Discussion (4)¬

1. sciencesue says:

   May 27, 2014 at 8:46 am

   Well handled, Mr. Bell.

   • Darrin Bell says:

     May 27, 2014 at 11:56 am

     Thank you. 🙂

2. Dan Grill says:

   May 27, 2014 at 12:09 am

   This is the most racist comic I have ever seen. How about you portray blacks as speaking proper English, instead of ghetto slang? How about you portray strong blacks who do the right thing, and stand up for good things, instead of the party line. Blacks who don't speak ghetto, but speak to be understood. That would be interesting. Also, making fun of Jefferson and the Constitution is very not cool. You live in a free country because of the Constitution. Yes, Jefferson owned slaves, but if he didn't push for a free country, there could still be slaves (God forbid). What I'm saying is, if you have a platform, use it to better your community and race, not cheaply play to it's stereotypes. –Dan Grill, grilldj@gmail.com.

   • Darrin Bell says:

     May 27, 2014 at 6:44 am

     The Internet's a wonderful thing. Just checked you out on Facebook, using your name (Dan Grill) and the email address you posted (grilldj@gmail.com). I always enjoy when middle aged, suburban guys who are not black and who've obviously never read the strip before lecture me about how to portray "my community." Don't limit yourself, though, there are many other black satirists, comedians and writers who could also use your guidance crafting authentic representations of the people they've known. I could send you a list.

     I also Googled you, and surprisingly, I haven't yet found any comments from you condemning "Pogo" for its use of nearly-unintelligible Southern and cajun dialects. Nor have I found any complaints from you about "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith's" heavy use of the opaque Appalachian dialect.

     For some reason, the Internet's making it look as if you only have a problem with dialects when they're coming from the mouths of black characters. Maybe the Internet's broken. Or maybe you need to take a good, hard look at yourself.

     As for "making fun of Jefferson and the Constitution is very not cool…" …I'd say it's a bit cooler than any sentence that begins with "Yes, Jefferson owned slaves, BUT…"

     …especially when the strip in question ( http://candorville.com/2014/05/15/thomas-jettison… ) had nothing to do with race or slavery. Which brings me to my final comment: When you come across a black satirist who's commenting on something totally unrelated to race, it's inappropriate to imply that he's lucky he's not a slave and should be too busy being grateful toward the Founding Fathers to criticize our society. And if that wasn't your intention, then I would suggest you try harder to "speak to be understood."