What I'm not persuaded to believe however is that this in any way lets Perry and those around him off the hook for apparently tolerating and actively participating in keeping the name for an extended period of time. It seems, despite the humor and satire here, that these names do reflect a past derogatory intolerance, and the extent to which those names continue should be recognized as being derogatory and offensive to members of those ethnicities or groups, and as continuing racism and bigotry.
It is important for the history of these locations to be preserved, to reflect what actually took place in those earlier eras. I'm not in favor of sanitizing either history or geography. But we can document those events without continuing the slurs in place names. To leave the slurs in those place names is inconsistent with seeing people as the individual human beings they are, and doing so creates an unequal and imbalanced 'playing field' on which people engage in all aspects of life.
In that respect, the Daily Show makes a point that goes well beyond a controversy that has been specific to Perry, which is an excellent perspective to bring to understanding the issue of - in this case - southern bigotry. But we have northern intolerance and bigotry as well, it is not uniquely southern. Stewart and his staff of comedians, and his writers, do well to underline that with humor more pointedly than other media could do. They do it, and they do it well.
(A minor biographical note - Cenac was born in New York City, but did attend high school in Texas, and college in North Carolina.)
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Amazing Racism - Geographical Bigotry | ||||
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