Once again, it’s time to dust off your “It's Been Zero Minutes Since Oklahoma’s Been A National Embarrassment" Graphic.
This time around we turn our attention to Matoaka Baptist Church up yonder in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
The church and its lead pastor – Sherman Jaquess – made the news late last week after some online sleuths dug up an old video where the pastor put on some blackface and impersonated Ray Charles during a skit for the church’s youth group.
Check this out:
Because I live in a state where a county commissioner and sheriff were recently caught on audio reminiscing about the good days when you could smack around black people in jail and hang them down at Mud Creek, I don’t think that’s the most racist thing to come out of Oklahoma this week, but it sure is close!
Naturally, Pastor Jaquess – who I believe is The Grand Wizard of the White Oklahoma Baptist Pastor Confederation – ignored all the reasons why blackface is considered racist and insensitive, and brushed off the whole thing as no big deal.
You know, because he – a middle-aged conservative white guy from Oklahoma – is a big Ray Charles fan:
"I love Ray Charles,” said Jaquess. “I love his music. There wasn't anything racial about it. I was trying to portray Ray Charles. That's hard to do as a white man, so I sang the song like Ray Charles, I acted like Ray Charles. I tried to look like Ray Charles."
I call bullshit on that.
If Pastor Blackface was trying to look like Ray Charles – and not a generic, demeaning, and incredibly racist black caricature of a black person – he would have lost 100 pounds. Also, why’d he wear a fake afro wig? Ray Charles always sported a short, neat hairstyle with a slightly tapered cut on the sides and back, with a small pompadour on top. Pastor Blackface is also not drinking a Pepsi.
If you’re bored and want to watch the whole performance, you can do that here. According to our Moles, the guy performing next to him his guy named Casey Cassity – a member of the Barnsdall School Board.
Putting on blackface isn’t the only way Pastor Jaquess likes to show he’s a racist. He also likes to go the drag route and dress up as a Native American princess:
Yep, it must have been Cowboys and Indians Day at the church – a fun day of events and festivities where the church's congregation invokes and reenacts classic stereotypes and tropes of the colonization of America, all while half-naked Children running around in the background.
Although dressing up as an indigenous person is another activity that most sane people consider racist in this day and age, I guess it is nice to see Jaquess is tolerant when it comes to dressing up in drag-around children.
Just kidding.
Being a hypocrite is the only consistent behavior for people like Pastor Jaquess:
Anyway, Pastor Jaquess seems to be enjoying the extra attention he’s received for being outed as a racist and is refusing to apologize. If that gives you a hard-on, you should consider joining his church.
Well, if you have the correct skin color:
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
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