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Let's Remember That Time Jimmy Kimmel Cried Over a Fuckin Lion
- Thread starter Back-In-Black
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Even more salt in the wound is that Cecil was an African lion. Like, really? African lion gets you choked up, African American, as dry as the Sahara?
In all seriousness, it is disheartening that the privileged groups that have platforms for speaking out about the social issues that oppress and hinder upward mobility for blacks and other marginalized groups largely refuse to use those platforms as a means to educate.
It's even more disheartening when it's clear that the left needs a media machine as well oiled as the rights. FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and their ilk are on message 24/7. They rile up their viewer base and get them invested in their causes.
The liberal equivalent of a Trevor Noah, or Jon Stewart, or Stephen Colbert don't have that reach. Supposed liberal "allies" like a Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon? Those guys are silent, despite entering the homes of millions every night. "Oh, it's just jokes!" Is the excuse. There's always an excuse as to why we can't talk about race issues "right now." It's always an "inopportune time."
And I'm someone who was legit upset that that douchebag hunter killed Cecil. But I'm also a black man in America who lives in very real fear of what could happen to me if I scare or upset the wrong perso just by, let's see:
Sitting in my car listening to music
Sit in my car with my white wife
Walking down the street in a hoodie
Walking in a Walmart with a BB Gun (sold at Walmart!) in my hand
Walk on the "wrong" side of the street
Seek help after a car accident
Enter my own home
Call the police if I need help
And so on and so forth. Apparently, the empathy people are rightfully pouring out for abused animals doesn't extend to me, or people like me. Folks are real quick to retweet, sign a petition, and angry emoji a Facebook post, but the moment the time comes to act and engage in real discourse about systemic and institutional racism in this country, people clamp up.
The people with the eyes and ears of millions of Americans. The people that have the ratings and viewership of viewers across all political parties don't say shit about what's happening to black people. They don't present an alternative viewpoint to the FOX News, and the Limbaughs, and the O'Reillys.
Black people try to do it themselves, take some responsibility and agency, and what's the response? "All lives matter." They don't hear a damn thing we say. You have millions of white Americans saying that they're the ones that have it worse in this day and age compared to black people. That we should he happy at the progress we have, while a boot is still on our throats. Our neighborhoods decay and so do we. And nobody but us and a bunch of social media posts shed a tear.
But Jimmy got five minute segments full of waterworks for a dead lion.
As an actual human being battling institutional racism from the day o was born, it makes me sad. Then some privileged non-black tries to tell me I have to feel bad because I dare to have a bit more empathy for black peoples and other marginalized groups than I do for an abused animal.
In all seriousness, it is disheartening that the privileged groups that have platforms for speaking out about the social issues that oppress and hinder upward mobility for blacks and other marginalized groups largely refuse to use those platforms as a means to educate.
It's even more disheartening when it's clear that the left needs a media machine as well oiled as the rights. FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and their ilk are on message 24/7. They rile up their viewer base and get them invested in their causes.
The liberal equivalent of a Trevor Noah, or Jon Stewart, or Stephen Colbert don't have that reach. Supposed liberal "allies" like a Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon? Those guys are silent, despite entering the homes of millions every night. "Oh, it's just jokes!" Is the excuse. There's always an excuse as to why we can't talk about race issues "right now." It's always an "inopportune time."
And I'm someone who was legit upset that that douchebag hunter killed Cecil. But I'm also a black man in America who lives in very real fear of what could happen to me if I scare or upset the wrong perso just by, let's see:
Sitting in my car listening to music
Sit in my car with my white wife
Walking down the street in a hoodie
Walking in a Walmart with a BB Gun (sold at Walmart!) in my hand
Walk on the "wrong" side of the street
Seek help after a car accident
Enter my own home
Call the police if I need help
And so on and so forth. Apparently, the empathy people are rightfully pouring out for abused animals doesn't extend to me, or people like me. Folks are real quick to retweet, sign a petition, and angry emoji a Facebook post, but the moment the time comes to act and engage in real discourse about systemic and institutional racism in this country, people clamp up.
The people with the eyes and ears of millions of Americans. The people that have the ratings and viewership of viewers across all political parties don't say shit about what's happening to black people. They don't present an alternative viewpoint to the FOX News, and the Limbaughs, and the O'Reillys.
Black people try to do it themselves, take some responsibility and agency, and what's the response? "All lives matter." They don't hear a damn thing we say. You have millions of white Americans saying that they're the ones that have it worse in this day and age compared to black people. That we should he happy at the progress we have, while a boot is still on our throats. Our neighborhoods decay and so do we. And nobody but us and a bunch of social media posts shed a tear.
But Jimmy got five minute segments full of waterworks for a dead lion.
As an actual human being battling institutional racism from the day o was born, it makes me sad. Then some privileged non-black tries to tell me I have to feel bad because I dare to have a bit more empathy for black peoples and other marginalized groups than I do for an abused animal.
Claps for days man
Breakfast at Noon
Member
Nope, Not at all.
Humanity is scum, Animals are innocent.
Well maybe you have a problem. I cared a bit more when Tamir Rice was killed than when Cecil the Lion was killed.
gutter_trash
Banned
driving an animal species into instinction and trying to self-convince oneself that the human species is benevolant to Earth's ecosystem is absurd
science wise, humans as a species are an invasive species
Air Zombie Meat
Member
Go hug a wild bear and see how that works out for you.
Breakfast at Noon
Member
Complete opposite.
Almost like you've never met a vegan before.
I can share some videos if you would like to see why most of us put animals before humanity.
A animal mauling me to death does not make the animal guilty, it makes me a idiot for going into a aggresive animals zone and approaching it.
I would post a clapping gif if I weren't on mobile. Bravo.
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
I dislike most vegans I've met because they try to make me feel guilty for eating meat. I know what happens to animals. Shit's cruel. I still value a human's life more when my people are being killed in the streets by the police and this country doesn't and hasn't cared about my people for centuries.
Shamrock7r
Member
Sorry I just can't agree with the premise of this thread as it pertains specifically to Jimmy Kimmel, as the connection between his feelings about the Lion vs the plight of Black Americans just isn't there.
As others have alluded to in the thread, you can use the logic of the OP to equate it to a number of terrible things going on in the US and around the world and say "Why isn't Kimmel crying on tv about this?!". It's unfair. Being passionate about the death of a lion does not automatically mean he isn't empathetic the cause of other people's woes. The fact is that there so many horrible atrocities being commited around the world, I would imagine it's pretty damn hard to be passionate about it all. Thus, we pick and choose, consciously and subconsciously, what we are going to be more expressive about, and pull our emotional resources towards. As a poster above alluded to, there are a lot of white people joining the BLM cause. There have been other celebrities/ popular figures speaking out about racism as well.
This is what Kimmel is passionate about, animals, apparently. Some dedicate a large chunk of their time to bringing awareness to cancer. Some volunteer to help the homeless. Some spread awareness about suicide and run programs to help against that. Some people run animal shelters to help stray animals find a home. I had a friend who went to a refugee camp over the last summer to help hand out resources to refugees, and now started a non profit charity to get necessary items to those refugees based on her experience. As long as a person's passions are being directed towards the greater good, then what the heck is the problem?
As others have alluded to in the thread, you can use the logic of the OP to equate it to a number of terrible things going on in the US and around the world and say "Why isn't Kimmel crying on tv about this?!". It's unfair. Being passionate about the death of a lion does not automatically mean he isn't empathetic the cause of other people's woes. The fact is that there so many horrible atrocities being commited around the world, I would imagine it's pretty damn hard to be passionate about it all. Thus, we pick and choose, consciously and subconsciously, what we are going to be more expressive about, and pull our emotional resources towards. As a poster above alluded to, there are a lot of white people joining the BLM cause. There have been other celebrities/ popular figures speaking out about racism as well.
This is what Kimmel is passionate about, animals, apparently. Some dedicate a large chunk of their time to bringing awareness to cancer. Some volunteer to help the homeless. Some spread awareness about suicide and run programs to help against that. Some people run animal shelters to help stray animals find a home. I had a friend who went to a refugee camp over the last summer to help hand out resources to refugees, and now started a non profit charity to get necessary items to those refugees based on her experience. As long as a person's passions are being directed towards the greater good, then what the heck is the problem?
Air Zombie Meat
Member
Fair point. Honestly I get where you're coming from but humans ain't all bad. The worst of us can be worse than animals but the best of us can be better.
Puck Beaverton
Banned
not all bad but I feel we can all agree that we're kinda killing Earth.
I'm sure if we ever moved to another planet we would kill that too.
This is kinda off the whole point of the thread, because humans shouldn't be apathetic to other humans, yet we kinda are. Maybe it helps us get through the day? Dunno.
Jeffolation
Banned
To me this comes across as being unhinged. I hope you're not a firefighter, I can you you running into a burning building, moving past people in danger to rescue house cats, parakeets, ant farms etc.
Megawarrior
Member
....hm I wonder why.
I feel this would be quite hypocritical: becoming what we(liberals) hate. While I understand the success of FOX news and the like. I don't think that is a good answer. All that will do is make us what happened to the right, it will push us far left. Further left than we can imagine. I suppose the closest thing we have to a FOX news currently would be something like The Yung Turks or an unknown(to me) radical-left site.
I just don't think that would bode well.
The BB gun had me dying. The idea of buying a BB gun has never crossed my mind as a black man. I wouldn't even buy a goddamn NERF gun and walk around with it in public. It must be fun being white and able to carry an AR-15 on your shoulder to Starbucks.
They're a vegan, there is a 60/40 chance you'll get a rational thinking one
Breakfast at Noon
Member
Lol.
I'm not saying I would not help a fellow human out, in fact I'm a very nice and loving guy (my handle is a song name not literal)
I just love animals and hate the majority of the human race and what we are doing to this planet.
This thread just goes to show how badly Americans underestimate how terrible their country treats black people. Like, my dad is a black man from Africa. He was born and raised around people that looked like him. He was always taught to think of himself as equal (maybe even a little better lol) to every other human being. The thought that others, especially people in power, could treat him lesser than others, without any feeling of guilt or shame, just doesn't compute for him. And that makes discussing BLM or the black American experience impossible with my dad because he just gets so so angry. The thought that a young black man could be left dead on the street for hours, that someone can get away with killing an innocent teenager or even just the way black people are too often treated by police in general. It can drive my dad mad. What makes it even worse is the lack of remorse, guilt or shame, collective and individual. Y'all are justifying a popular TV-show host staying completely silent on the matter but for an outsider like my dad that shit is enough justification for a revolution. Civil fucking war even. The killing of black Americans should anger and infuriate every decent American to their core. Jimmy Kimmel taking the time to acknowledge Sandy Hook but not the many black deaths that have finally caused such a stir in the country is bad enough. The fact that he also goes out of his way to cry over a fucking lion is just idiotic and a perfect display how little most of America cares about their fellow black citizens.
The fact that you even dare to post this shit in a thread about the lack of acknowledgement for the malicious killings of innocent black men, women and children is just... mind-blowing.
The fact that you even dare to post this shit in a thread about the lack of acknowledgement for the malicious killings of innocent black men, women and children is just... mind-blowing.
tattooed_dwarf
Member
Why are you so close minded about vegans? I have not met single vegan who have tried to make me feel guilty. But I have met loads of people who try to make vegans feel guilty or keep harassing them to explain their personal choice.
All these people aggressively talking how white people this and white people that and painting with broad strokes. If you want change, don't try to create more gap between blacks and whites with trying to make them feel guilty, you just push those "all lives matter" folks even further into defense state. Build god damn bridges, not walls.
Have bad experiences with multiple vegans who tried to preach to me = me having an issue with vegans off the jump. I won't shit on someone for being vegan, but holy hell almost every vegan I have encountered is an asshole
I ain't gotta be the one to build a bridge, if me saying that white people do something offends you even if you don't do that thing, you got a problem.
You are intellectually vacant.
Humans are animals. Humanity is one of the evolutionary traits that we bring to bare against a hostile nature by helping those in need. Something 99% of other species haven't grasped. Well, and you.
In a thread about the trivialization of black lives over animals you drop this sewage in here?
Breakfast at Noon
Member
Ah yeah.. seem to have got my wording wrong I do apologise.
DukeSilverHaze
Banned
Well was it animals who destroyed the planet through industrialization, or was it white people?
That's not even getting into the systematic racism.
Mammoth Jones
Member
So was Tamir Rice...
tattooed_dwarf
Member
Damn, you missed the point completely.
First of all, how do you even know if people are vegan or not? Like if some vegan doesn't say anything, how would you know they are vegan?
On second point you make, what kind of line of thinking is that? Like are you seriously thinking that you can generalize people and if they get offended, it's their problem? You realize you sound like those "make America great again" folks, with their "finally I don't have to be politically correct"shit. What are you doing to help issue? Are you just doing the same thing you hate those vegans, attacking people and trying to make them feel guilty. If you just wait for those who don't see oppression on black people to magically wake up, you are just delusional human being. And not helping the issue at all.
I used to have a BB Gun that I'm not sure where i got it from (maybe a gift?) but I got rid of it real quick. It looked like a 45, silver and with no orange tip. Never was comfort ale having it.
As for my FOX News comment, when I say we need a well oiled machine like the Right, I don't mean our machine functions the same as theirs. Their platform is about drudging up the boogeyman of "The Other." Black man: thug. Mexican: rapist. Muslim: terrorist. LGBT: abnormal and ammoral degenerates. etc etc. In my mind, liberal left equivalent wouldn't be about demonizing the right, but humanizing marginalized groups like blacks, mexicans, Muslims, the LGBT community, Asians, and everyone in between.
The problem the left faces is that the right has done such a bang up job of seeding the notion that non-Christian, conservative, non-white human beings aren't human at all, and thus aren't worthy of empathy.
While I was in the doctors office waiting for my wife, I was reading the latest issue of Time magazine, and their cover story was about refuge families from Syria, and how these men and women had fled their homeland because they were in literal danger for their lives, and their children were born in dirty tents at the various camps, and it made me want to cry. To reach through the magazine and take them away from such horrible circumstances. The. I remembered that here in America, they'd just be treated like potential terrorist threats, and "others" like the rest of us.
The Liberal Media Machine's sole purpose would be to not focus on how backwards, bigoted, and racist the right is (although I'm sure some programming would continue to call that shit out), but focus on driving home the message that marginalized groups are just as deserving as your compassion and empathy as a white person.
Another example is that in the foster care system, minority kids, in particular black kids, are often bypassed for adoption compared to non-black kids. You'd think that the empathy people have for children would extend to children of all ethnicities, but by and large, black kids are consistently stuck in the foster care and adoption system, waiting for a loving family. Black kids that are adopted are also pegged as having a higher rate of abuse by their adoptive families when they are adopted.
In a sense, it's like a microcosm of racial empathy in this country: blacks receive less empathy in America than any other ethnicity That isn't to dismiss the racial discrimination that also occurs for other minorities in this country; but remember, blacks make up only 14% of the total United States population; whites make up 64%, and all other ethnicities make up the remainder. Blacks still make up the largest percentage of minorities in America. Other minorities have a struggle as well, of course.
I think the hope has always been that any victories blacks achieve over racial discrimination and institutional racism will also envelope the other marginalized minorities. The goal is to have everyone be seen as equally as valuable as whites in this country. BLM may be a movement specifically about black lives, but the progress made by the movement will hopefully benefit other minorities as well in some way. Mainly humanizing us and encouraging empathy for our well being.
1. The people I'm talking about are people who will interrupt a convo to talk about them being vegan. I don't attack vegans. I don't try to make them feel guilty. I really don't care. Just don't be an asshole with it or say something dumb. A viewpoint I basically already said earlier. Learn to read.
2. I ain't waiting on shit, I protest, I do things in my power, but I ain't with that talking shit with ignorant people. Not anymore. I ain't got the patience to deal with someone who doesn't understand what BLM means. I'll be doing me and for those willing to educate, good for them. Not I
This is more of that 'reach out to racists' bullshit that people keep repeating from the sidelines to make themselves feel above the ones that have been dealing with the struggle forever. How the hell do you invite one party to the conversation when that group tries to flip the table any time the status quo is questioned?
Did you know it's possible to discuss something - and even use emotionally evocative language in your writing such that it resonates with people beyond the extent dry essays will - without being "upset"?
This is a detailed OP that puts forth a complex and deliberately constructed point - in the sense that it requires some abstract thinking to parse - and thus it uses a concrete example to demonstrate how the maltreatment and suffering of black people is downplayed in the media. It's not merely a whataboutism directed Jimmy Kimmel, it's voicing the concern that "hey, there's this continual, systemic problem that far too few people acknowledge as even really happening... and far too many of those who do even recognize it just try and deflect into platitudes as opposed to doing anything about it". It is explicitly stated that the problem is not Jimmy Kimmel giving recognition to the fight against animal cruelty, which is a very important fight undertaken by countless valiant and warm-hearted individuals... But it is stated that it really needs to be that "right time" to address systemic racism instead of just saying it's always "not the time".
Let's try to read on a level a little bit above "identify the title" and "identify the author's tone".
maquiladora
Member
"I'm a very nice and loving guy"
....
"Humanity is scum"
"I hate the majority of the human race"
"If there is a car crash I don't give a fuck about the people involved"
....
"I'm a very nice and loving guy"
Puck Beaverton
Banned
We do have plenty of shows like that.
Parts Unknown and Vice docs are good places to start, for instance.
Aaronology
Member
Hmm. You guys are laying it on a little thick, dont'cha think?
In fact...It almost feels like rabble rousing in the goal here and not an actual discussion.
Agreed almost across the board.
Specifically on the bold: Before moving to New Mexico and getting a job that involves working on reservations and interacting with Natives throughout my day, I never thought much of the plight of America's indigenous folk. In Chicago, my emotional energy and the activism that grew from it had been focused exclusively on Civil Rights and LGBT issues. It's an unfortunate reality that for a lot of White Americans, black people are similarly out of sight and out of mind. That's why groups like BLM are so important, as they collective raise our voices loud enough to be heard by people emotionally, geographically and politically detached from the reality of discrimination plaguing the country.
Sounds like prejudice to me.
SamuelSupreme
Banned
People like Kimmel are worst than people who are openly racist. Its one thing to let us know you hate us. Its another to just standby and be silent on the issue but if confronted you front and act like you care.
FOH.
FOH.
Puck Beaverton
Banned
You probably hate the majority of the middle class then.
Mammoth Jones
Member
People said that about MLK with his criticism of the White moderate.
Breakfast at Noon
Member
Yeah, sounds like me
NervousXtian
Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
People have more empathy towards animals than humans... it's because they view animals as innocent. It's hard for a lot of people to get outraged or sad about the evil things humans do all the time. The big stories about animals getting killed happen far less, so they tend to impact people more.
Though I find it sad that we value animal life sometimes more than human life.
Though I find it sad that we value animal life sometimes more than human life.
I agree with the spirit of what you are saying. Everyone should help the world in accordance with their passions and what they can offer. But it is quite the problem that those possessing the platform through which information could be widely disseminated have been neglecting the struggle of black people or trying to route around the uncomfortable truths with non sequitur proverbs like saying "all people matter!" in response to "please help! this specific group of people are being severely hurt in specific systemic ways!"
But it isn't really "Jimmy Kimmel" that matters here - he is merely an example used to present a broad trend in a more concrete manner and in a more emotionally resonant manner through creating a juxtaposition as a means to create context for the reader. I think because of his position it is a valid example to use - I would not consider using a veterinarian as a valid example and would rebuke that as you have. They are helping the world through their passions and are to be respected! But I think Jimmy Kimmel the media as a whole are failing to use their unique position as the conduit of mainstream information flow to help black people, and are instead for the most part pushing a very pressing issue under the rug.
Using object-level examples can sometimes add an amount of imprecision to an argument, since in the real world nothing is perfectly in allignment with a general principle. But it's worked damn well for demonizing races of people, so we might as well use the tactic for good. That, and using real world examples is much more relatable to people and thus can help combat that stereotype of liberals being "smug" towards those who are not generalizing their empathy (as in, failing to empathize with people not of their in group) by virtue of being too abstract when speaking to them.
tattooed_dwarf
Member
1. "Learn to read". Classic. First you said most vegans are assholes, now you are saying you were talking about those who interrupt the convo. Just because you fail to make coherent point or argument doesn't mean I have problem with my reading skills.
2. Good for you, protesting is important part of getting coverage on subject out and it's good you stay there in crowd and leave talking and confronting close minded people for those who can make their point without pointing fingers and stompin their feet to to ground yelling "you are wrong". It's fucking hard to talk to those who see BLM protest and immediately decide those are thugs and so on. Going to all the way to other corner with our teeth out won't make you two meet halfway, never.
Possibly, but as I've said, I ain't got a problem with vegans. As long as I'm not being preached to by one.
*shrug*
I said most vegans I HAVE MET. Learn to read damn.
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