Michael Rappaport Believes ‘Change’ is Good . . . for White Gentri-fiers?

By Walter L. Hilliard III

I was always a little suspicious of Michael Rapaport, the loud mouth Jewish actor who starred in Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” and likes to blab in “Black slang” and hob-knob, at least verbally, with Black entertainers and athletes, always acting like his “down,” like he’s Mr. New York. However, after listening to Rapaport’s own rant during a Huffington Post interview, a response to Lee’s rant about gentrification, my suspicions have come true: Rapaport is just another blabbering NY White guy (like Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg, a hip hop radio host, and yet another phoney making money off of Black culture) whose understanding and respect for Black people ends when he has to acknowledge anti-Black racism and its impact on Black lives.

It’s an old habit, same ol’ story: Black people are not worthy of any respect.

Rapaport’s response to gentrification was incoherent and non-substantive, making comments like “change is good” and referring to the concept of  “evolution” (Blacks having to move out and more well-to-do Whites moving in) as if it makes racism okay.  He also took a personal shot at Lee, saying, “I mean, Spike lives on the Upper East Side. If the people that donated money to Spike Lee’s last film saw the apartment that he lives in, they’d bug out. So I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

So the hell what he lives in a nice apartment!?

Yes, evolution and change have to do with racism and/or gentrification, or the police, fire companies, and new, arrogant, disrespectful White newbies (who wouldn’t even allow a concert in the neighborhood park because they were worried about too many Black people coming to the area) overrunning the neighborhood, acting racist towards Black people, forcing them out, and belittling Black culture.

You’d think Rappaport would have learned something about racism having also appeared in Lee’s movie “Bamboozled,” which was all about racism?

Dumb ass!