What were you thinking?!

September 6th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Young Black Professional Guide What were you thinking?!
Uh, did Eddie Griffin REALLY think he was going to get away with this in front of a group of bougie …. uh, I mean …. not-so-young black professionals like this?!

Comedian Eddie Griffin was pulled from the stage at the 14th annual Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge after repeatedly using the “N” word.

To give you an idea of the type of folks who Griffin was performing for, all you need to know is that Al Sharpton attended the Miami conference – although he was not at Griffin’s performance. The crowd of 1,000 gave Black Enterprise Magazine Publisher Earl Graves a standing ovation when he came on the stage after Griffin was pulled.

I’m not mad at B.E. at all. I enjoy the publication and while I’m not sure where I stand on the whole free speech thing – especially being a journalist, I try to use the N word as little as possible.

What I choose to focus on instead is how in the world did Griffin think this was acceptable?!

B.E. hosts various events like this around the country for business professionals, often top executives. If demographic stats can be trusted, these folks are more likely to be relatively “conservative.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean registered Republicans, but just not the type of folks who would be seen laughing out loud at this kind of thing … not in public, at least … but that’s another post …

To put things in perspective, B.E. prevents their male interns from wearing dreadlocks, much less cornrows and braids. So you get the picture.

Whether Griffin’s creative freedoms were imposed upon is up in the air and somewhat irrelevant to me. Somebody needs to pull this brother aside and let him know if his comedy portfolio lacks diversity, it not only is going to hurt him professionally, but financially in the long run.

I mean Steve Harvey was able to change it up for MegaFest, one of the country’s largest Christian, family-friendly conferences led by uberpreacher Bishop T. D. Jakes. And Cedric the Entertainer managed to headline an event that had George W. Bush and his wife on the dais.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE, PEOPLE!!!

Once again, keeping it real has gone wrong. We got to do better.

Eugene is a journalist in Phoenix. Check out his lighter fare at Intelligent Ignorance.

There Are 7 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Evorgleb on 6 September 2007:

    Yeh we’ve been talking about this over at Highbrid Nation. One thing that is for sure is that Eddie was not keeping in mind his audience when he started and the Black Enterprise people were not considering the material of Eddie when they booked him. Before it becomes a matter of if the N word is ok or not its a matter of thinking about the people you are gonna be dealing with.

  2. Comment by Kimberly Michelle on 6 September 2007:

    Yeah, the hubby and I saw Eddie Griffin last year in Miami and his routine is absolutely horrible. He can’t go 2 minutes without using the N word and there’s just nothing funny about that.

  3. Comment by congrats on 6 September 2007:

    Awwww … “the hubby and I.” Congrats again Kim and Fred

  4. Comment by Jackie Garrett on 7 September 2007:

    Yes–I must agree with you on this matter. I like Eddie Griffin and some of his stuff is funny; however, the brother should have known this was not the crowd to do his usual routine. Ther’s nothing funny about the “N” word.

    J. Garrett

  5. Comment by Dash on 7 September 2007:

    I’m from KC and as much as I would love to stand up for another KC native–I just can’t. Eddie should know better. I’ve been known to slip up and drop some N’s but damn, never at a formal event!

  6. Comment by ETS on 7 September 2007:

    Don’t worry Dash. Fred and I spent some time in KC, so we won’t hold it against ya’ll. You still got Don Cheadle to rep for you!

  7. Comment by Fitone on 18 June 2008:

    I still don’t know how or why he is being called a “comedian” he is not funny!