TWIRP: Racism, in MY pirate radio? It's more or less ambiguous than you may or may not think

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"We would call this movie an example of reverse racism at its finest, but that would imply that we condone a certain type of racism, and frankly, it's all the same to us. So when the youngest Wayans brothers donned whiteface to crack some jokes at the expense of white people, we laughed. And laughed again when they sang some Vanessa Carlton. But that doesn't make it right. No, not in the least."

--From Complex Magazine's oh-so-PC course in pop culture apologetics, "The 50 Most Racist Movies (You Didn't Think Were Racist)" on the Wayans brothers movie, "White Chicks"

Oh, yeah... that review included an amazon.com click to buy link. Nothing says "We may feel guilty for laughing at vaguely racist humor, but not too guilty to miss an opportunity at a marketing tie-in" like an amazon.com link.

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This Week In Radio Paranoia... a mixed message bag of racist humour! Marshall McLuhan said "The medium is the message." A corollary may be "Context is everything." So it is with humour that touches on race, religion and similarly sensitive issues. Let's see if you agree in regard to these very recent examples in the shortwave pirate radio medium.

• Fake TCS = lol Bonehead League in ur radio makin' FUD.
• KBLK = lol white boy in ur radio gettin' his black on to editorialize, yeeaaoww.

He who smelt it, dealt it
November 13, 2011, 2200 UTC, 6950 AM
Some unidentified station faked a program and broadcast by The Crystal Ship, playing racist music with TCS ID's clumsily spliced between songs. It apparently was a failed attempt to smear the reputation of John Poet of TCS. Anyone who has heard genuine broadcasts by TCS would know he would never play this type of material. The worst anyone can say of the Poet is he is an idealistic progressive in the mold of the great American upper midwestern socialism. It may also be the best you can say of him, if you happen to share that idealism. GF prefers anarchy.

The station ID's were obviously faked, cut from real TCS programs. Poet's familiar opening monologue, consisting of a reading of the opening lyrics to the song "The Crystal Ship" by The Doors, was placed uncharacteristically in the middle of the hoaxed program and repeated. The other ID, in John Poet's voice, was repeated two or three times, also uncharacteristic. Poet usually mixes up pre-recorded ID's and includes those by Juliana Montana.

Rather than the familiar National Anthem of the Soviet Union which begins most genuine TCS broadcasts, the faked program began with dialog from the 1941 Disney movie "The Reluctant Dragon", which contains the "punk poet" audio segment Kracker has used in recent Radio Jamba International shows targeting Poet. A copy of the movie may be found on YouTube, where the uploader described the dragon as "extremely faggalicious". This, presumably, drew Kracker's attention whilst he was Googling his favourite topic.

Who was first to sense the scent of this stinker? Interestingly, only a handful of listeners and/or sockpuppets reported hearing this broadcast, all on the Frolicsome Rabbit Nuthugger's haunt. 't' blames Kracker. Bad Andy sez "No this could only be Commander Bunny he is way more evil than Kracker." Krackwhore McIdiot and the Virginia Bunnyman plead innocence... or ignorance... probably both. Most of that thread smells trollish, other than comments by Boomer, and, perhaps, John Galt and JTA. And believe me, I know what troll smells like... takes one to know one.

Since Poet's FCC bust was announced in July - accompanied by an oh-so-eager announcement on the FRN by probable Pat Murphy sockpuppet "MIB" - the only pirate radio operators to continually take jabs at Poet, including repeatedly specifying his real name and complete address, are Murphy, under his Commander Bunny persona on his WBNY blog, and Paul McElligott, aka "Kracker" of Radio Jamba International. Both have professed their innocence. The ladies doth protest too much, methinks.

We say "He who smelt it,
dealt it."

Streaming audio of an edited version of the faked TCS broadcast, with the offensive racist music deleted. You may, if you choose, download the unedited version here. The lyrics for these songs may be found here. Don't say we didn't warn you.

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Can We All Just Get Along?
A few people may have been puzzled at my comment on the HF Underground that I found the KBLK show hilarious. I did, and still do. But not necessarily for the obvious reasons.

The attempt at appeasement by KBLK might have been more persuasive, if not for the unfortunate timing of coinciding with the overtly offensive racist faked TCS broadcast.

HFU logs for KBLK
12 Nov 2011 - 6925 AM 2220 UTC
14 Nov 2011 - 6925 AM 0010 UTC
Audio stream for 32 minute KBLK program here.

While some may take offence at the presumed use of a "black" voice by a presumably white man, I found it generally funny for the barbed wit aimed at this year's "pirate war". I really did laugh aloud when he named Guise Faux among the combatants. As the announcer, "Straight G", observed, most of the "war" has been waged online - including with the ToRP blog - in a hobby dominated by a demographic of mostly middle aged white men.

I would take exception only at the implied presumption that few women are interested in the shortwave listening hobby, or specifically in pirate radio broadcasting. However I would say - considering the misogynistic abuse Pat Murphy and Paul McElligott have directed toward two notable women SWLs, Gayle Van Horn and Lori Easterly - it's not surprising that most women in the SWL, amateur radio and pirate radio hobbies prefer to keep a low profile.

First, however, the entire KBLK show is a mixed message. On the one hand, it begins with "Cheri Love Affair" by punk performance artist G.G. Allin, before segueing into the dark side. The only possible relevance we can see is some vague nod toward wannabe punk Kracker, who may have pretensions toward Allin's reputation for being hardcore, but lacks the minerals to follow through to the inevitable conclusion. But we wish him all the best in that pursuit.

The DJ's pseudo-black patois puts a modestly edgy veneer on the humour. Then somehow it segues into what amounts to a Rodney King style "can't we all just get along" plea for a return to fun, safe, non-threatening hobbyist pirate radio. In the end, it sounds like a plea to do it, people, do it for the sake of comfortable, white, middle class pirate radio.




The gangsta patois shouldn't bother anyone who's hip to trashy pop culture. If it's distasteful, someone needs to tell Quentin Tarantino to delete his scenes (Jimmie Dimmick - The Bonnie Situation) from "Pulp Fiction". Or Gary Oldman's scenes from "True Romance". Or Robert Downey, Jr. in "Tropic Thunder". Or Darrell Hammond's Jesse Jackson impressions from Saturday Night Live. Or... just get the fuck over it.

Beastie Boys? Vanilla Ice? Eminem? Mimicking a stereotypical Jewish, Mexican, Asian or black gangsta voice and style isn't even edgy anymore, let alone racist. Not any more than mocking the foibles of pirate radio in this blog is killing pirate radio.

But if you object to this blog about pirate radio while you've voiced no objections to the misogynistic cyber-harassment of Mrs. Van Horn and Ms. Easterly by McElligott and Murphy, which includes besmirching their professional reputations, then pardon my yawning at your mild discomfort over not hearing more Pink Floyd and Grateful Dead on shortwave rather than a spat that would barely ruffle your mom's feathers compared with the typical YouTube comment sections.

Besides, for all we know, the KBLK DJ really is black. Hard to tell since his voice covered every accent from Chris Rock to Wolfman Jack. Better dig up the Wolfman and warn him someone's mocking wolfmen... or corpses.

Now, one thing that's funny - besides the pretty good voice work - is that he's right about most of us being white, middle aged, and with way too much time on our hands if we can find the time and energy to poke each other online or on the air.

It's also funny that he thinks we're all white, middle aged men. Because depending on the moon phase, Commander Bunny can't seem to decide whether I'm him, or I'm Tennessee troll Evil Elvis, or I'm Corq, or I'm just a sockpuppet for Poet. Eventually he'll get around to all of you other white, middle aged guys, so just wait your turns. The Lagomurph may not know whodunnit, but he knows one of you done it.

Another amusing bit is that Mr. DJ thinks the problem can be solved by ignoring Murphy and his sockpuppets. Well, that's been tried, hasn't it? Back in 2001. Back in 2008. Again in early 2011. Look how well that worked out. Where was your angst then? Or were you a mite too cautious to take on the lumbering Lagomurph and his sock drawer army?

"I can promise you that not once will you ever read on this blog that pirate radio is destroying blogging."

But the funniest thing of all? The notion that exercising free speech by blogging about the wonderfully diverse quirks and foibles of the pirate radio scene is somehow destroying pirate radio. Meanwhile, pirate radio is "free speech", but... I can promise you that not once will you ever read on this blog that pirate radio is destroying blogging.

With over 31,000 page views since March 2011, astonishing growth for any blog, let alone a niche hobbyist blog, the readership speaks for itself. Not once has this blog pimped itself via sockpuppets on every radio related website. We leave that to the Virginia Bunnyman. Not once have we sent out QSL cards, refrigerator magnets or bumper stickers ridiculing innocent people who are only peripherally involved in the SWL hobby. We leave that to Murphy and McElligott.

But we do extend our deepest appreciation to the Lagomurph for going to such expense to publicize our blog. It's that kind of genuine grassroots, word of mouth, supportive fanbase that's proven how Radio Free Speech really works.

In the end, the message from the KBLK narrator - which we believe to have been genuinely intended to reduce the tension - resulted in a misfire due to occurring the same weekend as the faked racist TCS broadcasts. In the end, the entire mixed message basically sounded like the "Mars Attacks!" Martians: "ACK! ACK!"

Can't we all just get a LOL?

Oh, by the way... remember what happened after that stirring speech by the President? Yeah, the Martians vaporized him. Blessed are the peacemakers.

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Finally, if you're finding it difficult to grok how fucked up it is to find some types of racial or ethnic humor funny - even if you feel a little guilty about it - and other types not funny by any standards, imagine growing up with Zwarte Piet and Sinterclaas, or Krampus as part of your winter holiday festivities.