Friday, April 30, 2010

RuPaul's Drag Race is Racist?


Folks are claiming RuPaul's being racist because both winners were Black.

On Monday, RuPaul revealed the winner of the second season of his RuPaul's Drag Race reality TV show, and it turned out to be Tyra Sanchez.

The choice was controversial. A sizable number of viewers were rooting for the quick-witted Pandora Boxx , who had been eliminated earlier in the season, but who won the Miss Congeniality Award in the reunion show ("by a landslide," RuPaul said).

There are plenty of good reasons to second-guess the actual pick, but racism on the part of RuPaul isn't one of them.

But weirdly, that is precisely what a disturbing number of people are saying, on the Drag Race Facebook page and even here in the comments at AfterElton.com.

What's the evidence? Despite selecting multi-racial casts this year and last, RuPaul's eventual winners, Sanchez and last year's Bebe Zahara Benet, were both black.

Accusing someone of racism is one of the most serious accusations you can make about a person — or so conservatives have been reminding us for the last thirty years.

I'm not sure what motivates the ridiculous charge against RuPaul, except to say I think the accusation itself is a form of racism and, intended or not, it makes a mockery of the whole concept of racism.

I'm sorry, but Pandora Boxx? No! Those dresses and her look was not cutting it. She should have been gone a while ago. I thought Jessica Wild would have lasted longer than Pandora.

I think this is silly, Tyra won, she worked her ass off. Raven is great, but Tyra sold it. Let's not take it there, please.

source

5 comments:

Bob said...

I don't think it's racism, but I do think Raven was by far the better drag queen. Tyra was an odd hybrid of Tyra Banks and Beyonce, one look all season, Raven was more diverse, a new look for each challenge.
I'm So Raven.

Eric Arvin said...

Oh boy. I saw this coming.

But still, I loved Pandora and she was my choice. I loved Tyra's looks, but her personality was....zilch.

robertga99 said...

I agree!
I didn't think Tyra should have won but she was the most beautiful of all of them. I just didn't like her attitude or Raven's. I think that's what I tend to go for...the funny one with a good attitude. That's why I loved Pandora.

Even though I don't think Tyra should have won...I don't think RuPaul picked her because she was black. That's just crazy. I don't read those damn blogs because people put all kinds of crap on there just to be hateful.

Anonymous said...

I agree. I thought it would come down to Tyra and Raven. I enjoyed both!

Anonymous said...

It should have been Mystique!
:)

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.