Patterico's Pontifications

9/24/2005

Oliver Willis Asks: Have Right Wing Bloggers Ever Met Any Black People?

Filed under: Race — Patterico @ 12:04 pm



Oliver Willis has a post titled Have Right Wing Bloggers Ever Met Any Black People? in which he says:

According to Vodkapundit and Instapundit, “Stuck on Stupid” is a brand-new catchphrase that has never been uttered before. Well, I suppose if you’ve never talked to a black person, that might be true.

What I find particularly hilarious is the reaction Oliver gets in his comments. Sure, there is the usual agreement from the wacky leftists who inhabit his site, but it’s not universal:

phile:

I would like to add that I don’t recall ever having read the expression “stuck on stupid” in a post by our black host. Oliver, tell us the truth: are you really a black man?

Frank_D:

Actually, Oliver, having spent nearly 59 years in the company of black people, including numerous ex – cons and recovering substance abusers, I’ve never heard the term.

Marty:

Damn, Oliver- I’ve been black all my life and this is the first time I’ve heard the phrase used by another black person.

Funny- but I am a part of several different black online communities, and read several different black bloggers on a regular basis (right and left) and I have never seen the expression before.

And if you look at the Google hits you got, most of them are white folks using it (as well as people referencing the good General.)

Another funny thing- I searched your site and this post is the first time you have ever had the phrase here too. Whassamatta Ollie? Not black enough to use the phrase?

But hey! Good job on trying to turn this into some sort of racial issue!

And then the comment thread degenerates into pure insults.

I don’t read Oliver Willis, but I have seen his name pop up in the past couple of days in connection with a couple of different issues. (I will discuss the other issue in a separate post.) In each case, Oliver shows himself to be the kind of leftist who runs around baselessly screaming “racism!” at the right.

But getting back to Oliver’s question: has this right-wing blogger ever met a black person before? (I’m going somewhere with this.)

Well, yeah. One or two. In addition to the normal contact that most people have with people from all walks of life, I have worked in Compton and Watts — which leads me to a story I tell from time to time.

When I worked in juvenile court at 76th and Central in Watts, I was very often the only white person in the courtroom. There were two courtrooms in the building, both run by black judges. On many days, all of the other players in court besides me — the judge, the clerk, the defense attorney, the court reporter, the probation officer, the bailiff, the minor, and the minor’s parents — were black.

So, one day the judge and the court reporter were talking about that George W. Bush guy. (This was during the 2000 election season.) The court reporter said: “Well, you know who supports him. It’s those white males!”

I looked at her with a smile and said: “Oh, come on. We’re not all that bad!”

She looked back at me, a little embarrassed, and said: “Oh, I wasn’t thinking about you. To me, you’re just one of us!”

I said: “I take that as a compliment.” And I did.

In the other courtroom, there was one white guy besides myself: the clerk. And in that court, I would talk about classical music, including opera and German lieder, with the (black) judge. He is a huge opera fan who travels all over the country to see opera.When I saw the Ring in Chicago, it was because this judge had told me about it — and he was there at the same time. I still frequently see this judge, who is now retired, at the “Chamber Music in Historic Sites” series in Los Angeles.

With the clerk, I talked about classic rock.

So yeah, I have met black people, Oliver. And, like white people, they don’t always fit neat stereotypes.

By the way, during the year I worked in that court — and indeed during my entire life — I never heard the phrase “stuck on stupid.” But I love it . . . and, in fact, I am going to use it to describe Oliver Willis in another post today.

10 Responses to “Oliver Willis Asks: Have Right Wing Bloggers Ever Met Any Black People?”

  1. P, you should really check out Ace of Spades on the Oliver Willis issue. Ace got his start blogging in part because he noticed O-Dub was getting all kinds of Instapundit links and attention, and Ace thought he was a no-talent race-hustling hack. Ace figured if Willis could be a successful blogger, he certainly ought to be able to make it.

    Ace is, of course, quite brutal about the whole thing. When you google Ace’s site, look for the term “Filet-o-Fish” as well, since that’s Ace’s nickname for Willis.

    See Dubya (806435)

  2. I’ve read Mr. Willis’ blog on occasion, and while it is even more occasionally interesting, it usually is not.

    I’m white, 52 years old, reared in the South (where the black percentage of the population is higher than the national average), and work in the ready-mixed concrete industry, where I have plenty of black co-workers. They’ve been pretty much like white co-workers: some good, some average, and some not worth retaining on the payroll. Just like whites, some are honest, some are not, some are smart, and some are not.

    Dana R. Pico (8d0335)

  3. I was surprised that so many bloggers had never heard the term “STuck on Stupid” before, too. I don’t think it’s a black term though, I think it’s military talk. My husband spent twenty years in the Air Force and spent 20 years as an AF wife, and it was a common enough phrase there- but neither black nor white. Just blunt.

    DeputyHeadmistress (e71725)

  4. This Oliver Willis fellow makes me laugh. I don’t and certainly won’t read his crap.

    Oliver, if you are reading this blog, you will now know that there are quite a few right wing black bloggers, many of whom think that you are stuck on stupid.

    Charles D. Quarles (5d11c1)

  5. I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood, attended predominantly black schools K-6, and my first job was at the Rose Bowl, where I was one of two or three white guys working with about 30 blacks. The first time in my life I heard the phrase “stuck on stupid” was a few minutes before reading this blog entry, while reading a comment to one of Beldar’s. I don’t know the individual commenter, but the not stuck on stupid money says he probably isn’t black.

    Xrlq (0d5489)

  6. DeputyHeadmistress:

    I was in the Navy twenty years ago, and I never heard the term. Are you sure it isn’t strictly an Army/Air Force term, not a Navy/Marine term?

    (LG Honore is Army, I believe.)

    Dafydd

    Dafydd (f8a7be)

  7. Patterico:

    Of course, from the instant Gen. Honore said it to that boneheaded reporter, it became an all-service term!

    For that matter, I wouldn’t be surprised if it spread through the entire country faster than “where’s the beef” or “who let the dogs out.”

    Dafydd

    Dafydd (f8a7be)

  8. I heard the phrase every twenty minutes for a couple of years from my partner in our small roofing business. He was native american, ex-con, daily abuser of substances, with a gift for appropriating phrases from street slang, “Minnesotan”, tv, legalese, etc, for his own purposes.

    Like,

    [Checking out another company’s completed roof] “Whoa, surf’s up dude! [the drip lines on their shingles are wavy] Man them okeydokes [dopey white people] were stuck on stupid!”

    “All I asked you was to grab the hammer, and now you’re going all ipso facto on me and shit!”

    And a thousand others, ad infinitum, throughout the day. After a while you got to understand it.

    biwah (f5ca22)

  9. That was 1997-99 – wonder how many worthy phrases are out there, festering.

    biwah (f5ca22)

  10. Air Force 21 years, black 44 years; never heard the term “stuck on stupid” until General Honore graced us with it.

    Juliette (eeca96)


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