Coonery VS. Stupid black people

What makes someone a coon? What makes them a Tom?

I'm a fan of Tracy Morgan. He is a brilliant comedian and develops very clever, skilled jokes. But his persona of the mentally-unhinged, sexual miscreant makes alot of black people nervous and alot of white people laugh WAY too hard. Is he cooning? To a black audience, he is simply a pervert, a jokester and very weird. But to a white audience who looks down on black culture, he is a modern Stepin Fetchit. But the fact is, he IS who he portrays. It is not as contrived a character as you'd think. He has a ton of kids (but he is married), he seems to have some perconality disorders (but professionally, he is talented sucess) and his humor is very raw, surreal and often juvenile.

Coonery is when a black person CONSCIOUSLY conforms to a popular racist stereotype. A dumb black motherfucker who fits the stereotype, not by choice, is not a coon. He is just a stupid person who is black. OJ Simpson = coon. Flava Flav = silly black man. He's just being himself. He just happens to make white people feel superior. Britney Spears should make the average black woman feel superior. Is she a white coon? She embodies tasteless public sexuality, intellectually-opressive entertainment, the evil stereotype of blondes as stupid, troubled bimbos.

Then I think people of asian, hispanic, indian ethnicity can be coons. I've seen plenty of them degrade themselves to gain white favor and ... usually money.

So we have to ask can a white person coon? Have you ever heard of a white man fitting to a negative white sterotype to win a minority's favor. Its different than white guilt.

I think we need to seperate and redefine of "coon". One kind of coon makes whites feel superior: Stepin Fetchit and most rappers. While others, the more Uncle Tom-ish black, exists solely to make whites feel safe and unthreatened in a world of "scary black people". He isn't a symbol of degradation, he reinforces whites' feeling of black EQUALITY. I think Uncle Toms are necessary, when its genuine. Because I appreciate a white guy like Kenny Loggins thats makes me think "Damn, white people can be nice to have around".