Comments | sex_and_race: black churches and voyeurism.

delux_vivens in sex_and_race

black churches and voyeurism.

Jun 11, 2006 13:23

confabbing with ladyjax about people who think black churches and the people in them exist to provide them with visceral sensation and entertainment, and came across this article, which sums it up-- altho to be honest most of the people that i talk to about this are far less nice that the people quoted in the article, which is probably why they are quoted ( Read more... )

cultural appropriation, mannerless heathens

Comments 33

yeloson June 11 2006, 21:02:06 UTC

I'm getting so cynical at this point, that I'm like, "Well, hey, at LEAST they're not firebombing the church!"...

Sigh.

The white man giveth Jesus, and the white man taketh away...

dyvinesweetness June 11 2006, 21:03:52 UTC

I cannot BEGIN to express my gratitude to you for posting this article. I live almost inches away from Abyssinian (went there for summer camp 3 years) and goodness the HERDS of white folks that can be seen trampling through my neighborhood on Any Given Sunday is disturbing (to say the VERY least).

''They go for a show; there's this sense of whites being on safari. All that's missing is the hats.''

This is so real. The double decker tour buses that travel through Manhattan (every day, not just Sunday) always made me feel like a zoo animal. As a very young child with limited conceptual knowledge of race I felt violated by their presence (and of course still do).

delux_vivens June 11 2006, 21:13:22 UTC

I cannot BEGIN to express my gratitude to you for posting this article.

cash in small bills will do... lol no seriously, its just i was losing my mind over this myself after coming back from a church service thronged with people who were creaming their pants at the exotic entertainment. why these folks cant just go to a kirk franklin concert i dont understand.

holzman June 11 2006, 23:12:03 UTC

My experiences with Christian religious services can be counted on a single hand with fingers left over, but those are free to attend, right? Unlike concerts. That's probably got something to do with it. Aside from the whole tourist aspect of this, where going to The Place and seeing The Thing are part of what one brags about when one goes home.

delux_vivens June 12 2006, 00:45:09 UTC

Unlike concerts. That's probably got something to do with it.

plenty of these people are paying over of $50 per person to go to these churches on "harlem tours," so the cost has very little to do with it, imho.

Thread 5

dorktastic June 11 2006, 21:12:12 UTC

Ugh. Reading this made me feel sick to my stomach. What's wrong with people?

comeoneileen June 11 2006, 21:18:02 UTC

Ok, so I know the roots of white privilege go deep and that sense of entitlement is constantly being reinforced and everything, but SERIOUSLY PEOPLE WHAT THE FUCK. CHURCH SERVICES =/= A FUCKING CABARET. Is that really so difficult to figure out, even with all the travel packages claiming otherwise?

delux_vivens June 11 2006, 21:36:02 UTC

Is that really so difficult to figure out,

apparently. what we find most interseting about this is that these folks could get plenty of the same "boisterous musical form of worship infinitely more emotional than the standard church service back home" at white evangelical and baptist churches, but they dont go to those by the busload. i wonder why?

Bleh. i_dreamed_i_was June 12 2006, 03:00:58 UTC

White pentecostals are embarrassing, dontcha know. We make the Lutherans embarrassed to be white somehow. Probably because, ironically, we are acting in a "black" way. (Where else did we get that nifty call-and-response stuff from?) And black = inferior, as we all know. Except that it's cool to just, you know, observe "the blacks" in their natural habitat. Or something.

As long as none of teh blackitude rubbed off on any of us. Or something.

If someone figures it out, please explain it to me. Classism or assumed-class-ism comes into it somewhere, I'm pretty sure.

Re: Bleh. comeoneileen June 12 2006, 03:05:43 UTC

ha, we both said "natural habitat" at the same time.

heh.

Thread 7

croupier June 11 2006, 21:45:40 UTC

I just finished reading The Wine of Astonishment, and this--

"We are Catholic, and our services are more traditional, quieter. This is very modern."

--an inversion of Black Baptists in Trinidad being forced to worship as Catholics, it's just . . . no matter what position Black people are in, white people are always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always trying to take it.