Introducing Kalup Linzy

By Keith Boykin, in pop culture
Tuesday, September 12 2006, 12:54 PM

I get a lot of mail and emails every week. People send me videos, books, CDs, DVDs, college essays, handwritten manuscripts, links to their web sites and just about anything else you can imagine. I wish I had time to look through all of these things, but usually I don't. If it doesn't grab my attention in the first few minutes, I have to move on. So imagine my surprise when I came across a YouTube posting sent to me by a guy named Kalup Linzy.

I had never heard of Kalup before last week, and my initial thought after clicking on the link in the email was skeptical. But after watching Kalup Linzy perform the song "Asshole" (shown below) and watching him play several characters in a hilarious soap opera spoof called "All My Churren," I had no choice but to pay attention. Still, I was left with a lingering question. Why was I feeling a little guilty?

Remembering Shirley Q. Liquor

To understand my sense of guilt, you have to go back to Shirley Q. Liquor, a character played by a white gay man in Texas named Charles Knipp. Shirley Q. Liquor plays the hyperbolically stereotypical role of a big black momma with 19 kids. I found that depiction incredibly troubling, largely but not exclusively because the person behind the show was not black.

But for some reason, I found the depiction of the characters in Kalup Linzy's "All My Churren" to be more comical than threatening. Why is that? Maybe because the characters are more realistic than Knipp's black welfare mother with 19 kids. Maybe because I thought Linzy's comedy was funny and Knipp's was not. Or maybe it's just because Knipp is white and Linzy is black. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure.

I still find Liquor's depiction of black women to be troubling, even today. I described her performance a few years ago as a "drag minstrel show." Something about the idea of a white male southerner donning a wig and black shoe polish and pretending to be a welfare queen with dozens of kids just doesn't sit right with me. But Linzy, on the other hand, seems to follow in the mold of black drag queens like Harmonica Sunbeam, Sugarpie Cocapuff and others who have gently and colorfully satirized our own culture without mocking it.

I had several conversations with friends before I decided to publish this article today and post the YouTube video along with it. Ultimately I decided to share the video because I believe the artist is talented, clever and creative. If you want to see what I mean, click on the video above or go to Kalup Linzy's YouTube page and see for yourself.

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