I'm Ready For Your Fat, Racist Whore Comments

Okay, so I am going to do something I've never done. I'm going to stick up for Lindsay Lohan. And, after reading three words, some random asshole will probably call me a racist for doing so, but whatever. I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on this. Am I insensitive or is everyone else too sensitive?

Seems our favorite little freckled freak recently told Access Hollywood that she's very excited that Barack Obama is our first "colored president." The blogs are having a field day, painting Lindsay as an ignorant racist who blatantly disrespected a man whom she vocally supported throughout his campaign.

Lindsay Lohan - ignorant? Well, yeah. Kinda. Disrespectful? A touch. Whorish? Yup. On something? Uh huh. Racist? I doubt it.

Maybe the girl didn't choose her words as wisely as she should've - and that should surprise no one - but I really think that too big of an issue is being made of this. Have we really all become this easily offended?

This reminds me of older men's use of the word "girl." I've worked a lot of administrative and support jobs in my life, and I can't tell you how many times a boss has referred to me as "his girl" or, in an office of several support people, one of "the girls." Then there was the dreaded "sweetheart," or "dear." This kind of talk is all very Mad Men and seems sexist and condescending, but 9 times out of 10, I could tell that those guys weren't trying to insult or belittle me. That doesn't mean that it didn't annoy me, because sometimes it did. But I didn't let it bother me too much because I knew that that was just they way they talked. (And I don't know how many of you have ever pulled your boss aside to tell him that he's wrong, but those of you who have are probably pretty familiar with the unemployment line.)

By the same token, I completely understand that the word "colored" carries a negative connotation with it. It takes us back to the racial oppression and segregation of the '50s and '60s. So, YES, I absolutely understand why many people find it offensive. But I think anyone can watch LiLo's interview and see that she isn't trying to offend. She isn't trying to be disrespectful. She's just trying to remain upright and form words.

Further complicating this issue is that the phrase "people of color" is still in widespread use, which, to me, is really no different than "colored." Maybe I look at it like a writer and think: Well, now, that's just good editing. Get rid of that preposition! Then there is that pesky NAACP - the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Sure, it was founded just about 100 years ago, but as the leading civil rights organization in the country, one might expect it to look into a name change if there are major negatives associated with the current one.

Also, even though there has been something of a push to replace "black" with "African American," "black" is still used and generally not thought of as demeaning. It's a descriptor, just like white. Now, if you want to say that it's wrong to use "colored" to describe "black" people because black is actually the absence of all color, then that's the kind of anal thinking that I can get behind.

I'm not saying that people don't have a legitimate reason for bristling when they hear the word "colored," but sometimes words are just words. When white people (except Eminem, I guess) use the N-word, there is obvious malice behind it. No guesswork needed there. But with a word like "colored," or even "black," the context in which it's used is important.

If a sweet, little 70-year-old Christian woman calls someone "a colored," it could just be because that was the word used in her day. She could also be a raging racist because she grew up in a time when everyone else was. Wow, okay. So that's a bad example.

Well, since I started out talking about Lindsay Lohan, she's the perfect example. She's talking about her happiness over a man she voted for, and even wanted to work for, being elected president. For some reason, she chose to say "colored president" instead of "black president" or "African American president." No one knows why. Not even Samantha Ronson. Did she mean to insult this man whom she is so proud of? I don't think so.

Seeing as how Lindsay is so young and has probably never been a big American history buff, I'm surprised she even had such an archaic word in her vocabulary in the first place. But if it wasn't used to harm, why is everyone jumping on this and voicing their "outrage" over her "derogatory comment?"

What bothers me is the immediate backlash from people in the media and in the blogging world, using all of their righteous anger to paint all of these labels on the girl for a small lapse in judgment or, more likely, a complete lack of knowledge. If her problem really is ignorance, then why not simply try to educate her? Why vilify her? This wasn't like Michael Richards' racial rampage or Mel Gibson's anti-semetic tirade. She said a word that isn't used in polite society anymore, and she obviously knows that now, so let's all move on. And you, idiots at Access Hollywood, you're making things worse by trying to cover it up and issuing a statement that "the word was unintelligible." Give me a break.

And give Linz a break. She will do something truly worthy of outrage soon enough. I have faith in her. After all, she still has her driver's license.