SNL Black Jeopardy

I don't watch Saturday Night Live anymore even when it's brought to my attention but today this particular skit was pointed out three times. One of the times Gavin McInnes declares that this skit proves that America finally gets it. Gavin uses bits of the video below for his own video here to explain that he left Canada for the United States because in Canada there is an enduring and intolerable dispute about languages just to find that in America there is a huge and unnecessary dispute between races. But now this SNL skit with Tom Hanks as SNL's stereotypical white guy "Doug" means that Gavin's work here in America is done so now he, Gavin, can return to Canada.

Good, Gavin, go on then. See ya.

Also, this is an aside, I've read a lot online about Leslie Jones due to Milo Yiannopoulos' writing on Twitter about how bad her performance is in Ghost Busters and the avalanche of remarkably mean comments that piled on, such is the nature of Twitter, causing Twitter's SJW crew to blame Milo for them and to kick him off their platform. I read a lot about how terrible Leslie Jones is on SNL. A lot, actually.  I've only seen her on an Allstate advertisement and I liked her immediately. In the commercial her car breaks down, assistance arrives, she likes what the guy looks like and says a single word suggestively, "Hey," as a sexual come on, and I find that one little thing hilarious. She's my type of gal. I like her. We could be friends. She has the most minor part in this skit and I like her here too. I'm fairly certain I would like her in Ghost Busters too. I honestly don't know what people are complaining about.

And I also don't know what Gavin is talking about either. It's a good skit, yes. It really is amusing, and Tom Hanks is nearly unrecognizable. I must admit the guy really is a good actor, but Gavin is wrong in averring this skit proves anything beyond people are good sports. As to racial tensions, my entire everyday experience every single day is contrary to everything else that's brought to my attention through media and online. The exact same thing is true with millennials. The things that I read online are by college professors, they're describing activities of privileged youths at top tier universities and none of that matches up with what I encounter at street level interactions. Then comments to those pieces are nothing more than one generation disparaging another without taking into account the world that they, the complainers  are leaving them, those that must grow up in that world. I'm deeply impressed with young people, their enthusiasm, their energy, their sense of fun and their spirit and their courage in facing their challenges. The challenges we left for them. Now, this is separate from the topic of the video except for online reading and media presentation simply not matching personal experience. Here's two recent examples. Last week I went to Best Buy for the first time in over a decade and the whole place exceeded my expectation so that it blew my mind. A greeter is seated right at the front, a black woman greeted me so warmly I felt welcomed immediately, and upon leaving a few hours later a different black woman had taken her spot and gave such a gracious departing I was compelled to stop in my tracks to return it. And between them, the whole time I was there was an experience of mixture of  races and and ages of sales people so professional, so friendly and warm, so well trained that it exceeded all that I experienced at their age. Then just a few hours ago at night I was entering BurgerFi and the door pulled away from me as I entered, a young man rather short and much younger with a beard thicker than I can grow, stepped up his pace behind me to yank open the door out of my hands to assist me through the door not knowing that would throw me off balance, then apologized profusely, and unnecessarily. He worked there. Later I heard him say to a co-worker, "My first week here I worked seventy-five hours."

!

In my entire work history, I never worked that many hours in one week. I never pulled a double shift. The challenges these people face exceed anything that I ever faced and that was working full time and going to school part time that I thought was so tremendously challenging. I felt resentment. Their lives are entirely different than mine and I must admit they face their challenges with more éclat and with more joy and cheerfulness than I ever showed. Yes, I am impressed. I am impressed with race relations in this city and in this country despite our own government's activity in provoking disruption, and I am especially impressed with young people. They're better than I was at their age. I must acknowledge that. In so many ways they shame me by their example.