Post a Comment On: Sipsey Street Irregulars

Stepin Fetchit (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985) was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry. Perry parlayed the Fetchit persona into a successful film career, eventually becoming a millionaire, the first black actor in history to do so. He was also the first black actor to receive a screen credit.

Perry's typical film persona and stage name have long been controversial, and seen as synonymous with negative stereotypes of African-Americans. However, a newer interpretation of his film persona contends Perry was ultimately subversive of the status quo. -- Wikipedia.

[Image] Andrew Traver, fair-haired boy of the citizen disarmament lobby, executes the second part of his escape and evasion plan in the face of the Project Gunwalker scandal.

You know when I was a boy growing up in Marion, Ohio, and all televisions were black and white, it was common for the Columbus stations to play old movie shorts in the wee hours of the morning just before the test pattern came up and all God's children were supposed to be sleeping. Henry Aldrich (the prototype for Firesign Theater's Porgy Tirebiter) and Stepin Fetchit were two popular characters.

You can't find Stepin Fetchit on YouTube much because of racial sensitivities and political correctness, which I think is a crying shame. See, when you're ten and living in lily white Marion, Ohio, the racial stereotypes don't penetrate. I didn't think that Stepin Fetchit was some "shiftless nigger" as one of my Michigan relatives told me when I later brought his name up (which both shocked and pissed me off). Stepin Fetchit was just FUNNY to me. In adulthood, looking back, I agree with the current analysis that he was somewhat subversive of the whole white superiority thing. But there was one scene, I couldn't tell you the name of the movie to save my soul, but there was one scene where Stepin Fetchit was running away from some perceived danger ("Feets don' fail me now!") with another character who asked him if he had a plan for dealing with the situation. Yes, Stepin Fetchit said, it was a two-part plan: "Dar's de runnin' and den dar's de hidin'."

I thought of that scene when I got an email from a one of my sources in government last night which said in part:

They are NOT going to schedule Traver hearings because he can't possibly answer questions Grassley has, so Leahy shut it down.

I checked with another source this morning and it confirms. It seems for Andrew Traver now, "Dar's de runnin' and den dar's de hidin'."

Can I say, "I done toll yuz"? Yes, I believe I can. And I hope that, somewhere, Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry is smiling.

Here's a little traveling music for Mr. Traver, courtesy of Stan Webb's Chicken Shack and the Sipsey Street Irregulars: "Running and Hiding." The link.