I can’t believe I even wrote that.
That’s Kelly Carnes above, the recently-hired executive director of the apparently insane Baltimore Rock Opera Society. After the blonde, white female returned from Burning Man with newly braided cornrows (above), her organization began receiving complaints from the staff regarding her choice of hair style. Cultural appropriation, you know. Can’t have that.
Carnes, who apparently has a habit of exploring daring hair displays…
…was fired, being told only that she and her new job were “not a good fit.” She had adopted the cornrows, she says, to deal with the desert where Burning Man is held annually. I wouldn’t regard a white woman’s cornrows as especially daring almost 50 years after “10” —Hello, Bo!
but The Great Stupid is full of nasty surprises.
The society’s board was especially stupid, publicly acknowledging “concerns” over their organization’s new executive director’s cornrows and that it was “taking the matter seriously.” It also said it planned to revise its anti-discrimination policy and require anti-racism leadership training, which apparently means that whites are racist when they adopt styles, behavior or dress that emulate our African American brothers and sisters. The board advised her not to attend a town hall that was called to discuss the controversy. That’s always a bad sign: they said that to Gene Hackman in “Hoosiers” when the town was meeting to fire him as the high school basketball coach for trying to teach the kids team play. Then the town’s star player got up and said he would only play if they let Gene keep coaching…wait, where was I?
Oh, right: the cornrows.
Identity politics is the ruination of our society, creating hyper-sensitivity to … well … everything. Cultural appropriation is a dangerously stupid concept, resulting in rreeaallllyy stupid behavior. I generally don’t care for lawsuits, but I hope this woman sues the crap out of this cowardly and moronic organization.
And their answer to this mess is more sensitivity training. Four words, a handful of seconds – ‘mind your own business.’ And get back to work. I don’t know if the CROWN Act is unconstitutional (not a lawyer), but it certainly reinforces the segmentation of the population. How does it harm anyone that this woman is wearing cornrows? Cultural appropriation? So what. If she wears hair or clothing styles adapted from another culture is she not celebrating and admiring that culture? Believe me, most women don’t wear a style to insult or denigrate. Style is utilitarian or flattering or trendy – not usually a political statement.
What about Levi’s? Born in the USA, yet worn worldwide. French bikinis, Italian tailored suits – in demand worldwide. Does Vera Wang sell bridal gowns only in America? How about Calvin Klein underwear? The global market has profited companies enormously, which would not have occurred had style remained ‘cultural.’
Idiots
Woke social justice warriors have completely lost their fucking minds.
I do think it’s really interesting that they chose to fire this lady for a freaking hair style and completely ignore the fact that she attended an absurd annual radical self-expression counterculture event.
I always thought rock opera was itself rather counter-cultural. I would be surprised if she was the only member of the “Baltimore Rock Opera Society” who ever attended Burning Man.
Gamereg wrote, “I always thought rock opera was itself rather counter-cultural.”
Maybe a few rock operas would fall into that (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) but in general, I don’t think it fits counterculture in general.
Rock Opera is actually an interesting genre of rock. Rock opera includes albums like Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Who: Tommy, and even albums like Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed can be considered rock opera. Since the rough definition of a rock opera is “an album whose lyrics and songs work together to tell a cohesive, character-driven story”, even things like the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat could be considered a rock opera – of sorts.
It really is an interesting story driven genre.
Horrors! You left out the Rock Opera that began it all, and easily the greatest: “Jesus Christ Superstar”! I directed it for a local company—one of the most successful of my productions and one I remain very proud of. My staging was deliberately counter-counter-cultural: no hippy costumes, no mics, modern dress, no dancing at all, no prancing gay Herod….and once he was nailed to the cross, Jesus didn’t come down for a curtain call (freaked everyone out). I let the show and the story stand on its own merit and power. And it does.
I “think” Tommy came out before Jesus Christ Superstar, but yes that’s another one of the great’s!
I stand corrected! The Who’s album was in 1969 and the Webber-Rice work came out in 1970. Both hit the stage in 1971, with JCS reaching Broadway. JCS beat Tommy to movie screens by two years. I think that’s what threw me.
Is it too late to sign up to be a virulent racist?
Are these people trying to resurrect the Klan?
My (white) wife informed me her never painted nails are now a sign of white supremacists.
So emulating is bad and not emulating is bad.
These woke folks can just STFU.
BTW, have they seen Beyoncé’s hair recently?
Now I guess I can’t enjoy a Parliament, Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins mash up either.
When I was 18 (a looong 30 years ago), I traveled to The Bahamas with my best friend. Many black, Bahamian women approached me repeatedly asking to cornrow my waist length blonde hair. I finally gave in on the last day and absolutely loved the look. Thankfully it was 1996, and I worked for my mother. Now, SHE told me I looked ridiculous. But our black clients thought it was amazing, and their compliments were genuine, not facetious. My black coworker got them too so we could be “twinsies”.
I really miss the days from the mid seventies to around 2007…when that racist community organizer who somehow became President came on the scene. And instead of further uniting our country, in celebration of how far our beautiful America had come in terms of races, religions, genders and orientations coexisting in peace, made it his mission in life to divide us and make a mockery of everything MLK set out to do. Screw you, Obama.
That blame is placed exactly fairly and correctly.
Wait. How many rock operas are there? “Tommy?” by The Who? And….
Forgot this one – how about DiJonai Carrington?
I am horrified to read that Texas signed that abomination into law. Thanks, Gregg! Jerk.
jvb