Does this offend me, Part 3

An interesting statement was recently made by Terrence Howard while promoting his movie, Ironman. He was discussing his recent stint on Broadway. Here’s what he said:

The Iron Man insists that if he had known the theatre schedule was so tough he would never have signed up for the role in the beloved Tennessee Williams play. He claims that appearing on stage at New York’s Broadhurst Theatre every night and trying to cram his personal life and business meetings into one day off have left him exhausted. And he has turned to allergy medicine just to stay healthy. He says, “Tough thing about Broadway is (it’s) eight shows a week. It’s slavery. That needs to be adjusted. It’s wrong. Actors work three years straight sometimes with one day off. This exhaustion puts you into depression. Monday, your one day off, you have to cram in all your meetings and appointments and the rest of your whole life, and hope you can survive on Benadryl. Broadway is an actor’s revenge. I couldn’t do Broadway again if it’s more than five (shows) a week. I’d just say no… Not doing it.”

When I first read this statement, I actually was offended.

How can a black man even compare his unhappiness with hard earned paid work with the greatest injustice in American history?

Terrence is a black man and I hope that he has the prospective that his statement is inaccurate. He surely knows that the fact that he even earns money for acting doesn’t qualify as slavery.

The thing about it is that Terrence or anyone else in society can leave their job if they find that the work conditions are uncomfortable. There’s a choice. I’ve heard professional athletes make similar statements about how teams use them until they are no good and are kicked out of the league. Warren Sapp even made some statements a few years ago about the NFL having slave masters: http://www.blackathlete.com/Football/110203.shtml

In the end, a double standard has seemed to develop in the usage of certain words by people who seem entitled to use them. Warren and Terrence were open to using the words slavery because their black, but if a non-black person used this terminology, there would be problems. Its similar to black people using the n-word because apparently its ok for us to use it, which is not true.

I’ve seen women call each other bitches and whores, but if a man does that, problems. I’ve heard ethnic groups call each other slurs among each other yet if someone outside of their race does that, they get offended.

We just need to be careful with what we say.

So, in the end, was I offended? Not really. I don’t get offended by stupidity.