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Randi Rhodes Can STILL Kiss My Black Ass!!!

By Sugar on April 7, 2008 at 11:09 AM in Air America Radio, Barack Obama, Oprah

Re-posted from my blog, Sugar N Spice || See related video below.
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Thank God for archives. The post below was written on December 11, 2007 in response to a rant that Air America host Randi Rhodes (her ghost as far as I’m concerned) went on regarding Oprah Winfrey and her "blackness". Now, it appears, Randi is rimming Obama, obviously in an attempt to make good on the rant that occurred back in December because Black folks were PISSED and we should have been. I’m not, nor will I ever be an Obama supporter, but there are some things that are still off limits my white friends! Don’t get it twisted. Now, Hillary is in her crosshairs and Air America put her in theirs. –SUGAR

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From December, 2007

Today, "liberal" talk show host Randi Rhodes set white America back at least 30 years. She decided to stick her ignorant foot in her mouth by saying that Oprah was "acting black" during her recent speeches while stumping with Barack Obama.

This is what I heard as soon as I got into my car this afternoon on my way to the gym. And, before I go any further, let me say that for at least the past two months, it has been my routine to get into my car after work and turn on the Randi Rhodes Show so that I could hear what I considered enlightening, intelligent conversation about all things doing with the war and politics. I’ve told almost everyone I know, including other bloggers, about how much I’ve loved listening to Randi keep it real. Well, today, "keeping it real" went wrong.

Randi, who must be blind in one eye and can’t see out the other, said that Oprah was "acting black". She said that Oprah "turned her blackness up a notch or two", Oprah "went all Maya Angelou on us", Oprah was really acting like Harpo, saying, "That wasn’t Oprah up there! That was Harpo! That was Sophia!! You tole Harpo to beat me!" and "we haven’t seen Oprah that Black since The Color Purple" [Of course, that must be Oprah's one and only film since Randi said it was right? Stupid bitch. I just bought Beloved on Saturday]. As I sat in my car in the parking lot at my gym, my mouth hung open for what must have been five minutes straight every 20 minutes. Caller after caller, black and white, called in to tell Randi she was out of line and to try to give her some insight into Oprah’s approach during her two most recent speeches, but she wasn’t hearing it. She yelled at people, she berated them and she acted like an absolute savage [what's new?]. This, only minutes after her previous story was about how she rarely gets to go on television because execs say "we are afraid of you", basically because she acts so damn ignorant and wild. Today, she proved them right.

She went on to say that the Oprah we see on the Oprah Winfrey Show is the way Oprah always acts and she couldn’t believe that Oprah would be different at home or amongst her friends, namely black ones. A lady called in to tell Randi that Oprah is in essence on her job while doing the O.W. show and that she might have been more relaxed around the black audience. Randi went off, telling the woman that she just couldn’t accept that black people have to live "dual lives and if so, that’s pretty pathetic and I wouldn’t want to live that way." Before I insert a "fuck you", let me let Randi know–most of us do live dual lives and I’m about to show you a bit of it.

Bitch, what in the hell do you think we’ve been ranting and raving about all of these years!? It is an open and often spoken of reality among us, professionals and otherwise, about how we have to "Wear the Mask". Has she never read that FAMOUS (at least among black folks) poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar? Has she never watched the Dave Chappelle Show? ANY black comedians–I can think of at least five comedy bits about the fact that many of us have to switch it up when we are at work. The Sugar in the boardroom is not the same Sugar when I’m in the comfort of my own home.

As I listened to Randi rant and rave about how Oprah must be a fake if she’s different from how she is on the show and how blacks who have to switch it up will never get promotions because they act one way at work and then switch it up when they are home, I realized that there was no need in getting my blood pressure worked up any more. There is only one thing I need to do, because her mind will never be changed–and, that is to stop listening to her show.

I call on all of you who listen to it, or even thought about it, to stop doing so as well. The comments today were unacceptable and downright unbelievable. I felt betrayed, hurt, bamboozled and everything in between. Black people struggle enough as it is in this country without some fool getting up on the radio claiming to know how Oprah is when she isn’t on the show, when Oprah probably doesn’t even know who the fuck she is. I felt like maybe she was trying to use black folks, who hasn’t, to garner some publicity for herself for saying something over the top and I thought about not writing this blog post, but I needed to get it off my chest.

It was almost as if Randi didn’t even want to acknowledge that Oprah is black. She repeatedly said things like, "Oprah was sounding like a black preacher", "Hillary does it" (she does) "Al Gore does it (he does) and "Now Oprah did it"…what this stupid bitch didn’t seem to remember is that Oprah IS black. She isn’t acting black!!! I’m trying to temper my swearing as much as I can, because I tend to be hot-headed, but those comments and the revelation that Randi Rhodes is really an ignorant racist has pushed me over the edge.

We all really need to learn more about one another, but as of this moment, Randi Rhodes is dead to me [thus the picture in the post]. I won’t listen to her show again, I don’t care who she has on. And, if I see the bitch on television, I’ll be hitting channel up or channel down. The thing is, she had so quickly started to have an influence on me, there’s this commercial that runs during her show that suggests buying gold from some company called ITM that I was really going to look into. Not now. She’s done in my world. Silly bitch. –SUGAR 

  • Dawnelle

    LOVE reading over at Sugar & Spice!

    and RIGHT ON about Randi! She has sunk below a belly crawl in my eyes. A hideous fraud of which I was once proud. At least of her service. Now I’m thinking she was “let out” on a medical or something.

    Cuz that kind of talk was CRAZY traitor talk to MOST “even barely” decent Women!

    • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

      Me too. I’m Sugar’s biggest fan!

  • grtphoto

    Sugar, thank you, I was a daily RR listener and I remember that day vividly! That’s when I believe she started to lose her hold on rational, informative show. She berated every caller and was un apologetic. It was such a turn off. After she completely contradicted herself on Obama (around january i believe) i stopped listening and turned back. Thank you for your archives!!! Thanks for exposing this will data! Take care.

    • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

      Grtphoto, that broadcast was unreal. I had become such a fan because I liked the guests she had on and then I started noticing the trend of her ripping people apart without even letting them get a word in edgewise. When this broadcast occured, I was so hurt. I had told soooooo many people to listen to her show. I had even blogged about how much I enjoyed it! I was so embarrassed when she went on this rant.

  • AnononoMale

    I’m a white male and I get what you’re saying. I, too, have to switch faces (I am not implying that being black is equivalent to the next clause)since when people hear my accent then they automatically assume that I’m stupid, ignorant, and probably a pervert since that’s the way my ethnic group is played in the media constantly.

    • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

      AnononoMale, someone left a comment at my blog a day or so ago along the same lines. That we all “wear a mask” of sorts from day to day and I think that’s very true.

      • http://www.madinthemiddle.blogspot.com AnononoMale

        Thank you for not jumping down my throat; I was hesitant to make the point because I’ve been reamed a couple of times by Ombamians because I suggested his dialect shifts for black audiences was a deliberate strategy (for which I see nothing wrong). Sen. Clinton has done the same thing– tho I find her folksy accent a bit more believable. Obama has the sound of a preacher but I don’t feel the spiritual power coming from him that I do from (gasp!) Rev.Wright and others. Of course, I’m just a human being and I can be fooled.

  • Cameron

    I’ve never listened to Randi Rhodes, but she sounds like a moron. I can’t speak for anybody else, but I’d never dream of talking to my boss the way I talk to my buddies in the taproom. Where in the world did she come up with this nonsense?

    • Tricia

      I never listened to RR either, and hope that I never have that opporunity in the future.

  • bert

    there’s this commercial that runs during
    her show that suggests buying gold from
    some company called ITM that I was really
    going to look into. Not now.

    Sugar, if you feel this way then you should tell and/or write both ITM and AA. Paid ads are the life blood of TV and radio. If the advertisers lose business they will either stop advertising at AA or AA might begin to consider dropping Randi all together. Its always about the $$$$$.

    I too remember that day on the Randi Rhodes show. I was so upset because I was trying to hear what others were saying and Randi was so rude.

    I quit listening about a month later when she began to go all ballistic on Clinton. I am glad to hear that I was not the only person out there who felt this way.

    And thanks too to No Quarter for linking to Huff Po and the OUTSTANDING article by Earl Ofari Hutchinson. I would have never read that becasue I also boycott HuffPo now becasue of the very things Mr. Hutchinson writes about. It is wonderful to know that there is still a sane liberal left position in America.

    • John

      Every Air America host pimps that Gold Investment company, it’s actually pretty funny. Good idea– stick it to Air America by calling that company and telling them you will NOT invest until they drop AA from their accounts.

      And do the same for that gas additive that windbag Schultz can’t stop pimping on his show.

    • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

      Bert, I went on a solo letter writing campaign when it happened! She’s not on at her usual hour in D.C. anymore. I’m not sure if they’ve shuffled her to another timeslot, but she’s not on anymore. I’m afraid though that they are punishing us for too much outcry because now Glenn Beck is in her slot. Some days I feel like just begging them to bring her back because he’s so gawd awful. lol

      • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

        Oh. God. Glenn Beck. Is he usually sober when he’s on?

        ….waving and blowing kisses to Sugar….

  • workingclass artist

    Way to go…. Rhodes is just another idiotic anti-feminist. Truth is everybody phonies up a little and it’s more about class than about race. Example… I’m white and working class, but you can bet I Ivy League it ( Penn 89′ ) when I need to to get the work, or on occasion play up my progressive underclass up yours mischievious uppity and do the classic thumb nose ( esp. at non-sensical uber libs ) just for fun. Kinda like a favorite college game we would engage in with evangelicals, when addressing the socialist platform of Jesus. The point is that when do idiots like Rhodes ever get the idea that they don’t have the power to define anyone… Especially when their own identity is so clearly and publicly in crisis. LOL! GREAT ESSAY. RHODES AND HER ILK CAN KISS MY WORKING CLASS ASS TOO. ( hope here’s room in the line )

    • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

      Workingclass artist, there is plenty room in this line! lol Randi is her own worse enemy and she has nobody to blame but herself for the mess she’s finding herself in.

  • simon

    Wearing the mask, a very pertinent point, one we all forget when dealing with others, ie, who am I really dealing with, and how do they really think?

    People see what they want to see, what they can handle, not the truth.

  • grace

    Share this MUST SEE clip with everyone you know…

    Hillary Clinton: Mad As Hell/Bitch

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcdnlNZg2iM

    • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

      OMG. Gold. Pure. Gold. I gotta blog this!

    • AmyinSC

      Wow, Grace – thanks for posting that. Seeing and hearing all of the sexist, no – misogynistic insults hurled at her, at US, over and over just hit me at my core. Then, to see her stand up, for herself, for us, for everyone who has treated as less than, just makes me love her, and support her more. Moved me to tears. Thank you…

      • AmyinSC

        Oops – supposed to read, “…for everyone who has BEEN treates…”

      • AmyinSC

        Oops…That was supposed to be, “…for everyone who has BEEN treated as less than…”

      • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

        I know Amy. It brought tears to my eyes too. Any woman who has ever been thru the corporate America struggle to make life easier for the complacent next generation would cry. It’s us. All of us. If not to our faces, then behind our backs!

        • Hope

          I have a question about the Mistress Randi:
          She looks exceedingly white to me, yet I have heard her claim to be AA. Is she just bullshitting us about this or is she AA?

    • ginaswo

      yes! Cafferty in that youtube calls HRC a multiple personality disorder, think she has different aspects like all human beings Jack you schmxck?
      wow is this powerful!

      • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

        God, Cafferty, he has a great face for radio doesn’t he? Does he not always look like he has a gas pocket? I cam imagine he crosses his legs behind that desk when he thinks of the possibility that a woman might free his poor wife, if she hasn’t left him. What a miserable bastard he is. If he’s that miserable on camera, can you even imagine what it must be like to live with him?

  • linfar

    Hey, sugar, it’s linfar. Just delighted to see you here and read this great post of yours too. I sent a young AA woman to your website yesterday. She is pretty angry at white women. I thought encountering you might give her a little more to think about :) As for RR, good riddance to bad rubbish…

  • Regency

    Send this to everyone, everywhere. News agencies, blogs, websites. It needs to go viral. Even send it to tips@hillaryclinton.com so that they can post it on the blog. Everyone should see this. Facebook, MySpace, Tickle, Hi5, LiveJournal, e-mail. Name it.

  • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

    Grace, that video nearly made me snap my keyboard in half I was so angry watching those idiots!! Thank you SOOOOO much for posting the link. It goes on my blog today too!!! Enough is enough!

  • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

    Please everyone. Post that video any place you can think of. Somebody ought to stick it on my.barackobama sites. you know the places. KOS ought to get link bombed too. And Huffy. In fact, keep the link bookmarked for the next time an obamazoid called you a c*nt.

    • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

      ….and don’t forget myObamaDD too. The place where they only barely tolerate Clinton supporters out of shame.

      • Hope

        I FEEL SO CHEAP!

  • ybnormal

    “acting black” or being black

    I think I’m pretty safe in saying a lot of people generally attempt to adapt to whoever they’re talking to. What happens when they don’t?

    This question reminds me of when the movie version of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ was released. A number of movie critics commented that the voice of Audrey II the carniverous plant was a demeaning caricature of urban blacks.

    One problem with that view.

    The voice of Audrey II was played by Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the Four Tops, an urban black from detroit. I’ve heard Stubbs sing since I was a teenager in the 60′s, and also remember hearing him talk briefly in interviews, such as with Dick Clark on American Bandstand.

    Based on all that, I don’t believe Stubbs was caricaturing or falsely imitating anyone. He always was, and still is, who he is; and in the case of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, was penalized for it.

    People adapt their talk to their audience, because they know better than to not do so.

    So it would seem the comments of critics reveal more about the commentor, than about the commentee. Maybe the only voice they can hear as acceptable is their own.

  • tngirl

    Wow Sugar, thank you! As someone who frequently has to switch myself I sympathize. Growing up I worked so hard to lose my accent because it was an automatic stigma and to my shame I did lose much of it for some time. When I went into grad school those of us that were from the south and/or black had to hide it from the professors. We got to see the way those students with the wrong accents were treated from the inside and it’s worse than you think (well maybe not). However, when we were alone we could all be ourselves. It was a shared secret that no one ever mentioned out loud. I still have to put on the “news caster” voice to be taken seriously and I loathe doing it. Worse I loathe the times I catch myself being prejudiced against those that talk like I really talk. It’s a terrible think to realize that society has programmed you to react negatively to the voices of your own family and have to fight against that programming.

    • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

      tngirl, it’s an amazing phenomenon that is so often unspoken, but what I’m finding even more interesting is the fact that a number of white commenters have mentioned that they wear a mask of their own! We all have so much we could learn from one another.

      • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

        I think we all wear them at times. Adapt Adapt Adapt. It’s all about audience. Then when we get home, it’s all about who we are.

      • tngirl

        Sugar, I agree. Too many people have grown up de facto segregated by either race or class or both so they never get to see outside their own social circles. You know how bad the media is but what you don’t realize until you make it out of the barriers is how bad regular people can be without them even realizing it. There is hope like others have said, my generation, thanks to Dr. King and others, grew up free from the worst forms of racism and prejudice — and thank God — free from carrying the burden of hate in our souls. With that gift we can unite and talk and work to stamp out the remnants of racism rest of our “isms” in a way that could never happen before.

  • Gloria

    I heard Randi Rhodes the day she discussed the Oprah appearance. She asked if she was playing a role as she changed her speech pattern. She did NOT say directly that she thought Oprah was faking it. She “mused” about the possibility and said she didn’t know several times. She also repeated over and over that she LOVES Oprah.

    Then she opened up the phone lines to find out what listeners thought.

    My recollection was that Rhodes was really wondering about what the change of speech pattern was all about. As did I that day….

    • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

      Well, Gloria you obviously haven’t listened to the clip in SusanUnPC’s post because she clearly says that Oprah was faking it. So, you are wrong.

  • Hope

    Hey I was married into a family of people who hated Jews and Italians. I’m both! That was a lovely household. Mind you these were highly educated biggots and boy did I ever have to wear my mask.

    I figure by the time I get to be 80 I will let it all HANG OUT!!

    • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

      Hahahah. Yeah I’m a Garlic Nose too, sister. It’s a blast sometimes isn’t it?

  • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

    Well, hope springs eternal…

  • Lisa in FL

    Why is RR back on the air?? I hope I’m not mistaken since she’s supposed to be suspended indefinately. I turned the radio on WJNO in Palm Beach, FL this afternoon and there she was talking about her “vacation” (much sarcasm). Has anyone heard anything about this?

    • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

      Lisa, I sure hope that was a rebroadcast that you heard today. :(

  • Ron from S.F.

    Randi Rhodes has gone too far. Taking on Hillary is one thing. But now she is attacking Oprah too! How dumb can you get? Her copy of “How to win friends and influence people” should be recalled.

  • WMCB

    I’m white, but I understand the language thing, I think. I am educated. I am articulate. I have a quite extensive vocabulary, and wrote for a newspaper at one point in my life. I can write and speak formally all the day long, and am known for being a grammar snob in formal correspondence and in critiquing writing. I very much appreciate the beauty of good language, and its purpose and artfulness.

    HOWEVER. I grew up poor white trash in the south. If you get me together with my sisters? Sweetie, things get loose and fast. The “gees” start dropping of the ends of words, and there is a lot of “y’all”, a lot of “Oh, honey, let me tell you sumpin’ ’bout that right there”, a lot of “she ain’t got no business goin’ over there and gettin’ up in that mess…” There are some “Lawd have mercy”s and a few “sheeee-yut”s. (The word shit has TWO syllables in the south.)

    It is the easy, soft cadence of my childhood. It is comfort language, much the same as comfort food. It’s a way of connecting with my sisters and family, not ignorance. And a lot of it is colorful and expressive in a way that my “normal” speech is not.