Protests Close Shirley Q. Liquor Drag Minstrel Show

By Keith Boykin, in sexuality
Wednesday, September 18 2002, 6:00AM

When New York organizers got word last week about a racially offensive performance involving a white man in drag and blackface, they quickly put together a demonstration that helped shut down the show.

But the strategy that worked in New York may not work in New Orleans. With a devoted following of gay men and a nationwide tour, the show's star, Charles Knipp (aka Shirley Q. Liquor), is a popular drag queen who is not going away anytime soon.

Cartoon Images of Blacks

In the 1991 poem "Tongues Untied," Marlon Riggs tells of his experience moving from Augusta, Georgia to the "great gay mecca" of San Francisco, where he "tried not to notice the few images of blacks that were most popular ? joke, fetish, cartoon caricature, or disco diva adored from the distance."

Two years later, "Cheers" star Ted Danson provoked outrage when he donned blackface at his then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg's Friar's Club roast. Even Spike Lee ran into criticism of his film "Bamboozled" when he used minstrel images to satirize the way television misuses black images. "That's the danger with satire," wrote film critic Roger Ebert. "To ridicule something, you have to show it, and if what you're attacking is a potent enough image, the image retains its negative power no matter what you want to say about it."

If Ted Danson and Spike Lee couldn't get away with it, it's hard to understand why Charles Knipp thinks he can. Yet Knipp, a white man dressed as a black woman, is traveling the country on a multi-city tour for his "Ignunce" show with his alter ego, Shirley Q. Liquor.

Perhaps it's no surprise that most of Knipp's performance cities are located in the South, but New Yorkers, on the other hand, don't take kindly to old-fashioned racism. That's what Knipp learned when his New York performance was protested and closed last Friday at the View Bar in Chelsea.

The View Bar itself was shut down by police and fined $5,000 for a "quality of life" infraction, according to Gary English, executive director of People of Color In Crisis (POCC), which helped lead the protest. The protesters say they never intended to shut down the View Bar, but they did want to educate the public about the issue. The Audre Lorde Project, New York's Anti Violence Project, and a youth group called Fierce took part in the 50-person demonstration, and groups are now working with The View Bar and local gay publications to discuss greater racial sensitivity.

In a world where discrimination has become more specialized and refined, Knipp's show "is such old racism," complains Michael Roberson, POCC's director of services. "Racism is new and improved today," he says. Similarly, English calls Knipp's act "a minstrel show."

Ebonics for White Men

Knipp does not appear to be concerned about controversy. "Let me axe you," Knipp writes on his website, "What does Shirley Q. Liquor's website need?" If the results are to be believed, just 4 percent think the site needs "less offensive" humor. That may tell you a lot about Knipp's audience.

The site, written in "black English," raises a number of anti-black stereotypes. A fake ad for "Ebonics Airways" reads, "Our stewardesses is not maids, prostitutes or waitresses. Nor is they here to deal with your luggage or listen to your screaming chirren. They also do not fly the plane, so do not axe them 'how much longer till we get there.' Anyone bothering a stewardess will be beaten down and shackled."

Perhaps it's no surprise that some white gay men, who comprised most of the audience at the View Bar last week, love the show. Knipp reinforces preconceived negative images of African Americans that are already reflected in the white gay media.

Knipp reportedly brushed aside criticism about his show's racial content. "To be honest, people of colour who have seen my shows live or heard my CD's overwhelmingly tell me how much they enjoyed my accurate portrayal of a certain genre of the gritty, witty Southern women that they fondly remember, no matter what her race," he said.

Unlike Spike Lee's film, Knipp's routine is not a case of using a stereotype to educate the public. His website suggests otherwise, as he repeatedly identifies black people as "ignunt" and even creates a "compendium of ignunce." Rather than challenging the ignorance of stereotypes, Knipp uses the stereotypes to show why he thinks blacks are ignorant.

If there is a bright side to this story, English hopes the controversy will serve as wake up call for "racial education in terms of white gay men looking at racism in a very hard way." "The missing piece here is that white gay men need to talk to white gay men about racism, because that's there job." English says it's "more impactful when it comes from their own counterparts."

Knipp's Past, Present & Future

Last year, Knipp gained notoriety for his holiday song "12 Days of Kwanzaa," which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described as "toxically politically incorrect." The year before, he ran for Congress as a Libertarian candidate in Beaumont, Texas and claimed to be a black woman with 19 children.

Charles Knipp, aka Shirley Q. Liquor, can be contacted by email at MrsSQL@aol.com or on his website at ShirleyQLiquor.com.

This Saturday, Knipp will perform at the Pittsburgh Eagle for a show that he readily admits "will not be 'politically correct.'" From Pittsburgh, it's off to Boston, Austin, New Orleans, Memphis, Jackson, Mobile, Ft. Lauderdale and Clearwater, all by the end of the year. He also plans to be in Toronto, Columbia, Augusta, Savannah and Houston soon.

(Photos courtesy of People of Color in Crisis)