Where were Kinky's accusers when he was picketing segregated restaurants in Austin ? Kinky racist ? I think not !

Friedman stands by '80s-era N joke

Candidate for governor says foes trying to dig up dirt.

By W. Gardner Selby

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Friday, September 22, 2006

Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, whose career as a provocative singer and novelist has pivoted on the outrageous, said Thursday that he stands by a 1980 comment twice employing a racial slur, labeling it a humorous poke at racism.

Friedman, 62, said that although he doesn't remember the comment, "of course I don't want to apologize. When you're doing a stand-up act satirizing racism, you don't apologize for it. . . . I've always been an equal-opportunity offender."

Two fellow candidates and an NAACP leader objected, but another candidate said Friedman's comment means little.

The 26-year-old remark surfaced just before noon Thursday on a pro-Democratic blog, the Burnt Orange Report, which presented it as an excerpt from an appearance by Friedman at a Houston club in April 1980.

In the recording, a drawling, fast-talking voice delivers part of what Friedman's campaign called a comic bit:

"Then I come down to Houston, I went to a bowling alley. I couldn't go bowling, there were no bowling balls. The people here throw 'em all in the sea, thought they were n——- eggs, thought they were n——- eggs."

Friedman charged political foes with steering a desperate attempt to falsely paint him a racist.

"The latest political assassination attempt takes completely out of context a controversial word that Kinky was using in a 1980 stand-up performance to lampoon racists," spokeswoman Laura Stromberg said. "Kinky was onstage exposing bigotry through comedy and satire. It's pathetic that the major-party candidates have sunk to this, trying to paint Kinky as a racist when, in fact, he was poking fun at racists."

Democrat Chris Bell and independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the state comptroller, called Friedman's comment unacceptable.

Strayhorn said, "Such language is divisive and hurtful and has no place in any part of our society, regardless of one's race."

Bell said, "The only appropriate words right now would be: 'I'm sorry, and I was wrong.' "

Libertarian nominee James Werner said: "It seems like an unpleasant remark, but I have seen nothing to indicate that Kinky is a racist or a bigot. People say stupid things all the time — but they don't always have Republican attack machines scrutinizing their every utterance."

Earlier Thursday, GOP Gov. Rick Perry, who is running for re-election, reacted to Friedman's reference in a TV interview last year to a "Negro talking to himself" by agreeing with state civil rights leaders who were offended by Friedman's remarks.

"These are individuals who know what a racist comment is," Perry said of leaders of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "Call it politically incorrect if you want, but it's not lost on men and women of color when people make remarks that are clearly racist — if not directly racist, obliquely racist. And I think they have appropriately called his hand."

In a November CNBC interview, Friedman was pressed on a line in his 1987 novel, "A Case of Lone Star," comparing New York to "a Negro talking to himself." Friedman said he saw nothing wrong and then said of sexual predators: "Throw them in prison, and throw away the key, and make them listen to a Negro talking to himself."

In April, Friedman called the line "a poetic way of describing a junkie. I mean, you could say, 'A heroin addict walking down the street.' But if you're writing prose, you might say, 'A Negro talking to himself.' "

The line did not cause an uproar at the time, although his campaign reported fielding a few e-mails.

Friedman's attitude toward race won fresh attention earlier this month when he referred to Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston, most of whom are black, as "crackheads and thugs."

He later criticized ethnic politicking by saying, "I don't eat tamales in the barrio, I don't eat fried chicken in the ghetto and I don't eat bagels with the Jews."

Friedman is Jewish.

Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas State Conference of NAACP Branches, expressed shock at Friedman's 1980 remark, saying: "I don't know if there are enough 'highlys' in the book to say I'm offended. It's over the top. Off-color jokes are told in stand-up comedy, but even then, there's a line to be drawn."

Bledsoe said that although Friedman has an entertainment background, he does not deserve slack on the campaign trail.

"He's running for governor. So how he speaks is who he is."

Stromberg, suggesting that Friedman could be emerging as the major challenger to Perry, said: "While Rick Perry was cheerleading in college and Chris Bell was being potty trained, Kinky Friedman was picketing segregated restaurants in Austin to integrate them. Now that Kinky's in second place and a serious threat to the two-party system, Perry and Chris Bell have paid political assassins digging back 30 years through fictional books, comedy shows and song lyrics, desperately seeking to paint Kinky as a racist."

Aides to Perry and Bell said they have not done any probing into Friedman's background.

Friedman, speaking from New York, where he was holding a fundraiser, said: "The voters will decide. I don't remember any of that; it was a long time ago."

wgselby@statesman.com; 445-3644

Additional material from The Associated Press.

source: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/09/22/22govrace.html
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Letter to the Editor Austin American Statesman

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Friday, September 22, 2006

Why I like Kinky

Good for Kinky Friedman for his stand on political correctness. It's so refreshing to see a political candidate say what he means, then stand behind what he says. I'm a lifelong conservative Republican who is supporting Friedman for governor.

Although we don't have to completely agree with every position he takes, at least we know he's not lying about his stand on the issues, unlike every other candidate for Texas governor.

MARK RODEBUSH

mrodebush@austin.rr.com

Round Rock

source: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/09/22/22Letters_edit.html