Is Wendy Ho Being Singled Out?

[Raul]

So there's been allot of posts here on Wendy Ho and her "racist tour" of America and I'm finding it hard to see valid points.

While I have to admit that I'm not very familiar with her work, I have seen a video of hers that I found a bit funny, not laughing belly-ache funny, but funny.

I don't think she's doing anything that hasn't already been done before by *gulp* DRAG QUEENS!!!!
I'd call her work a rehash or even cheap imitations, but racist, I don't think so. So she goes on stage and quote- unquote pretends to be black, that doesn't make her a racist. Are the people that find her work offensive being overtly sensitive to her freedom of speech? Hell, our very on Queen of the Gays Margaret Cho goes on stage and gets a little ghetto but we don't call her out on it. Instead we laugh, holler, hoot, whistle, scream and clap. Why is this chick any different?
Or Sandra Bernhard for that matter, on her "I'm Still Here Dammit" show she said this about Mariah Carey:
"Now she's trying to backtrack on our asses, gettin' real niggerish up there at the Royalton hotel suite with Puff Daddy and all the greasy, chain-wearing black men. 'Oooh, yeah, Daddy . . . I got a little bit of black in me, too. I didn't tell you that?' . . . Do not try to compete with the fierce ghetto divas. Because they will go down, in, around, and off on your ass! . . . So don't fuck with me, phony white bitch!"
Ummm...that's kinda racist isn't it? But we laughed and applauded and thought 'oh she's so edgy'. But in all reality, those are some hurtful words. Yet we line up in throngs to see her.
How about Sarah Silverman on Conan O'Brien:
"I was telling a friend that I had to serve jury duty and I wanted to get out of it. So my friend said ‘When they hand out the questionnaire, write something horribly offensive like “I hate chinks” then there’s no way they will choose you. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it, to say something so hateful, so I wrote -- I love chinks."

Or take Lisa Lampanelli for that matter, who uses every stereotype and offends every ethnic group, and the LGBT community is not exempt from her dialog, is way worse than all of the women I mentioned here put together.
But we still LOVE HER!!!! We love ALL of them and I haven't seen any of you picketing outside their shows, instead you're the firsts in line to get in.

So why are we suddenly not so blind-eyed when it comes to Wendy Ho and her sidekick Shirley Q. Liquor? Are some of us that uptight that we can't take a joke, as tacky and dated as it may be, but a joke nonetheless?
Have we become such a kindergarten community that we have to cry to our teachers when someone says something mean about us?
We're suppose to have thicker skins than this.
By allowing us ourselves to go down that route of sensitivity, we're perpetuating the "gays are weak" stereotypes.
And if that's what you wanna be, then by all means, be a victim, but I'm not. I refuse to. I won't let words like that make feel small.
We have to remember that camp is camp, and it will always be offensive. But to single someone out because we don't like what they portray is an absolute waste of time.
Here's an idea, why not go after the real enemies out there? Let's go after the real homophobes and racists that are out there trying to take our rights of any form of existence from us and stop wasting energy on someone who probably supports our equal rights hole heatedly.

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

With Margaret, it's very clear she is poking fun at the stereotype, the racism, etc. With Wendy's performance it is not. Maybe she just needs more practice.

[Raul]

Wendy's show is to make fun of stereotypes not to put them down. Same as Margaret but in a different format.

[QueerToday]

Yeah then it's too bad even the queer activists in the room couldn't pick up on that and trust me we tried . I doubt your average Castro gay thought wow what a unique critique this performance is. It just didn't show through.

[Raul]

Like I said, I don't think there's anything unique about this performer. But I highly doubt that she's performing at gay clubs just for the sole purpose of spreading her bigotry, if in fact, that's what she is. Right?

[QueerToday]

Maybe her intent is pure I will concede but her performance in my opinion definately failed that night to show any sense of reclaiming identities or feminist thought etc as she claims .

[Raul]

Your point is valid and I respect it. She's obviously not everyone's cup of tea, nor mine for that matter, but I was just trying to show a different side of the argument about her. Personally, I think making fun of gays or races is kinda tacky and the easy way out for comedians to be "shocking", but that's what butters their bread.

[Kasey]

I don't love all of those celebrities you mention, nor would I stand by what they said. Referring to genuine critique as "kindergarten community" behavior and suggesting that we should keep silent about issues in order to preserve a veneer of strength are dismissive statements, AND they're a tactic right-wing repubs use against us. "Why do you need to add sexual orientation to the anti-discrimination policy? So you can cry to whoever's in charge whenever someone hurts your feelings?" Folks on this site aren't crying children, they're activists trying to sort out issues. I think everyone here wants a stronger queer and trans community, and racism negates that. We've got to air these issues until they no longer exist.

[Mark Daniel Snyder]

Right on

[Becca D'Bus]

About Wendy Ho I am interested in the following things:
Is Wendy Jo playing a black person? Or is Wendy Jo playing a white person who thinks she is or wants to be black?
Is her website "about her" or is it an extension of the Wendy Ho persona?
Can we accept that different people have differing experiences of race? That some do not break down simply to racist or not? That often times it is expressions of experiences race that most closely resembles our own that we find least racist?

About the commentary here so far:
I love that people are fired up enough to comment, to engage. I don't think of it as "kindergarten community" or whatever.
I do want to respond to 2 sentiments that have appeared that cut close to home.
I do not believe it ultimately (and I do speak as a person of color who isn't Black) to be useful nor realistic to see an end to racism as a goal. I think it is useful to call it out, to question it, to engage about it, to critique it, even to engage in it if it brings us to a new understanding of ourselves.
I also want to respond to a sentiment that I often encounter in our communities. "It's racist/sexist/ageist/adultist/transphobic/classist etc so don't say/present/produce it" I understand where this comes from and I have empathy for the position, but I don't think it works.
Now speaking as a performer, an artist and someone who views a lot of art with a view towards presenting some of it.
I don't think about ideas by separating them out into "this is offensive, this is not" and then not consider what is offensive as off the table.
I want to work with what is interesting, what has a point of view, what expresses a point of view, what resonates, what infuriates, what excites, what challenges, what entertains and so on.
If something is offensive, I'm interested in why, what do I do with it, what is my relationship to the offense, and so on.
I fear that the sentiment I earlier described, of not saying, presenting, or producing what we deem objectionable feeds into what I can only call a culture of censorship that I fear and suspect to be the flipside of political correctness, the side that was never intended but can unfortunately be the reality.
I do enjoy the work of Shirley Q Liquor. I do enjoy the work of Wendy Ho. I don't agree with their points of view, but I do thing they are funny.
Am I offended by their work? Sometimes. Do I laugh? yes. that I can have both those responses, often at the same time is how I know I am alive.
That was schmaltzy, but frankly, genuine.

[Raul]

Kasey, I agree with you in that we want a stronger community. But in order to achieve this goal, we have to get passed the victimization of words. I've never been one to keep silent about any issue that is meant of on an attack of my person or my community.

You referred to us as a Queer community. A couple of decades ago, the word queer was used to control us, to keep us down, but look how far we've come? We've taken the power away from that word so much so that we use it here like we're passing pleasantries (i.e. the title of this site).
A couple of decades ago, you couldn't call a woman, in any content, a bitch without making her feel like your just punched her in the face. Women have taken the power away from that word and now refer to themselves as bitches. I grew up in these decades. I grew up being belittled and made to feel like I was shit because those words had so much power than that I felt defeated. But we've come along way from that and I couldn't be prouder for us.
When words stop stinging, they've lost their power.
My boyfriend always says to me "Babe, chose your battles", that couldn't be truer for us right now.
In order to be a stronger community, we have to learn to separate what is meant as tacky humor and hate. Do we fight a stupid, unoriginal performer or do we go out there and fight the real fight. Like Fred Phelps and his throngs of diluted followers, DADT, DOMA, ENDA, a president who lied to us in order to get into the White House, and so many more issues that are plaguing our community right now.
I don't know about you guys, but me, I'd rather start at the top and work my way down. If I have a choice to have a performer banned or ending DADT, I'll take the latter.