Snow Nigger

I was watching Weeds tonight. Enjoyable show.
A bounty hunter from Alaska, presumed Inuit, played opposite one of the main characters of the show. The Inuit was referred to as a Snow Nigga by this main character. This was rendered humorous because the first we hear of it is when the Inuit thug says, “I’m not your Snow Nigger.”

The show is brave when it comes to portraying clashing ethnicities and classes. But aren’t the browner folks still stepping and fetching for the pure viewing pleasure of the whiter folks in the audience? The show is, clearly, for the consumption of a white, educated bunch. It’s so suburban hip, it kind of hurts. Or what is even more ridiculous is, since I am of a certain age, color and socioeconomic group, I think it’s hip.

I can never know what it is to be anything but white. I watch the black actors on this show and how they are used to point up the naïve, privileged life of the very white and beautiful Mary Louise Parker and I cannot know, at all, how they feel playing these roles, or if they even give a damn how they come off. It is comedy. But is it the comedy, perhaps, that in a hundred years from now, will make us cringe?

Comedy calls for alienation and anger at its foundation. A strong world point of view is required, too. Without that, you end up with one of those dull sitcoms. And who wants to watch one of those? I’d rather have the less pc show even if the aesthetic morality is questionable. But it occurs to me that in order for the show to work as a comedy, I really have to relate to Mary Louise Parker and her crew, completely, separate from the shady element. And I do. At the expense of the supporting, gun toting characters with very dark hair and dark brown complexions, sometimes Armenian, occasionally Eskimo.

As long as I have lived in this country (my whole life) I have really not come any closer to feeling what it is to be from a different race. I intellectually understand there are major differences but I do not have any daily understanding in my emotional life. All I ever feel is, “I’m due. Gimme it. And when you’re done with my floors, make sure you rinse the mop good.” And I double the salary at Christmas.

Just a couple of generations away from house cleaners and milkmen, I understand that I did not come from the ruling elite of Europe. However, I would never be referred to as a Snow Nigger or any other kind of nigger. Potato Nigger? Pasta Nigger? I don’t think so.