Hmmm. I guess that's trying to be funny, but it's really not all that clever. It reminds me of that site http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com

Laura... damn. That link. Those people look like they're totally bullshitting. As if they are trying to fake an SNL skit. Can that stuff be for real???

When I clicked on the link, I wanted to be amused. Please let this be a MadTV going to the extreme but still make you giggle. stuff. I really, really, really wanted to laugh. I didn't.

i really hope that's a joke. either way, the creators of that site are extremely insensitive.

I think it sucks and is cruel !!!!
Maybe you are this type :( so sad

Ebony, I was the same way - hoping to be amused. Gar.

It's art... http://damaliayo.com/ from her page-

"i create dialogue-driven conceptual art that engages contemporary social issues...i believe art should make people think and feel. i want to leave my audience pondering discomfort, confusion, anger, joy, sadness, emotions of all kinds. i am an honest manipulator, presenting contradictions and demanding response."

Put into this context it is very effective and thought provoking.

Chantele, good point.

you mean I could get $25 for hair touching? wow!

What are we pets? People really think they have to rent us to get to know or except who we are. How sad. What about rent-a-cracker experience a day with a real live whitey!!

NJ, I made the same comment went I frist checked out the site. The name of the site threw me off, but after reviewing what Ayo is trying to bring across...I understand it! If you have idiotic question like, "Do black people tan?" Why not charge white people for such ridiculous questions. And it's a way for her Ayo to pay for her Art shows. So RIGHT ON AYO!!!! you tell em'

I think it's an absolutely fabulous piece of cyber-art. Info-tainment at it's best. Plus it has the added kick of possibly branching into real world performance art, if she gets acouple of gigs.
Maybe she has already, I can see this being the kind of party favor the young uber-elite would gravitate to. In our time when the sensibility of the ruling class is to no longer even remotely
veil their separation from the masses, what better to accent your status than by buying another human being. i.e. not only do I own the figurative world, I can presume to own this negress
here. make note of the obvious intonations of blackness, femaleness, hourly rates, etc.
I went through the site completely and thought it was simply genius

She puts forth a stylized elite geisha persona and cloaks it in a faux earnest public relations firm brochure.
Slavery, re-conceptualized for people with no place to keep them. How much more efficient to have a
slave class where you don't have to have the same individual. No pesky attachments from inadvertently recognizing their humanity. No chance of their recognzing your essential weakness and becoming the dominant figure in the relationship

"How much more efficient to have a
slave class where you don't have to have the same individual."

You know, if it were a joke, or a skit on televison, I would snicker and that would be it. But, I'm not sure how to take it when it's a "real" service.

I have to say that after reviewing both websites, I really think that "rent-a-negro.com" is targeting Poeple of Color. I don't think there should be any shame in wanting to teach people of different cultures the HISTORY of black culture.

This site is meant to display the absurdity of racism.
I know at first glance it seems like a horrible thing, but it's a new and different way to look at this aweful disease. A wonderful piece of conceptual art.

You can learn more about the artist & her medium @ http://damaliayo.com/
Be sure to read her statement.

Great idea...too bad its not a real service...then again there does exist MTV hiphop iconography. I can see the next site:Rent a mandingo.org specializing in dark skinned brother fantasy types for overweight moderately successful white women.. Or is that just not funny.

Great idea...too bad its not a real service...then again there does exist MTV hiphop iconography. I can see the next site:Rent a mandingo.org specializing in dark skinned brother fantasy types for overweight moderately successful white women.. Or is that just not funny.

I get the joke.. but unfortunately this does not nor would not enlighten one that needs to be enlightened. Rather white liberals can stroke themselves for being in on the joke (it's very obvious)... And I would like to add that I would appreiate very much if white people stopped touching my hair. Don't bother asking. It's offensive and shows bad manners.

I think the point is that many whhite people do! have bad manners when it comes to interacting with people outside of their race. The site is meant to lampoon the most common offenses such as using a black aquaintence to get "cool points" at social gatherings, or anger family members, or even by asking questions such as can "I touch your hair"....Now before anyone responds with "How is that offensive" Think about how many other people you would ask this question of and if any of them are white. Wanting to sincerely learn about another's culture to expand you heart and horizons and wanting to "be in the know" are two different things that are carried out in two different manners.

sigh. it's a joke. It makes you think about stuff, but it is a joke. It offends those people who probably need to be offended, because they take it so seriously.

Please note that Black Culture is serious and should be taken seriously. I'm extremely offended by that comment. If and when you read about the culture maybe you too can take it seriously!

I am black -- been that way for 51 years now, and I thought the site was brilliant and hilarious!! Some people just don't understand satire (maybe it takes having had to deal w/ "them people" for years on end from childhood), but it's a shame that a lot of people don't get it, because I think Damali is a genius and has brilliantly synthesized what I know myself and many of my friends have been saying for years. I applaud her and her courage and willingness to step out there and tell the truth about how white folks view dealing with us in a very humorous way. Chile you gotta' laugh to keep from crying...
Thank you Damali!!

Lenn K.
Filmmaker/Photographer

I'm not denying that there's humor in it (satire), and everything. I agree. I guess it's the fact that it's a *real* service...

fantastic discussion everyone. it's all about the dialogue, i hope it continues!

damali ayo

fantastic discussion everyone. it's all about the dialogue, i hope it continues!

damali ayo

fantastic discussion everyone. it's all about the dialogue, i hope it continues!

damali ayo

fantastic discussion everyone. it's all about the dialogue, i hope it continues!

damali ayo

What is transient art? It is reflected in this thread which has lasted for 25 days. But I do not believe art is transient, even destructive art, which ayo does not represent. The moment of art, when it is in the public view will have impact. ?Is art the creation of it, the reaction it provokes or its private impact. Alas, I fear the impact of art is limited to the comparative limitations of its audience. How often will you replay your favorite music: a thousand times. How often will you revisit your favorite art gallery painting: periodically. Therefore art is relative to the convenience factor. Artists who courageously bring art to the people are a different breed to the tortured soul in the studio. But both represent art.

Although the site damali ayo made is satiric and somewhat funny, it's sad and racist at the same time. Not every white person needs to be "enlightened". In fact, if I had my way, at least in the huge city where I live, WHITE people are the ones that need the website. Rent-a-cracker, perhaps? Afterall, some white people may be ignorant, but white people are the only ones ever blamed for being racists. That makes no sense. Believe it or not, a few non-racist white people DO exist! So before you (of any nationality or color) insist on calling or accusing a particular person or race of being racist, look in the mirror while you say it...deal??

hey folks-

for all you interested. check out TOKENS the new merchandise from rent-a-negro.com...you might find a fun way to start dialogue in your community.

enjoy!

damali

Damali, if you get this message, I just want you to know that you are brilliant, and I love you dearly. Keep jammin' and keep turning heads. It seems that is the only way to get people to look, listen and feel. Love ya girl.

Frankly, I as a caucasian, found the site to be a slap in my face. Oh woe is me, all the evils of the world we malicious whiteys have done! I personally have never wanted to touch a negro's hair as I fear an allergic reaction to the tons of "glop" they heap on their hair.
Additionally, I found the services of the negro to be FAR overpriced as today, right now, you can go to the Sudan and purchase a negro for less than $30.00 US. I would think, that given the option of OWNING vs RENTING a negro, owning would be the cheapest.
I did read her curriculam vitae' and taking into account the current race quotas and affirmative action prtograms, I have to wonder, ( as does she) is she " really" that well educated.

I'm sure some will find the site funny, I'm sure they think that Hitler was a cool dude and that the KKK rocks too!

Should a caucasian have made that site they would be lynched with the rope of political correctness,.
TO CLOSE, I'M DISGUSTED!

Here is a link to the slavery website: www.anti-slavery.org/

As one of " them people" and a Irish immigrant I find the site to be disgusting!
No other people in the history of the world have had thrust upon them a perfected civilization. . . They were given a government, a national home, a citizenship, free schools, religion, language, books, art and science, with helpful hands to instruct them in all economic and civic relations. All of this required a thousand years of experience for other nations to acquire. In all of these contributions their race had no part or parcel in the making or in the creation. All other nations had to fight, work, bleed and die to procure these things. Not so with the American Negro. All these things came to him as a free gift from the white man. They were left a penniless liability among former masters in the South, who assumed responsibility for their welfare. My family came to American under the WORSE of conditions and were spat at, rejected and subjected to the WORSE kind of rejection (s) Guess what? We made it! Look at the Asians who come here with ZILCH! They make it! Without race quotas, set asides,grade curves,or affirmative action.It is difficult to overestimate the importance of education; grammar schools, high schools, colleges, and universities are indispensable. But who will claim that training and teaching in the school room can overcome racial characteristics? The laws of heredity exist and can not be denied or changed. Every child is a child of its race, inheriting his racial qualities from thousands of ancestors. The child of Negro parents is born of a race that has never shown constructive power, of ancestors who have never founded a civilization, of forefathers who have imitated but never created. The whole of history testifies to this truth. As the Englishman Meredith Townsend says: 'None of the black races, whether negro or Australian, have shown within the historic time the capacity to develop civilization. They have never passed the boundaries of their own habitats as conquerors, and never exercised the smallest influence over peoples not black. They have never founded a stone city, have never built a ship, have never produced a literature, have never suggested a creed. . . There seems to be no reason for this except race. To silver scour a pewter cup, -- It will be pewter still. Environment has placed the American Negro in the midst of a great civilization produced by the white man, but neither environment nor education can change the basic traits and characteristics of the race to which the Negro in the United States belongs. 'The endowment of each generation at birth is dictated by heredity, but all that it acquires subsequently is the gift of environment.' (Tillinghast.) Mental characteristics are subject to the laws governing heredity.
Quit blaming "whitey" and try looking at the REAL root cause! Is it, " those people" that cause the leading cause of death of negro males, 6-24 to be MURDER by a negro male, 16-24? I think not!

Love can damage more than you can heal with drinking.

Between the website and the comments posted here by other white people...I am upset and embarrassed. Upset, because I’m tired of being associated with white people, who are guilty of being so ignorant – and embarrassed by the dumb a$$ess who wrote the malicious, racist posts on this site. Because of people like this, I am lumped into a category and viewed as ignorant and racist. It hurts to be viewed this way by other ethnic groups and I’m tired of it. I just want to live my life and let others live theirs.

Thanks white America – now we’re all the bad guy.

to I Love Cuban Cigars.

You have written some of the most vitriolic, ill-informed and blatanly racist wordsi have ever heard.
Cearly, you have no education about anything that is outside of you're race/culture. You know nothing of ancient egypt or ancient ethiopia (and the lineage of king solomon). Study world history and culture. I suggest that you read more books with less white supremecist ideals in them. You have no respect and are still stuck in the 18th and 19th century mindstate of africans and aboriginals being less than human because you view them through the narrow spectre of you western, anglo saxon world view. Have you been to africa ? Have you been to australia? What do you know of these peoples cultures that are so ancient ?
I agree that the Irish have had a hard time due to the fighting between protestants and catholics and the decades of terrorism that have been perpotrated by these people, but to me this in itself is an example of the idiocy of western culture. No one from the outside world (besides your english cousins) has ever gone to ireland and taken your children away to another land, no one has massacred your people in your own land in the name of tecnhology and so called civilisation. was it not the cruelty of your fellow irish and british that forced your family to leave? And if i was to follow your lines of reasoning would i be right in assuming that the british and the scottish are far superior to the irish and your heredity has enndowed you with this impoverished stated leading your ancestors to leave ? This sort of atavistic resoning is bullshit.

You cannot understand people that chose to live as one with nature, like the aboriginals of australia. how long would you survive in the simpson desert without any of your modern technology? The aboriginals have done this for atleast 40,000 years.
there is no such thing as a free gift from the white man, you dont know of the cruelties that were perpertrated, aboriginal in australia could not vote in elections till 1970, recieved little or no health care. it is only recently that the government has tried to repair these issues. but how can welfare repair the damage of 200 years of occupation.
You have no experience, you cannot understand the technology of spirituality. where does civilisation originate ? where do drums and poly-rhythms begin. Most popular music (rock, jazz, blues, hip hop) etc is a gift to the world from genius black artists, picasso's cubism was based on african masks.
i feel sorry for you. your ignorance is astounding.
we are all human beings.

I did indeed grow up in AU you moron. I came to the USA and managed a juris doctorate from William & Mary. As for Abos? Closer to animals then humans. Were it not for the good graces of the white man, the negro would have died out LONG ago.
They are indeed closer to monkeys than humans.