… but I’ve changed my mind. This exchange is priceless–she does not bow down before silly, PC charges of racism and displays some cojones:
On a BBC radio talk show, Jackie Collins, the Hollywood novelist, was talking about a mixed-race character in her new book. Then Darcus Howe, a Trinidad-born social commentator, started talking about his new documentary about his relationship with his 20 year-old son, Amiri, and whether it was racism or his faults as a father that were to blame for the difficulties his child had been through.
7:58 am on October 20, 2005Rivers, 72, broke in, saying: “I’m so, so bored of race. I think people should inter-marry. Everybody should be part this, part that and part everything. Race doesn’t mean a damn thing. Everybody should just relax, take the best of their cultures and move forward.”
Purves suggested that was a “very American approach” but Howe disagreed, saying: “That’s not an American approach. America is one of the most savagely racial places in the world.”
And then he later suggested: “Since black offends Joan…”
This drove Rivers into a complete tizzy. “Wait!” she cried. “Just stop right now. Black does not offend me. How dare you? How dare you say that? ‘Black offends me!’ You know nothing about me. How dare you. … don’t you dare call me that. Son of a bitch.” …
The uproar subsided when Howe, after insisting he had no idea if Rivers “was a racist or not”, relented by saying: “No, she’s not a racist.”
