My sister, who has a job and therefore can waste more time surfing the 'net than I can at this point, sent along a link to Salon.com Technology | Rent-a-negro.com:
Eight months ago, damalia ayo, 31, an artist in Portland, Ore., had reached her limit of answering infantile "What is it really like to be black?" questions from her white friends and acquaintances.
"You can't put yourself in those situations anymore," ayo recalls her mother counseling her. "You can't just be everyone's Rent-a-Negro."
Maybe not. Or, at the very least, she could start charging for her services.
Launched on April 20, ayo's satirical site rent-a-negro.com, invites companies, nonprofits and individuals to hire her, "a creative, articulate, friendly, attractive and pleasing African American person" to attend their picnics, focus groups, or nights out on the town.
Well, I expect I could fake the articulate, friendly and pleasing bits while trying to steal customers. . .
The article, by Katharine Mieszkowski, notes that ayo has run into the same problem as those wacky kids at Black People Love Us!, a large slice of the populace that just doesn't get the joke.
Oddly, these are precisely the sort of people who should be purchasing her services. I'm not sure if this is Alanis-type irony or the real kind.
The rent-a-negro site may be one of the funniest things I've ever read in my life that was also a deadly satire of my daily environment. Brava!
I read that article this morning and fell over. I think it's a fabulous plan. You could probably even jack up prices a little bit because you could provide the option of "the angry black man."
Just stop it, I tell ya!
Wish I'd known about the Salon article when I stumbled on the site a couple of days back. Yeah, I know it's parody but who does it belong to?! Thanks to my old pal whois I figured out who created it and ogled some of her artwork which is very, very good. Weird to have her resume and whatnot hosted under the Rent-a-negro domain, though. That makes me uncomfortable as I'm sure it was intended to.
I wish I would have thought of this; two weeks ago I was at a party and this woman grabbed my Natural, stopped and then commented, "I think it's the first time I've ever touched your hair"; she then grabbed a handful of my 'Fro once again. Still reeling from the shock, I recomposed myself and let her know that if she tried to reach for it again, she was going to pull back a nub!
Last week on Malcolm in the Middle, the family attempted to scare their racist grandmother out of the house by having all their black neighbors visit at once. It was funny as hell.
I'm not sure if the site or your headline is funnier.
p.s. I signed up for damalia's notification list, and she's a contributor to http://whiteprivilege.com/ which is a bit more on the serious side. Good stuff there.
Hilarious! I love the additional services at the pricing guide, particularly "Help! I need a black opinion!"
Hair-Touching should definitely be more! So tacky to even ask someone could you touch their hair. I usually answer back: "Oh, can I touch yours? After all, you probably KNOW where my hands have been. Right?" Usually they see the error of their ways and desist...
What kills me is that some folks actually thought her site was serious and not an obvious parody. Someone asked if it would be a worthwhile purchase! Probably so but... Perhaps I have a big mouth.
It's taking everything in me not to forward the rent-a-negro link to my colleagues who are continually baffled by the number of hairstyles I'm able to pull off. I've been inspired. I think I'll post a pricelist outside my cubicle, doubling the price for "How to do cornrows."