The Wiz Live finally premieres tonight on NBC, and folks are excited. While we’ve been chronicling just about every single update about this latest adaptation of the classic musical, not everyone is as hype as we are.
Strangely, there’s a pocket of hurt white folks who are upset The Wiz Live has an all-Black cast. Some of them even went so far as to wonder what Black folks would think of there was an all-white Wiz (um, hello Wizard of Oz?).
The ignorance is astounding. I mean, LOOK.
via Buzzfeed.
This tweet pretty much sums up our reaction.
https://twitter.com/Ninjastey/status/672469261881909248
Anyway, for all the trolls in the cheap seats, one enterprising guy by name “Leroy Jenkins” (aka the Blackest name ever) took to GoFundMe to raise a million dollars (ha!) to bring an all-white production of The Wiz to life.
Peep his ask:
It’s come to my attention that Black America thinks they take everything. They want a Black Jesus, Quinoa, Black Egyptians, and pumpkin spice. Well, I want an all White version of The Wiz. There’s an all white version of The Wizard of Oz ,but that isn’t the same thing. I want to direct it. The all white version must have soul and what better person to give it soul than a black man!!!!! Adele can be dorthy, Justin Timberlake can be the scarecrow, Macklemore can be the tinman, Sam smith can be the lion, and Iggy can be toto. The wizard can be bill nye, it fits. I’m still working out all the details but I need the funds to make this happen. Can you imagine Adele hitting the Quan to ease on down the road? It will be glorious!!!!! My fella black people we must stop trying to make everything our own. The next thing you know we’ll want more blacks in hollywood, equal rights, cabs to pick us up, people to stop stereotyping us, and equal pay. Let’s make this happen.
HILARIOUS.
The real The Wiz Live remake, complete with folks we actually know and love like Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, and Stephanie Mills, premieres tonight on NBC.
https://youtu.be/OVIHBdTuVGc
Will you be watching?
December 3, 2015 -
“Leroy Jenkins” your sarcasm is strong…. please tell me this is all sarcasm…
December 3, 2015 -
LOL, I actually have a first cousin named Leroy Jenkins. Knowing my cousin, he’s properly serious about this movie.
December 3, 2015 -
haha!!! This is great!
December 3, 2015 -
White folks really are something…wondering how many of them wrote petitions about the lack of black actors in the last year’s live production of “The Sound of Music” and the year before that’s production of “Peter Pan”.
December 3, 2015 -
I bet there are people that will actually get behind this…. don’t give them ideas…lol.
December 3, 2015 -
I’m tuning in as well, Binks!
December 3, 2015 -
Me too.
December 3, 2015 -
I will certainly be tuning in as well.
December 3, 2015 -
And so goes Caucasian hypocrisy! SMH
December 3, 2015 -
Black talent is always amazing. Haters will hate. For these racists to claim be the most intelligent people in the planet (which is a lie), they certainly come up with very unintelligent statements. The truth is that the Wizard of Oz of 1939 was all white. The Wiz production in NBC has been a labor of love. The cast is not trying to disrespect anyone. They are showing their talents to the world from acting, singing, and dancing. I will be turning in. Black people have natural soul.
December 3, 2015 -
Truth, You might remember that Leroy Jenkins troll. It used to lurk on the newsone and root forums a couple of yrs ago! I think you and I have battled with it before lol
December 3, 2015 -
LOL. That white racist troll was sick and immature to put it lightly. We refuted that person a lot on Newsone. It doesn’t take much to refute a racist. We are the first people on this Earth. We have made many inventions and other accomplishments. We fought the Maafa, slavery, peonage, Jim Crow, etc. to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, scholars, musicians, artists, athletes, economic leaders, etc. Our story is a proof of the power of the human spirit.
December 3, 2015 -
Right on!
December 3, 2015 -
There may be thousands of people using the name Leroy Jenkins on the Internet. Just so you know, it’s derived from a famous YouTube video from a World of Warcraft dungeon event in the original game, so 2004ish? The Leroy Jenkins meme was so popular with gamers that the game even added an Easter egg achievement memorializing it.
All this to say, any sarcastic geek who ever played WoW could be using that name, so it may not be the same dude. This guy sounded sarcastic, like he was making fun of the angry white people.
December 4, 2015 -
Unfortunately, the Net has become a playground for trolls, racists and any other coward that disrupts forums with bs comments. That screen-name has appeared on black-oriented forums for years.
December 3, 2015 -
They do have a white version(s)…The wizard of Oz with Judy Garland and linked to that, Wicked the musical. The campaign is beyond pathetic.
December 3, 2015 -
“The campaign is beyond pathetic.”–If you’re speaking of the Gofundme post, you missed the sarcasm/satire.
December 4, 2015 -
It is neither sarcasm nor satire. Just stupid. Gofundme agrees since it took the campaign down.
December 4, 2015 -
“It is neither sarcasm nor satire. “–Clearly you did not read or get their mission statement.
“Just stupid.”–If you thought so, cool.
“Gofundme agrees since it took the campaign down.”–Lol! Of course it did. It was never a real campaign. Gofundme neither agrees or disagrees. The whole thing was nothing more than mockery of white tears.
December 4, 2015 -
I read it and yes at 2 am (UK time) in the morning it flew over my head. (Up working) I shouldn’t have as the title is very self-explanatory. But hey it happens sometimes.
Thank you.
December 3, 2015 -
Henry said he was being sarcastic. “I’m dumb but not that dumb! I was making fun of mouthbreathers who are like ‘where’s WHITE history month?'” Please don’t leave this post up as is. He has even said that while it stinks to be taken out of context and blasted, at least it’s because people are fighting racism.
December 4, 2015 -
Isn’t that hilarious when whites ask why isn’t there a white history month.Like everyday is white history month.I don’t get mad at the Greek,Irish or Italian festivals they have where I live because I could careless.
December 5, 2015 -
Can you imagine what white history month would be like? I’m a white guy and I can assure you it’d be a month of stomach turning pro-white, pro-American propaganda. One would assume that it would be a fairly sexist endeavor, as well. Like the rest of history classes were, back in the day, but brought to you by fox news.
December 5, 2015 -
Maybe so.I know that everyday in America is white history month though but many whites still want their month.There is an LGBT month,Hispanic heritage month and Asian Heritage month too but I guess for now they are just upset at black history month.
December 7, 2015 -
Too true – clearly, any sort of genuine appreciation for history has nothing to do with it, otherwise they wouldn’t be so ignorant as to demand a white history month in the first place. Or so hateful and petty. I was just imagining the colossal joke we’d make out of an official, dedicated, named-and-on-the-calendar white history month. I mean, it isn’t like we’ve allowed reality to intrude too heavily into the every-month-is-white-history-month system.
December 3, 2015 -
The guy on that tweet said it was a joke to make fun of the whites that were complaining.
All and all–the outrage over the Wiz being all black is hilarious!!
December 3, 2015 -
Cool
December 4, 2015 -
dead @ Iggy as Toto
December 4, 2015 -
I don’t see anything funny about racist stupidity. As for Leroy Jenkens, I thought he was from a viral video of a World of Warcraft player from about 10 years ago. Regardless, this “joke” isn’t amusing.
December 4, 2015 -
How marvelous.
We don’t care.
Bye.
December 4, 2015 -
I thought it to be hilarious.
December 4, 2015 -
My favorite gif