(Long Island, NY) Isaac Hayes is the smooth, silky voice behind such hits as the “Theme From ‘Shaft”, “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”, and his own excellent version of “Walk On By”. He’s also the voice behind the famous ‘Chef’ character on Comedy Central’s South Park series. Hayes decided to take a hike on South Park after the release of a recent episode of the animated comedy series that makes fun of Scientology. Hayes is quoted on the religious movement as saying “Scientology is the gateway to eternity” so it’s not really that surprising that he took issue with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
Even so, Isaac Hayes never piped up about the show’s content before, even when South Park took some humorous jabs at Catholicism, Protestants, Jews and nearly every other religion Americans are even vaguely familiar with. Nowadays, he claims to be fed up with Parker and Stone’s brand of irreverence; he says that as a civil rights activist, Hayes can’t support television programs that show disrespect to religious beliefs and practices.
Isaac Hayes is a cultural icon. His music speaks for itself. Particularly good are his older tracks, including “Ménage a Trois”, and newer cuts made especially for South Park, “Chocolate Salty Balls”. These are bawdy tunes, full of lusty abandon and a healthy disregard for the opinions of stuffed shirts everywhere, who want to save us all from naughty thoughts and keep us all freshly scrubbed at all times. As an icon, he’s certainly had his share of flouting convention and “decency”. Aren’t all America’s groundbreaking artists considered to be at least slightly dirty in their heyday? As time goes on, all is forgiven and what was yesterday’s dirt is today’s nostalgic fun. For those who don’t remember Lenny Bruce, Redd Foxx or Richard Pryor—the man who once released an album called ‘Bicentennial Nigger’—perhaps a little self-guided history lesson courtesy of Amazon.com is in order. Or a Google.com search.
Hayes, as a Scientologist, may be excused for being a little miffed because the program he did voice and music work for had the nerve to poke a little fun at his beliefs. That said, could he really be that miffed, especially as a civil rights activist? Isaac Hayes did, after all, utter some rather infamous lines in South Park, including the following gem:
“How are my little crackers today?”
Hayes did the award-winning soundtrack for the original movie “Shaft”, which features Richard Roundtree’s character railing against “black honkies” in a fit of anger over what he considered to be an African-American “sell-out” on the police force.
Neither of these two examples should be taken seriously as samples of racism, bias or inappropriate content for consenting adults. Unfortunately, Isaac Hayes—arguably one of the great song-writers of the twentieth century—can’t seem to see the South Park episode mocking Scientology in the same light as his lines about “crackers” or Roundtree’s “black honkies” lines in the film “Shaft.”
Americans often display a curious double standard in this way—we can laugh heartily at the other guy’s religion, or at the very least stand by and make way while others do so—but we fail to engage our funny bones when it comes to the more personally held ideas about god, faith, and the hereafter.
Isaac Hayes, and just about everybody else would do well to take an important lesson from a religion most Americans know little to nothing about—Hinduism. This religion is one of the very few that features a tolerant attitude towards “blasphemy”. According to the Bhagavad-Gita, the Divine will not be perturbed, moved, or stirred by either praise or blame. It is quite refreshing to find this kind of attitude expressed in a holy book about one of the central figures of Hinduism, Lord Krishna. Any religion offering such wonderful common sense should be made an example of.
The skins of western believers are very thin compared to their Hindu counterparts, at least as evidenced in the Bhagavad-Gita. Mr. Hayes and the rest of us might do well to glean some wisdom from this ancient holy book, take a chill pill and quit being so bloody sensitive about each and every little thing that comes out of the television set. If it’s good enough for Lord Krishna, it may well do the rest of us some benefit as well. Here’s hoping.
