Jo's Cafe

I’ve never been a huge Joan Rivers fan. I admire the women for her accomplishments, and her strength after losing her husband. She’s a hoot when on QVC and has made a very good life for herself.

However, I’ve never really paid much attention to anything else she says reference politics or such things.

But — I think she’s gone up a notch in my book after this happened.

Joan Rivers unleashes torrent of abuse in racism row on Radio 4

Neither Darcus Howe, the Trinidad-born social commentator, nor Joan Rivers, the formidable New York comedienne, is known for stepping away from an argument but no one could have predicted the furious row that erupted when the two clashed on Radio 4 yesterday morning.

Listeners to the morning Midweek programme were being quietly soothed with the usual decorous chat when, in the words of one guest, “all hell broke loose” over the issue of race.

[...]

But yesterday Howe hit a nerve that led to Rivers summoning up one of the coarser phrases from her Brooklyn childhood, screeching, before anyone in the BBC could push the mute button, that Howe was a “son of a bitch”.

Jackie Collins, the Hollywood novelist, had set the tone by talking about Liberty, a mixed-race character in her new book. She spoke of how Liberty’s mother, who was black, put her in front of a mirror, saying: “Don’t you ever forget you’re black.”

Howe went on to talk about his Channel 4 documentary Son of Mine, detailing 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.

Rivers, 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.”

Their exchanges culminated with Rivers shrieking: “Don’t you dare call me a racist. I’m sorry. How dare you.”

Bravo Joan!! More people need to take her stand against people accusing them of being racist, especially the United States.