
Tracy Morgan is known for his loose mouth. It’s why we like him. As a comedian, it’s your job to be outrageous. I usually find his antics to be pretty hilarious. When Morgan showed up to a morning news program and pretended to give birth, people thought he had lost his mind. I laughed.
When people thought he took it too far talking about our first lady/hypothetical home girl Michelle Obama, I recognized that it was completely inappropriate, but I laughed. And then thought he better be careful. (Barack will get with you. It’s nothing. )
But today, when I read Morgan’s words from the homophobic rant he went on while performing in Nashville, Tennessee, I couldn’t find anything funny.
If you haven’t heard already, this is some of what Morgan had to say:
• “Gay is something that kids learn from the media and programming.”
• My son “better talk to me like a man and not in a gay voice or I’ll pull out a knife and stab that little n*gger to death.”
• “I don’t “f*cking care if I piss off some gays, because if they can take a f*cking d*ck up their a$s… they can take a f*cking joke.” (Source)
Really, Tracy?!?
Dang! Now I have to like you a whole lot less.
I hate when stars I formally respected, use their platform to do something so reckless. I can’t say that I’m done with Tracy forever and always. I’d be lying if I said I’d never laugh at anything he said or did in the future. But I can say it won’t be the same full, head-toss, uninhibited laughter that it once was. In the back of my mind I’ll always be wondering whether I’m laughing at a bully. Someone who used their strength in the media to spread some more falsities and foolishness.
I can’t be completely sure that his words weren’t taken out of context, there’s a difference between reading a joke and hearing it delivered. But, from what I can tell from the words above and the responses from people who actually went to the show
(one of them a gay man with his partner), these comments don’t sound like jokes. They sound hateful and ignorant.
Maybe my satire meter is completely broken and again I didn’t hear the delivery, but phrases like “gay is something kids learn from the media…” is just so backwards. “Gay” has been around for centuries. We know how the ancient Greeks got down, there’s homosexuality all up and through the Bible, and long before networks started featuring gay characters on television, Rock Hudson, Hollywood’s “it man” was gay than a mug. I doubt those people saw “Will and Grace” or “Queer as Folk” and decided to pattern their life after them.
I have a hard time believing anybody would choose to be gay, knowing all the hell you’ll potentially face from your peers, your family, society and ignorant famous people who have a microphone and a stage at their disposal.
But Tracy’s not the only one. I’ve gotten into some pretty intense arguments with my own family members about the whole “born this way” vs. “chose that life” debate. I’ll always love the fam; but it makes me doubly sick when black people attack the LGBT community. Here we are, a group that has endured our fair share of oppression over characteristics we can’t change, and yet we have no sympathy for others fighting that same battle? I wouldn’t ask everybody to find a gay friend and start wearing rainbow pins, but some compassion for your fellow human being is not too much to ask. We can be so hateful and it’s sad.
Jokes are so subjective. We can debate whether they’re funny or not, try to stifle our laughter when we know it’s morally wrong; but hate is something entirely different. Something I can’t get down with. As people take to the blogs, Twitter, and news outlets Tracy may, hopefully, rethink his statements, his delivery or both. Maybe he’ll realize it’s not just the gay people he pissed off.