Posted on 09/22/2006 2:28:36 PM PDT by Shermy
AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas chapter of the NAACP asked comedian and independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on Friday to apologize for using a racial slur during a 1980 nightclub act in Houston.
NAACP President Gary Bledsoe said in a letter that Friedman's remarks "invoke the worst racial stereotypes about people of color."
Friedman's campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment. On Thursday, the campaign issued a lengthy statement denying Friedman was a racist and explaining that he used comedy to lampoon bigotry. Friedman told The Associated Press the criticism was orchestrated by his political opponents.
Earlier this month, Friedman referred to Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston, most of whom are black, as "crackheads and thugs." He later criticized ethnic politicking by saying, "I don't eat tamales in the barrio, I don't eat fried chicken in the ghetto and I don't eat bagels with the Jews."
Then a television interview from a year ago resurfaced in which Friedman was asked what to do about sexual predators. He said: "Throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to a Negro talking to himself."
On Thursday, a left-leaning political Web site posted an audio clip of Friedman telling a joke at a nightclub in 1980 in which he used the n-word.
On Friday, the same Web site posted two more audio clips of Friedman telling race-related jokes, one of which included the n-word.
Bledsoe told Friedman in the letter that he cannot brush aside his remarks as "politically incorrect," as he has in the past.
"That flimsy excuse reeks of insincerity," Bledsoe wrote.
In the November election, Friedman is competing with Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Democrat Chris Bell, independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Libertarian James Werner.
Have they heard his song "They ain't makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore"? It is replete with derogatory ethnic terms, including the "N" word. Its point is, however, to make fun of rednecks--and Greeks.
These Bozos think that digging up insensitive remarks by the leader of the musical group "The Texas Jewboys" is some kind of find, LOL!
I can't imagine Kinky would ever apologize. He would be more likely to tell them what to do with their demands.
It's this kind of crap that gives politics a bad name. I can't believe we are having serious discussion over some night club act from 25 years ago. Doesn't the NAACP have any real problems facing their members anymore? Have we really solved every problem they face so we have to worry about things that happened before some voters were even born?
To Perry: "Adios, mofo."
I haven't heard it. However,in the "joke" they keep playing the except from he is playing the character of the bigot redneck. But context never matters because most of our folks are too dumb to know the difference anyway. Yes, I'm that cynical.
ROFLOL!
Heard on the way home that they asked him if he would apologize and he said, "No". That's it.
Did Jesse Jackson ever apologize for spitting in white people's food when he was a waiter?
Black people use a racial slur with/to each other quite often. If they can do it why can't I?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060922/ap_on_el_gu/governor_kinky_10
AUSTIN, Texas - Comedian and independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on Thursday defended his use of a racial slur during a performance at Houston nightclub 26 years ago after an audio clip of the standup routine was posted on the Internet.
Friedman, 61, said he has tried to expose and lampoon racism, and was making fun of bigots when he used the n-word twice in a joke.
"They're attacking me for something that Richard Pryor did, that Lenny Bruce did, which is to have the freedom to poke fun at anybody that you want. The whole show is satirizing racism," Friedman said at a fundraiser in New York.
But State Rep. Garnet Coleman, former chairman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, said it was difficult to find the humor in his joke after his remarks about Katrina evacuees in Houston in which he referred to them as "crackheads and thugs."
Coleman, who has endorsed Democratic candidate Chris Bell, said nobody would have scrutinized Friedman's 1980 joke before the comments about Katrina evacuees, most of whom are black.
"It makes it more relevant because people then look to see, is this part of your character," Coleman said. He said Friedman "needs to change his tune or get out of the race."
A staffer for Coleman posted the audio on the left-leaning political Web site Burnt Orange Report. Phillip Martin said he did the posting in his off time after getting it from an old fan of Friedman's.
Other Friedman comments criticized recently include a television interview from a year ago in which he said sexual predators should be thrown in prison "and make them listen to a Negro talking to himself," Friedman said. He also called "Negro" a "charming word."
Friedman's campaign has said the CNBC interview in which he made the "Negro" remark was a reference to a book he wrote in the 1980s. His spokeswoman said Friedman, who also is a country singer, is a threat to the two-party system, so his opponents are digging through fictional books, comedy shows and song lyrics to try to paint him as a racist.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican seeking re-election, Bell and independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn said Friedman's language was unacceptable.
He might give them a Papal apology such as "shore am sorry you got yore gunders in a wad."
It's tacos. The fact that you don't know that is proof of your bigotry.
This is a man in desperate need of a psychologist. If he didn't hear it in person then it didn't offend him. More false indignation is all this is.
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Heck, I'm voting for Kinky. I may not agree on everything with him, but it's about damn time we had somebody who won't give in to this PC crap.
Nevermind that most of Kinky's supporters and those he refers to by name in interviews are on the left, nor that many of his positions are on the left, or that he is just the latest stealth candidate on the left to throw out bait to the right by taking a few conservative positions while almost all of his campaign staff have worked for leftists, including Lamont. Ya know, for awhile in his early career Bill Maher took on political correctness, but look what he turned out to be, it takes more than that.
They kinda remind me of that Vonage commercial, taking one right position among many, many stupid ones.
Yeah, the Jesse Jackson shake down.
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