Well Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!

I've met David Ehrenstein a couple times and he seemed perfectly normal, but some of the stuff he writes is pretty bizarre.

Take the latest LA Weekly. He has a mini-essay, "Uncle Remus Redux," where he discusses Disney and race:

When he arrives at the plantation, Johnny asks, “Is Uncle Remus real?” indicating that this apparent servant’s legend has already traveled far and wide. Indeed it has, and not just for Johnny. For the entire purpose of African-Americans — in life as well as in art — is to soothe the troubled souls of whites. McDaniel’s Mammy did it in Gone With the Wind. And so does Oprah today.

I think you'd get a fight from Oprah on that. She's run a very successful show for many years by appealing to the mainstream. Is something wrong with that? I have no idea what Oprah is personally like, but I don't see how she had to sell out (any more than any performer does) to be popular--she's (or so I've heard--don't really watch her) a charming personality who puts on a better show than her many competitors in the dog-eat-dog world of television. Being charming and entertaining is not a racial thing. Is Ehrenstein insisting blacks ghettoize themselves?

I might add a lot of African-Americans make a good living creating entertainment that's supposed to be anything but soothing to the mainstream. Good for them, but what they're doing is no more "authentic" than what Oprah does.

Consequently, the time is ripe for Song of the South’s return, as disenchantment with President Obama grows on the left, just as his very existence has unleashed a tsunami of racism on the right.

Where is this tsunami I keep hearing about? I haven't noticed more racism than usual. I guess there's been more criticism of a (partially) black man, but that's because he's President. Does the left confuse this with racism?

As for the left's disenchantment, that's their own fault. If they don't understand that Obama (who got elected by appearing to be more moderate than he actually is) is about as far left as a President can get, that's due to their lack of understanding of this country.

PS Here's how Ehrenstein ends his piece:

...in the popular cultural imagination, Uncle Walt has come to be seen as a panacea on par with Uncle Remus himself. As usual in fantasy-besotted America, “It’s the truth, it’s natural,” especially when everything is considerably less than “satisfactual.”

This really bothers me. The lyric is "It's the truth, it's actual / Everything is satisfactual" They might have written some crappy songs back before rock, but they knew how to rhyme--especially when they were creating a new word just so the rhyme could work.