led magazine format was stellar but the exectution has been, imo, a disaster. And, yeah, she'd been pissing me off for years ANYWAY but the Brandy thing following her venomous reaction to Jones' revelations... Brandy's cool and everything but she had to know what a juicy target she'd make for that crew!

I'm in and out, Bliss - good to see ya! :hi:

[bliss_eternal]

8. I hear 'ya, msgadget--excellent points...

Barbara WAS the sh*t for women, back in the day. You are so right. I just don't get what happened? Is it the age old saying about success somehow spoiling them? :shrug:

Having not ever been a regular View watcher, I was so suprised by the reports that it wasn't at all what was expected. I have a friend that does watch it, or at least did watch ir regularly. She said the other members of the show were abusive and nasty on several occasions toward Star Jones. This was BEFORE the wedding or the weight loss. So my friend got angry at that and didn't watch as much--even though she wasn't a big Star Jones fan.

The thing that makes me nuts about the View is how it feeds into popular culture's ideas about placing a group of women together. We as women can't all be together, because if we are we're going to fight and be nasty to each other. :banghead:

Girl, I know you're busy--you can talk with me or contact me anytime at all...here or the other place. ;)

[Swamp Rat]

2. I'm puzzled every time she opens her fugly mouth!

:eyes:

Somebody buy that lady a letter 'L'! :D

[politicasista]

3. She needs to STFU n/t

[ContraBass Black]

4. What?

I thought she was one of those respectable news people. The only time I can remember her getting into trouble was for the chili and hidden camera stunt.

[itzamirakul]

6. I can't access the video on this computer, but if it is as the posters

here describe, then perhaps someone should send her an email and tell her how inappropriate and stupid her actions are. Ask her how she would feel if her guests came on and picked at HER hair (which probably has some weave in it as well because BW is three days older than dirt and her hair has probably thinned considerably. Mine has and we are in the same age range.)

When I was younger (pre Civil Rights era) white people used to touch our hair and then wipe their hands, indicating the oiliness from the hair preps we used. For some reason, there have always been some white folks who are fascinated with black hair and simply HAVE to touch it.

[bliss_eternal]

9. Ok, your comments about Barbara

being three days older than dirt... :rofl: Wrong of me to laugh, but that took me off guard and I got a good giggle out of it. :rofl: I hadn't considered it, but girlfriend may very well have some wefts of weave helping her hairdo.

It drove me nuts in the beginning of my marriage (interracial) to spend time with some of dh's family and extended family. One holiday, an elderly friend of his mother's was so fascinated with my hair (no weave or wig here...:eyes:). She patted and stroked it, smiling and fascinated by it. :puke: Given her age and state of mind, I had a difficult time saying what I would have liked to--as I was raised with women that taught me to respect (and revere) the elderly, no matter how insane.

I politely and quietly disengaged from her. :shrug:

[itzamirakul]

10. This kind of biased thinking goes beyond hair...In yesterday's

NY Daily News there was an article about a woman who got a very expensive cleaning bill FOR HER TWO WHITE SOFAS following a party she had given in the Hamptons.

<snip>
Smear Campaign?
Dirty deeds don't come cheap in East Hampton.
Society cleaners Madame Paulette presented hostess Claudia Cohen with a $1,500 bill after a guest at her July 4 party stained two white sofas with body makeup.
And the prime suspect?
"Star Jones" says a snitch.
"She was very heavily, professionally made up, which is kind of unusual for the beach. The smears look like body makeup."
The source did allow the stains could have come from somebody else wearing too much self-tanner.
<end>
The "snitch" went on to say that the hostess, Cohen, is a regular on the Regis and Kelly show and used to be a wife of wealthy businessman, Ron Perelman.

I am truly not a Star Jones fan, but the above newspaper report absolutely stinks of racism. A person of color (my term) "smears" a "white sofa." "Dirty deeds..."

The column from which it comes is written by a guy named Ben Widdicombe, who may have just immigrated here within the past 5 years.

It does not take newly-immigrated caucasians very long to discover that they can benefit from hatred directed toward blacks. Once the newcomers are in America for a few months, learn to speak English and get good jobs, they suddenly discover how much "better than blacks" they are. What is that line from the song in the movie, South Pacific? "You have to be carefully taught." And that is precisely what many white Americans do. They continue to teach disrespect and hatred for African Americans.

Teaching Disrespect on the part of BW in the hair-touching incident and teaching hatred on the part of Widdicomb in reporting the "dirty deeds" story point out that inherent nastiness that is the core of racism.

Edit to add:
I got this story from the print edition of the NY Daily News, page 24. I am not sure that it is online but the addy is
www.nydailynews.com and the column is by Ben Widdicombe and is called GATECRASHER. He can be emailed at
[email protected].

[Catherine Vincent]

12. So they think Jones smeared her face all over the couch?

How stupid.

[itzamirakul]

13. Well, actually, if you read the quote, the snitch referred to

"body makeup professionally applied." I guess that means that Star has her ass coated in Max Factor Panstick for some reason. :) That would be the only way she could smear the sofa WITHOUT smearing her face on it.What bothers me most is the reference to "dirty." I guess you have to be as old as I am and have lived through segregation to know what it means to be treated as though you are always "dirty," no matter how clean and well-groomed you really are.

What a nasty, snide remark for this pig of a gossip columnist to make.

I lived during a time when unkempt, slack-assed, filthy lank-haired women had the nerve to treat well-groomed black women as inferiors based totally on skin color.

This was a time (1940s-50s) when new European immigrants to America were not welcomed into white neighborhoods so they moved into black ghettos, where they were welcomed as blacks always do for new neighbors. The newcomers didn't even know the basics of personal hygiene and had to ask their black neighbors how to use certain personal hygiene products and tools like toothpaste, deodorant and bathtubs. Within a few years these same new neighbors had acclimated themselves enough to move out into poor-classed white neighborhoods and to treat their original black neighbors with great disrespect. They learned well how to continue the practice of hatred toward blacks.
It really says a lot that African Americans have not taught the policy of continuing hatred for whites that many whites continue to teach and perpetrate toward blacks.

The thing is, many of them like BW and this columnist Widdecombe assume that most blacks are too stupid or too trusting to see the inherent racism in their comments.

[Catherine Vincent]

14. That's sad.

I've never known black folks to wear body make-up. Whites maybe. I wonder why the racist gossip assumed it was Star Jones?

[itzamirakul]

16. Pure out and out nastiness...

Looking for something controversial to write about.

Looking for a black celebrity to hold up to ridicule.

Star has been their favorite target because of her gift-digging efforts prior to the wedding, so I am not going to uphold her in that manner. I don't watch her, so what do I care? I say if you want to pick on her, fine. She is a public figure, after all. But why choose something that indicates that she is less than clean? "Dirty deeds..." indeed!

[ariesgem]

15. To this day they come up to me and touch my hair.

I wear braids. If I'm standing in line or say in the confines of a waiting room, it never seems to fail that some stranger will walk up to me and start touching my hair. First they compliment me (which I don't mind), then right on que, they get to touching it. Along with that, I get the usual barrage of questions- "how long did it take?", "can you wash it?", "is that your real hair?", etc...:eyes:

[bliss_eternal]

18. Ugh--I've always hated that one...

"...is that your real hair?" :wtf: Why is it ok to ask me that?

I went through a period where my hair was badly damaged and thin. Sometimes I wore a ponytail hair piece, just to give me some versatility, etc...plus that, I thought it was cute. :P Anyway, one day a woman in the office I was working in asked me,"...is that ALL your hair?" :eyes:

I smiled and said,"...are those all your teeth?" I worked in a dental office, and she quite obviously had veneers. I figured turnabout was fair play. :P :rofl:

Oddly enough, now that I have a full head of healthy hair not one person has ever bothered to ask me that question...:shrug:

[Brewman_Jax]

11. Saw the video

and that was absolutely ridiculous! :wtf: You'd think that Barbara had no home training grabbing hair like that. It would be funny if one of her guests reached back and grabbed her hair.

[goclark]

17. Barbara is having some problems these days

She seems to be lost in the 60's and not up with how to read people.

I always liked her and admired her for including STAR on the View.

However, I am remembering the day that she said she took Ambian (sp.?) and was all mixed up, that was after the Congressman Kennedy situation.

I thought then that she may have been sipping more than one Apple Martini.
Then, the way that she handled the Star Jones situation was bizarre, IMO.

IMO, she does not intent to have an African American on the view and she picked Monique and Brandy(both great Sisters but not to mix with those View Girls.)
She needed someone like Jada Pickett(who would have NOT allowed her braids to be touched,) Denise Nichols(brilliant) Felicia(so smooth and smart) but I would be shocked if she selects a Sister.

Now back to Star. They say that she pimped her wedding ~ so what! They pimp everything they do all day long. They pimp their latest books, get their photos taken with a HUGE LV bag in front of their face cause they got it free etc.,etc.

They say that Rosie wouldn't be on the show with Star because Star didn't tell the truth about how she lost the weight.

IMO,Rosie sure must have forgotten all those years that she said she was "in love with Tom Cruise," when she was GAY. Why did she wait so long to tell the world she was GAY?!
Star is an outspoken sister that is not afraid to speak her mind ~ that is what got her canned from the VIEW. I bet Barbara or any VIEW GIRL would not dare touch Star's locks! :)

goclark
And nobody better touch my braids!! :)