why celebrate racists on film?

I dont think he's racist, I think he portrays people for how they were seen by everyone else in America at the time. And he was also on a lot of Acid and LSD around then.

Seeing the title of this thread kind of compelled my to come say the obvious, but fortunately it has already been addressed. Just because Crumb is commenting on a racist society doesn't mean he himself is racist. The over the top images of blacks isn't a comment on blacks, but rather a comment on the way society is treating them. Crumb's work in this area isn't racist, it's satire.

Too many people today go looking to be offended and too often choose to be offended instead of understanding what someone is saying. When you can't criticize racism (which is what he is satirically doing here) because it's seen as racist in itself to even acknowledge the issue for the purpose of criticism, we are in a pretty intellectually smothering state, no?

You can make a case for the misogyny in Crumb's work as being unsavory, but the racial stuff I really don't think there is grounds for arguing as negative unless you are simply refusing to look at it from any point of view other than a knee-jerk response and desire to be offended to start with. Please, try and understand something before negatively criticising it. His work is demostrating the ugliness of racism, not promoting it.

I'm reminded of a quote by Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden talking about the bad rap heavy metal gets with regards to Satanism. It goes something like, "Well yeah, we talk about Satan in a lot of our songs, but I think we make him out to be a pretty bad guy."

Here's a piece of an interview with crumb that some people might find helpfull.

SB: I notice you don't draw Angelfood McSpade any more.

RC: Well, yes. It just got so damn touchy, you know. I was naive when I was young, I thought everybody would see the satire, this making fun of the racist images. But oh no. But I can understand it, I can see it can be hurtful, yes.

SB: The problem with irony is that sometimes people take it literally.

RC: Or, you know, what's called hard satire, which means it's so ... like that strip I did of When The *beep* Take Over America. Ooh... [sucks in breath] it's just too hard. Just the mention of the word *beep* already people can't deal with that word. You can say *beep* now, but you can't say *beep* I understand. But you can't even use it for the purposes of satire, it's just too nasty.

SB: What are the purposes of satire?

RC: To give us all relief from these taboos and these nervous tensions where things can't be talked about. So humour and satire are a safety valve for releasing these nervous tensions. But there's such a thing as cruel humour. A lot of old time humour is based on making fun of some ethnic group - it's not so funny for us any more.

Crumb is not a racist
It's American history and culture that is racist.

It's not right to pick one part of his work and criticize it out of the context of all his work.

How could a racist enjoy the old Blues and Jazz records he is so well known for collecting?




"Fire is the Devil hiding like a coward in the smoke."

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Henry Ford was a Nazi supporter, yet he is an american hero admired for his advancements in industry. There are guys like that everywhere in the good ole USA. Crumb's purpose for drawing black people the way he did were obvious...he was disgusted with the puritanical culture of america.

The civil rights movement was a great advancement for African American peoples, but what did it really achieve? Black people everywhere are still forced into ghettos and sub standard living conditions. People still hate and mauraude anyone who isn't a white straight male between the ages of 18-35. Crumb saw this, and forced these tacky and downright awful images on the readership because of his fear that no one would confront these issues. Maybe some people are content to believe we're all moving to a wonderful society, that is multicultural, no prejudice and so on and so forth...but still the fact remains that attitudes of rich white superiority are still valued and promoted in american culture, from Disney to Broadway.

I say celebrate this artist because he made people confront thier own ideas of culture and values. Crumb admitted later that he regretted doing these drawings, because of the outright racist images. He regretted it because he realized that peoples feelings were still smashed as he tried to bring some light to the issue at large. There are more tactful ways to expose the festering mess under the surface of our "Be happy together" culture, but until people decide to promote social change for themselves, artists of all types are needed to remind the public that our fears and complacency only lead to the same mistakes with different names. After WWII German citizenry at large denied ever knowing about the Warsaw Ghetto or Auschwitz, will we white americans deny knowing about Harlem and Guantanamo bay? Will we sit back and do nothing? Think about it.

Robert Crumb was not a racist.

And this film does NOT celebrate Robert Crumb, so I'm not sure where you even got that idea in the first place.

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I get by with a little help from my friends.

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