AlexBuono

edit skip to 1:07 - British television host interviews Chris Langan, the man with the highest IQ in America, on his horse ranch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFHekPKuQYo

I've reneged on the depiction of Oscar, I know that it's easy to focus on my criticism of that scene and I think that picture of Ed Lover is great btw. Truthfully it was Matt's sentiment that thrust me into feeling pissed. What I don't agree with is the sentiment expressed by Matt, "I think most white people who move to Brooklyn know that not as many white people used to live there and everything used to be shittier". I think there are equal opportunity offenders with regard to race, absolutely no one should get a pass on that. I think the interpretation of Spike at face value appears unfocused and "reverse racist", but what he is speaking to is anything but that. I've written this before, but Spike's comments open doors to more conversations, just as his films do, and he is describing it on the same terms. To dismiss them at face value even for comedy is tone deaf at best, and irresponsible at it's worst.

Matt, Thanks for responding first off, I absolutely agree you could glean that unfocused ire into a premise, without question because he was seemingly directing his anger towards ( white people walking dogs, et all) I think the macro issue he speaks to is like Andy said, a cultural oppression. When you mean shittier, in what terms exactly? As a city providing services, absolutely. As a community with families growing up and being a tight knit neighborhood, that to me is a whole other thing. So that's more to the point of what I'm stating, there are unconscious and non explicit social cues that white/non white gentrifiers fail to recognize that are signifiers in what Spike is saying, that don't seem to offer up answers, but like the war on drugs, people look for explicit answers to systemic issues and that is not the way assess it in my view. Raising consciousness is the first step to intercultural assessment and engaging the communities so, I don't think he's necessarily that off. Also with Oscar, I may have misread so my apologies.

Great to hear the half of the swarm, as I never got a chance to see them live here in NYC. I listen to this podcast every week, I also have great respect for Matt, so here's my rant. Re: Spike Lee's Gentrification Rant - I think there's some notions to dispel Besser's assingation that Spike's POV is distilled to, "I'm mad because it used to be worse, and now it's better?" There are ways to factually substantiate Spike's claims in Brooklyn, (quick google search about the urbanization and institutional racism, how that manifests in white people/non whites as unconscious racism). Spike Lee definitely has said many inflammatory and offensive things, but I think he's articulating systemic institutional oppression as he has seen it for many years. Moreover, as he referenced Buggin out's smudged shoe, it encapsulated and visually articulated a feeling that is difficult to quantify (co-optation of neighborhood's and general lack of awareness by gentrifiers). certainly present in these neighborhoods and harbor's resentment. I agree with Delaney's notion that it shouldn't be contingent on race to "clean up" a neighborhood, but unfortunately that can be substantiated by data and institutional racism is never truly explicit. My wife can attest to that having been a life long New Yorker. I've been improvising for a few years under UCB and I'll preface that I've experienced real joy improvising, unfortunately, there appears to be a pervasive tone deaf perspective when it comes to socioeconomics and race in NYC, (especially by those in the improv community) and this is coming from someone who is by definition a white male gentrifier and reluctantly so (I live in Bed Stuy, we want to have chlldren and more space, the rising rent pushes people into these neighborhoods). Also, be careful codifying a beloved Sesame street character as a black man who sleeps with all multi-ethnic women once he's extracted from the trash world he used to love, there's a real negative assignation of race in that depiction. I know I'm fired up about this, but I figured Matt would at least appreciate someone having an opinion on the matter. Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow is a great entry into obtaining some further knowledge about this subject (i.e. Institutional Racism), if there's a lack of clarity on why Spike holds his opinions, I apologize if this comes off as patronizing but I don't intend it to, Improv's been a really important part of my life, I'm just trying to open the discussion up. -Alex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSUlDjABCYc Just because there's been a pervasive pathos of pussy eating runs in the past couple I4H Eps, can we finally put this to bed with Rob Ford's amazing Press conference?

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