Making the Hater’s Hit List
By Leighann Lord
When I was a kid, my dad told me that there are people in the world who aspire to mediocrity. I didn’t understand what he meant until I grew up and realized that he’d sugarcoated it. Not only are there people who do not aspire, but they don’t want you to strive for anything either. For whatever reason, they don’t seek to accomplish anything and belittle those who do. I met a couple of folks like this recently after a show; two old men who put me in mind of a Black Statler & Waldorf from The Muppet Show.
“Statler” asked me what I felt about Whoopi Goldberg. I sometimes get asked this question because people assume we are both comedians. We are not. Whoopi, is a comedic actress. This distinction isn’t very important to the general public, but it is to me. While the goal is the same — to entertain — they are different jobs with different skill sets. (Not all singers are musicians. Not all musicians are singers.) That said, I am a fan of Whoopi’s work, and have been since her one woman show. Hell, I sat through Jumping Jack Flash.
I could tell, however, by the way that “Statler” asked the question that he didn’t want to hear my opinion as much as he wanted to share his own, so I said, “What do ‘you’ think of Whoopi?”
“I don’t like her,” he said.
“How come?”
“Why does she have to look like that?”
Like what: comfortable, confident, content? The lack of quotation marks on the previous sentence means that’s what I thought, not what I said. What did happen was a noticeable arch in my left eye brow, which said, ‘What’s wrong with Whoopi?’
“All the money she has, why she can’t fix herself up?”
Right back atcha, Sunshine. Look in the mirror much? Why is it that people who judge others only by their appearance are often so very lacking in theirs? If fixing oneself up is so simple why don’t they do it? Cosmetic surgery is very affordable but I’ll settle for good hygiene. To this lot, a woman’s professional accomplishments are not nearly as important as how stylish her clothes, how perfect her hair or how high her heels. I mean really, why pick on Whoopi when Larry King is disintegrating right before our eyes?
Then “Waldorf” said, “What do you think of Oprah?” Wary I said, “What do you think of her?”
“I don’t like her.”
I kinda saw that coming but I wasn’t sure why. If we’re judging on appearance, then Oprah is very well put together. I was afraid to ask, but I had to know, “What’s wrong with Oprah?”
“She tells all her business,” he said. “Why she got to tell it all? She don’t know how to keep anything private.”
No. No, she doesn’t, which would be really problematic if she worked for Homeland Security, but she’s a talk show host. Salacious stories and tales of woe are valuable currency in our culture. In a weird way it’s almost admirable that Oprah’s not asking her guests to reveal any more or less then she does about herself. Show me yours and I’ll show you mine seems fair.
Of all the reasons not to like Oprah, I’m not sure that loose lips would have made my top 10. At the end of the day, she’s not dishing my dirt, and I don’t recall ever seeing “Statler” and/or “Waldorf” on the show.
I should have brushed off their curmudgeonly comments, but I didn’t like the direction of the conversation. Were there any single, successful black women whom they did like? Who was next on their haters hit list, Condoleeza?
But the human brain is amazing. Sometimes it shuts off or reinterprets experiences that it deems too painful to deal with. My brain did me this solid by offering up the possibility that these Black men — either of whom could have been my father or grandfather — weren’t really disparaging successful Black women while talking to a black woman. No. They just didn’t like famous one-named people. Who knows, maybe they also disliked Prince or Buddha or Hitler. Oh, wait. Hitler was single.
I know it’s impossible to please everybody but you’d at least like to have “family” in your corner. But not everybody gets that. Maybe that’s why some people aspire to mediocrity so as to keep peace with the ne’ er do wells around them. But to quote another successful sister, Mary J. Blige: “It doesn’t matter if you go along with their plan. They’ll never be happy because they’re not happy with themselves.”
I’m not one to go looking for ill will, but I’m actually hoping I make it onto “the list.” Maybe it’ll mean I’m doing something right.
© 2010 Leighann Lord
A very funny lady on the stage and on the page, stand-up comedian Leighann Lord pens a weekly humor column with topics ranging from the personal to the political, from the silly to the sophisticated. Reminiscent of a modern day Erma Bombeck (famed nationally syndicated humor columnist), a fan dubbed Leighann, “The Urban Erma” and the name stuck. It’s a fun, fast read that leaves you laughing, or at least wondering why we don’t have a comprehensive mental health care plan. Follow Leighann on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook.
