If you (like me) read Jason Whitlock’s column about his experience writing a cover story for Playboy, you’d have the sense that the magazine chose an irrelevant, race-baiting headline to make a story about the cultural costs of prisons sexier. If you read the actual Playboy – you know, for the articles – the reality isn’t quite that bad. It’s merely a partially-relevant, race-baiting headline, but only if you read the subhead and stretch your imagination. Meanwhile, the cover using the main headline “The Black KKK” is nearly-partially-relevant and race-baiting, and misses the nuanced meaning of that titular phrase, coined by Whitlock and never used in the article.
But the headline is not irrelevant.
And using a race-baiting phrase that’s also irrelevant multiplies the offensiveness by a factor of three or four.
Months ago, when Whitlock actually wrote the words in response to two specific incidents, “the black KKK” was a reactionary metaphor for black-on-black violence. It was chiding a certain subset of black people for self-defeating actions. This had only the slightest connection to the Playboy article – an indictment of America’s supersaturated prison system costing too much, solving too little, for spilling an internal, multicultural gang culture onto the streets. Neither of the Whitlock concepts had much to do with the of a cover that proclaimed “The Black KKK,” that a group of black people was going after people of other races. Even after adding the subtitle Whitlock quoted in his column, everything was still a mess. “The Black KKK: Hip Hop is killing Black America, and it’s time to do something about it” blames whatever is wrong with Black America on music, something that the article directly contradicts (“What we foolishly term ‘hip-hop culture’ is really prison culture,” says Whitlock).
Had Playboy not only put that phrase on the cover, but also used the full headline that Whitlock said they had, they would have had two inflammatory titles to describe a more rational story. Had it happened, cynics might think that Playboy was intentionally conflating things kinda-sorta attributable to an author to promote this month's issue through fake controversy. Those cynics included Jason Whitlock and me.
We were wrong. Whitlock misquoted the headline in his article. It actually read, “The Black KKK: Thug life is killing black America. It’s time to do something about it.” That’s the lesser evil. Expecting people to take the machismo culture of “thug life” to mean “prison gang life” is a bad thing. Using “black” to mean “inner city” is even worse. But even if the story is broad enough to depict prison guards faking riots to bilk the state out of compensation, an awful lot of this article is about prison gang life ruining inner city America. Playboy's headline now appears to almost relate to the story.
This small miracle certainly doesn’t make the cover less misleading; it doesn’t stop Jason Whitlock from being reduced to a catch-phrase. It doesn’t make the headline a bull’s eye (even if it now hits the dartboard). It doesn’t block out the racial ugliness of the whole ordeal. It does, however, solve the biggest problem – that the misleading, inaccuracy and racism seemed like a calculated business decision.
Despite the enormity of the problem, we still overreacted.
--
The statement Playboy sent to us earlier today can be found here: Letters from the editor: Playboy Responds
Live! Interactive! Improv Comedy For the Whole Family!
Bring the kids, bring Grandma, heck, even bring the dog! Come see the longest running comedy Show in Milwaukee.
The American political drama that began in the upheaval of the 1960s reached its climax with the Watergate scandal and ended in 1974 with the resignation of Richard Nixon. An epilogue was added to the story when Nixon emerged from seclusion in 1977 for an
In 1964, the time of Doubt, no one spoke of pedophile priests, even if the Roman Catholic Church was already riddled with them. Directed by John Patrick Shanley from his own play, one of the most provocative recent productions on a Broadway that has surre
Although the wacky, anonymous, eyeball-mask-wearing members of The Residents make a point of labeling it a collection of "pop songs," The Bunny Boy isn't simply a pop album. It's also a cryptic Internet series that "inspired" the album, a live performance
Steve Grimm's place in Milwaukee music history remains secure for having fronted one of the city's most prominent bands to make it to a major label. It's been a while since Bad Boy was a happening entity, but Grimm remains vital-if inextricably linked to
Mitchell Street was once known as the Polish Grand Avenue, the main drag for Milwaukee’s large Polish-American community. The Poles began moving away in the 1970s, making way for new chapters in the city’s immigrant story. Mitchell Street has
Little touches set it apart: the twist of lime on the rim of a glass of cranberry juice, the faux modern paintings on the wall… Ten years after it opened, Metro Bar & Cafe, just off the lobby of Hotel Metro (411 E. Mason St.), remains a timelessly
