Watermelon Man

Readers of a certain age will remember Godfrey Cambridge, a well-known (and quite funny) black comedian and actor who died of a heart attack at the age of 43. The peak of his career was in the 1960s and early ’70s.

All the fuss and cancelling over blackface in the past couple of years reminded me of Mr. Cambridge. In 1970 he starred in a strange movie called Watermelon Man, which was directed by Melvin Van Peebles and written by Herman Raucher (the author of The Summer of ’42). In the film Mr. Cambridge plays a bigoted white guy who wakes up one morning to discover he has turned into a negro.

The plot required that the actor appear in whiteface for the first scenes in the movie — a very unusual device in film or on the stage; I can’t recall any other examples. Mr. Cambridge was a talented man, and had no trouble simulating honkiness when the situation demanded it. But it must have been a bitch to get his makeup just right.

The question is: If Godfrey Cambridge were alive today, would he have to be cancelled?

We all know the answer: No, of course not.

Only white people (and possibly Jews, under certain circumstances) can be racists. Black, brown, yellow, red, puce, and green people get a free pass. They can hate, discriminate, and race-bait as much as they like, and white people just have to suck it up.

If you take any incident or process of “racism” ascribed to white people and reverse the races in it, making a mirror image of it, it’s not racism. It’s just white people getting their just comeuppance.

It doesn’t matter if a particular group of white people form a dwindling and persecuted minority, with no meaningful political power, as is the case in South Africa. They’re still white devils, and deserve whatever bad things happen to them.

Those are the rules of the game of WAYCISM. We all know them by now.

We conservatives, or race-realists, or deplorables, or whatever the heck we are, spend far too much time and energy pointing out this double standard. Everybody on both sides of the issue knows about it, and no amount of complaining is ever going to change it. I see so many spittle-flecked articles and op-eds detailing the ways in which “racism” is unfair to white people. And to what end? It’s wasted effort that could better be spent in other pursuits. We could spend the same amount of time brainstorming strategies to thwart the malign forces that are attempting to destroy what remains of Western Civilization.

There’s even a pseudo-scientific academic discipline justifying the idea that only whites can be racists. If I’m not mistaken, it’s called Critical Race Theory, and it employs dense technical jargon to devise lengthy analyses demonstrating that only whitey can be evil.

This is not an opponent that can be defeated on his own playing field, following his own rules. We need to devise a different game.

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Writing the above brought to mind Adam Clayton Powell Jr., whom readers of a certain age will also remember. Mr. Powell was a notoriously corrupt and fabulously successful African-American politician who served many terms representing New York in the U.S. House of Representatives. The apogee of his power coincided roughly with the peak of Godfrey Cambridge’s career in show business.

The thing about Adam Clayton Powell is that he was a very light-skinned negro who could have “passed” as white if he wanted to. He could have moved to the West Coast and maybe changed his name; he looked vaguely Lebanese.

But he chose to stay in Harlem and build a career in politics centered on civil rights for blacks. At the time people (white people, that is) said he did it because he was selflessly dedicated to advancing the welfare of his people.

Well… When you read the sordid details of his life, it becomes obvious that the real reason was that he could make a far more lucrative living playing the Race Game in Washington D.C. than he could ever have managed by becoming white.

The race racket provides ample rewards for its most skilled and devious practitioners. It was true in 1965, and it’s still true today.

#BlackLivesMatter!

21 thoughts on “Watermelon Man

  1. Very true.

    The biggest catastrophe that could befall the race hustlers is an end to racism. If there are not enough examples of racist behavior then one must make some, and provoke the authorities into incidents that prove the point. Or provoke the populace to develop a hatred and fear of blacks; hence the riots and calls for reparations, and cancel culture to punish individuals for actions and words that were socially acceptable decades ago when they occurred or were uttered.

    • We’re heading to a time when people, white & black alike, will take a visceral joy in terminating race hustlers. I’d do so in a heartbeat.

      The only thing better would be castrating underage sex pedophiles (ie. Ghislaine Maxwell, Tom Hanks, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Ben Affleck, Ellen DeGeneres, Jim Carrey, Oprah Winfrey …). And so many more. The list of uninfected offenders I saw had 35 Hollywood A-list names, & 45 names from DC bureaucracies.

  2. “We conservatives, or race-realists, or deplorables, or whatever the heck we are, spend far too much time and energy pointing out this double standard. Everybody on both sides of the issue knows about it, and no amount of complaining is ever going to change it.”

    That’s exactly it. We’ve spent enough time showing that they’re not consistent – it’s obvious to everyone by now that the “standards” only apply in one direction, and are only meant to apply in that direction.

  3. This hate whitey narrative that is being pushed will have unintended consequences. Whitey is slow to anger since we do have impulse control unlike our black counter parts, we also plan, devise, plot, tech, strategize and then strike when the time is right. That is what is coming down the pike as this all whitey bad nonsense that is being peddled by Marxist and their useful idiot black followers. Nobody does warfare and complete annihilation better than whitey does, and these people pushing this really have no idea that to make the white man angry, makes their demise inevitable. Pick up a bloody history book to see the ending of this story to see where this all ends. In the end, diversity/multiculturalism always leads to massive bloodshed, despite the left’s best of intentions, for we are all tribal, it is in our very DNA, and to go against nature invites disaster as history has demonstrated too many times to count. Thus as it always has been, thus as it will always be.

    • If you don’t want all white people judged as a group, then don’t judge all black people the same.

      The thing about the U.S. is to ultimately be judged as an individual. And there are plenty of wonderful, successful black people who don’t go along with this victimhood, hate whitey bs.

      If we believe in Liberty, and real justice for all, then people need to keep speaking up.

      Keep speaking up, over, and over. However often it is necessary. If the ‘other side’ talks their agenda all the time, then others can too. We can do it, so do it. Write, speak whatever.

      If someone has a storefront, post 1776 unity project instead of a BLM poster. Do it on a bumper sticker. Where ever you can.

      The best thing this country has is free speech. Use it.

  4. Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes 2020 – All of his bits chained.
    youtube.com/watch?v=sR6UeVptzRg
    Nailed.

  5. There’s a reason ammo is so hard to get nowadays. While the chimps rattle their cages and scream for blood, the white people are quietly getting ready.

    • Learn to make your own and the skill of lead casting and you will never be without ammo when it is unavailable in the stores. Powder and primers are a fraction of the cost of new ammunition.

      • That is generally good advice, except that primers are also scarce at the moment. So it’s a bit too late for anyone suddenly developing an interest in casting their own ammo.

        Although, I suppose it’s never too late to pick up a hunting bow or crossbow and a few dozen arrows. I wonder if broadheads are getting scarce.

        • Race war? Spare me.

          We still have free speech. So promote our ideals of liberty, every single chance we get, ’till we are blue in the face if necessary. And then blue some more.

          People can push back in a civil manner. There are many black conservative leaders who work within their communities, work with youth etc., to get them on track to be responsible individuals. Support them.

          The lefties have billions of dollars these days going into their agenda. We have to support the people, and organizations doing good work, and speaking up.

          Stop falling into the victimhood feeling yourself.

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