Banned In Boston

By Keith Boykin, in sexuality
Tuesday, October 15 2002, 6:00AM

In his classic book Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture, activist Abbie Hoffman recounts an experience from a 1968 flight to New York. When the landing gear failed to engage, the pilot and the ground control prepared for a crash landing.

After briefing the passengers with emergency instructions, the pilot announced, "We are beginning our final descent. At this moment, in accordance with International Aviation Codes established at Geneva, it is my obligation to inform you that if you believe in God you should commence prayer."

Hoffman used the story to explain that "there are some things about society you have absolutely no way of discovering unless you're in a crisis." And that's exactly what students in Boston may have learned when they challenged a controversial minstrel drag show scheduled for later this week.

Charles Knipp was scheduled to perform as Shirley Q. Liquor at the Boston Machine on Oct. 18, but the club canceled the performance after receiving letters and phone calls of protest from national, community and student groups, according to the Harvard Crimson.

“We had a lot of calls from student groups and other groups,” the operations manager of the Boston Machine, Bob Pitko, told the Crimson. “Shortly thereafter we started to rethink the whole show. We just felt there’s enough racism in Boston and we didn’t want to facilitate that kind of show.”

Who says students don't have power? Of course they do. We all do. If people would only recognize their power and act on it, we could change the way powerful institutions function. The powerful depend on the powerlessness of the disenfranchised to maintain their power. But when you stop thinking of yourself as powerless, you begin to understand the power you have to change things that you once thought unchangeable.

I visit dozens of college campuses each year and students always ask what they can do to fight their particular causes and concerns, but they often overlook one of the most important weapons at their disposal — the right to vote. If college students voted with the same consistency as senior citizens do, politicians would spend as much time talking about student loans as they do talking about Social Security.

The same holds true for women, people of color, and gays and lesbians. We've got to let go of the mentality of powerlessness and begin to demand what we want from society. We have to believe that we deserve to be treated with dignity before we can convince anyone else to believe it as well. To do this, we have to remember to speak truth to power.

As Abbie Hoffman put it, "There are lots of secret rules by which power maintains itself. Only when you challenge it, force the crisis, do you discover the true nature of society. And only at the time it chooses to teach you."

October 15, 2002

Whoever said "all publicity is good publicity" may not be right when it comes to Shirley Q. Liquor. Apparently, Charles Knipp (aka Shirley Q. Liquor) has taken his site down from the Internet. As of 1:30 Tuesday morning, the site was not up. Instead, visitors were directed to a "site architect" that appears unrelated to Shirly Q. Liquor.

I checked the Internet directories to find out if the Shirley Q. Liquor website, www.shirleyqliquor.com, is still owned by Charles Knipp, and it is. According to the Internet records, the official registrant is Ebonics Broadcasting System at 2600 Sunset Dr., Orange, TX, 77630-3137. The administrative contact is listed as Chuck Knipp at (409) 988-0276 or shirleyqliquor@WEBTV.NET. The record was created on Feb. 25, 1999 and expires on Feb. 25, 2003.

October 15, 2002

It's not just Shirley Q. Liquor who's the problem. There's a long line of famous black celebrities who have gained their fame because white people decided they were black heroes. RuPaul may be one of them, and now writer Kheven Lee LaGrone takes on RuPaul as well.

Writing in Gay City News, LaGrone challenges RuPaul's comment that Liquor is "paying a loving homage to the southern black women that he obviously grew up around.” According to LaGrone, "Shirley Q. is paying homage to old-fashioned white supremacy."

"I’m sure nothing would hurt one of those women more than to watch an audience full of white homosexuals laughing at her," LaGrone writes. "It is fitting that RuPaul would defend someone he calls one of his favorite entertainers," LaGrone continues. "RuPaul himself does a 'reverse minstrelsy.' He is the 'lowly' Negro homosexual who dons blonde wigs to effect 'glamour.' RuPaul "projects to his largely white audience that their whiteness is desirable. His mantra to 'love yourself' speaks to an audience that craves validation. He seems to be coaching them to reclaim their white skin entitlement."

© Copyright 2002 by Keith Boykin.