A Lesson Learned Through Comedy...

Saturday was the night for comedy. D.L. Hughley appeared in Biloxi for a gut-busting show that was a great and much needed opportunity to relieve stress. It was also a great lesson in black culture for my boyfriend. Originally, he didn't really want to go to the show because he was afraid that he'd be the only white guy there and that D.L. would be ripping on white people the whole time. I made him go though because I didn't want to miss seeing my favorite comedian live and I didn't want to go alone.

I also thought it might be good for him to be around a room full of black people and see that he could enjoy himself. Even some of the most open-minded white people seem to be terrified of being in a room full of black people. I don't know if they are afraid because of stereotypes and what they see on tv, or if it's them simply uncomfortable with being in a situation where they are the minority. They don't realize that being in a room full of people of a different color and sometimes being the only black person there is the story of our lives.

It turns out that we both had a great time. We both laughed and my boyfriend is still repeating and laughing at some of the jokes we heard. He said that he didn't realize before how much of the black comedians' acts are focused on race but he said that he was glad that it was more of a comparison between blacks and whites versus a bashing of white people. At one point in the show, D.L. laughed at the white people in the audience though and mentioned the fact that they could never get away with saying the things that he did. My boyfriend is still questioning why that is. He agrees that neither he or any white comedian could get away with talking about black people in the way that blacks talk about whites but doesn't understand why it would be so offensive. I told him that alot of it has to do with the difference in the experiences of black people versus white people. It is very much a difference in how you experience life and the fact that we are laughing at ourselves as much as we are laughing at them.

Beyond that though, I'm not quite sure why whites are unable to say things that we as black people can say. Surely there is room for things to be said in an appropriate manner but yet as black people we would be offended if white people talked about us in their comedy routines in the way that we talk about them. Hispanics and blacks seem to have an understanding where they can talk about us and we can talk about them, but why is that different for white people? Is it simply because they are the majority or will it always go back to the days of slavery and the years before the civil rights movement. Certainly not all white people are racists. I think that there are some that want to laugh with us instead of laughing at us but still there is this double standard that we hold. Why exactly is that?

Malik S. who has appeared on Def Comedy Jam and Last Comic Standing was the opening act for D.L. Hughley. He was pretty funny too and I recognized him from seeing him on HBO. Here is his routine from Def Comedy Jam in case you've never heard of him. (Viewer discretion advised - Adult language and content.)

On a hair note...I had my first retightening done with the trainee in Louisiana. She did a great job and believes in doing things by the book in the way that Sisterlocks taught her. It was a sigh of relief for me. I do want to learn to retighten my own hair and will be taking the class at Homecoming but in the meantime, it's nice to know that you can find someone dependable even when you move all the way across the country.