General Lee’s Speaking…
a.k.a.
The Whip Appeal
Gen’rally speaking,
Cars charged with racist KITTs are
Quick to dodge red flags.
I’m putting on my conspiracy theory hat for today’s entry. Partly because I’m discovering that I may have been duped as child into supporting a racist agenda but mainly because I feel like taking it light as I head into the weekend.
No. The racist agenda that I was subverted by as a child isn’t the conception of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus (although if this were true, it must have been hard blending in amongst the Egyptians when Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt to hide from Herod who, out of fear of the prophetic entry of the King of the Jews, was killing baby boys on site). But then again, I do remember scoffing at the idea as I pointed to the picture of a Caucasian Savior when first presented with the fact that He wasn’t White… but that’s for another day!
My issue for today is with two classic shows and cars from the 80’s: The Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider. Those were my shows back in the day! Granted, I preferred K.I.T.T. over The General Lee any day of the week. These super-charged whips had a natural appeal to me as a child but as of today, I’ve had to take a closer look at the unnatural ways they projected acceptance of racist symbolism into my young impressionable mind. A projection that I now recognize as I motion to appeal.
Years after these shows went into syndication, I felt vindicated by my dedication to Knight Rider after I came to understand the symbolism behind the oddly configured American flag that rested atop The General Lee. It was a confederate flag – a symbol of the south. A symbol to African-Americans of hatred and oppression. It kind of blew my mind to conceptualize the fact that corporate heads OK’d the placement of this flag on the “main character,” as it were, of the show. But the worst was yet to come.
I was doing some research for something I was writing one day when I did a random Google of some phrases I was trying to do some wordplay with using knight/night and writer/rider. To my surprise, some of the sites that generated hits were ones for the Klu Klux Klan.
There goes my childhood! Outside of cartoons, Knight Rider was my most cherished show as a kid. The Knight Industries Two-Thousand was THE coolest thing I’d ever seen in my young life!
But this discovery has tainted that entire memory. The confederate flag on The General Lee can be rationalized to a degree because it is a symbol of pride for southerners just as much as the national anthem is to Americans. But “knight rider” is a direct reference to the cowards that hid behind sheets and did their dirt bombing houses and setting crosses on fire (in the name of God, mind you) at night.
So you mean to tell me that nobody did a little bit of research in the course of brainstorming the show?!! Was this really where we were in the 80s?!! These were blatant symbols of ideologies pointing back to a past time of bigotry and intolerance – but in typical gung-ho American fashion, it was seized upon for pastime revelry. It’s all about capital gains, people – besides, who needs reparations or desegregation when you’re being entertained, right?
As a child, I didn’t miss an opportunity to watch these shows and buy… rather, ask and plead for these cars. Now, I’m not trying to say that I subconsciously developed a hatred for my skin and people because of some subliminal message embedded in these shows but c’mon! There should have been a disclaimer or something! Honestly, I don’t even know if that disclaimer would’ve swayed me from watching it – I was just a kid!
But that is the very point. I wasn’t the only one watching these shows and I surely wasn’t the only one oblivious to the history. Further still, there were other little boys and girls whose parents did know about the history who may have surely taken the time to infuse and indoctrinate it into the next generation. But… like I said, today was supposed to be light, so KKK.I.T.T. – turbo boost me out of here… before I get lynched for ruining everybody else’s childhood, too.
