Campaign launched to ban white gay comedian Charles Knipp

LOS ANGELES - A national campaign has kicked off to retire white gay comedian Charles Knipp's character Shirley Q. Liquor.  Performed in blackface, Shirley Q. Liquor described as an inarticulate Black woman on welfare with 19 kids. This campaign follows the cancellation of a scheduled Los Angeles show that was to take place during Black History Month. 

"In the wake of the racially offensive Tarleton State University Martin Luther King Jr. party which clearly illustrated the affects of promoting negative racial stereotypes of Blacks, it's clear that the misrepresentation of our community has gone on for far too long without being addressed," commented protest organizer Jasmyne Cannick.  "And it's acts like Knipp's that lead to what happened at Tarleton." 

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Charles Knipp, through his character Shirley Q. Liquor, promotes the images of  Black women as being on welfare, living in the projects, illiterate, shoplifting sexually promiscuous mothers who don't know who their children's fathers are, alcoholics, and drug addicts while in blackface.  In addition, he mocks the African American holiday Kwanzaa and in a skit entitled "Who Is My Baby Daddy," Knipp likens sexually transmitted diseases to traditional African American names. 

Knipp is wildly popular within the gay community and performs regularly in gay nightclubs across the country to sold out audiences. 

After an outcry from community activists in Los Angeles and a threatened protest in front of the venue scheduled to host Knipp, the venue Wednesday agreed to cancel the show. 

Rev. Eric P. Lee, Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference of Greater Los Angeles states, "The idea of anyone profiting from
disrespecting and denigrating another culture or ethnicity is unethical and
will not be tolerated." 

However, there is now a nationwide campaign to ban upcoming performances by Charles Knipp as Shirley Q. Liquor scheduled at popular gay nightclubs in both New Orleans, Louisiana (February 17) at the Bourbon Pub and Hartford, Connecticut (February 23) at the Chez EST, both during Black History Month. 

An online petition has been launched to gather signatures in favor of banning the public performances of comedian Charles Knipp in blackface as Shirley Q. Liquor and activists have begun targeting the venues that have booked Knipp to perform in hopes of getting him cancelled.   

"If acts like Knipp are allowed to continue to perform, then America, and indeed Black America, can expect to continue to see incidents like Tarleton happen repeatedly," said political commentator Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson.  "It's critical to America's race relations that blackface be eliminated from public venues especially given it's sordid history."

An online petition to ban Shirley Q. Liquor has been launched at http://www.petitiononline.com/blkface/petition.html.

Activists are hopeful that the scheduled shows in New Orleans and Hartford will be cancelled and that there will be no further future bookings of this comedian in blackface.

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