Ex-Travel Nurse Fuels Major Controversy. Big Nut or Bigot?
I am always intrigued when some strange news story hits the wires and someone in the story either is now, or has been at some time, a travel nurse. In this story a gay white man who impersonates a black woman in a comedy act is accused by many of being racist. I wonder if this is really a matter of racism as much as it is a case of racial sensitivity. And, yes, there is a difference.
Charles Knipp is a comic performance artist. One of his characters is an African-American welfare mother named Shirley Q. Liquor. Mr Knipp performs in black makeup which has prompted comparisons to a minstrel show.
Mr. Knipp is a nurse, a minister, a member of the ACLU and a Democrat. Is he a racist? Or has he crossed one of those boundaries that it is not acceptable to cross? Where should those boundaries be?
