Talk to me Mikhail Karpich
Dewey gets Petey the chance of a lifetime that is sure to take him “straight to the top,” and at the same time fulfill a lifelong dream of his own by booking Petey on the Tonight Show. Petey, however, was not thrilled about this because all he wanted to do was be a disc jockey back in Washington D.C. Petey just wanted to educate the people, mostly the blacks, and tell them the truth and how it really is by “keeping it real” and “being real.” Peteys sabotage of his “big chance” was not a purposeful act of self-destruction or self-service but “keeping it real.” Petey spread the truth and said things the way they were even though it might of offended people. The truth is what really mattered to him. If the Tonight Show was aimed at reaching out towards the black audience or hosted by an African American, Petey would have probably acted differently. However, the position he was in, entertaining the white folks, and his genuine character of “keeping it real” would not allow him to do what Dewey wanted him to do. Petey probably thought, how could the white rich people in the audience understand how he felt inside, and the black people he was representing, and the injustice he and his colored brothers suffered and were still suffering? According to Roger Hewitt, “stereotypes of black life fashioned in the minstrelsy period of popular entertainment and coming to form part of the prevailing white construction of ‘the south’ and of the black people” (Hewlett 44). The Tonight Show was geared towards the white audience that had already constructed a stereotype of the black people and “the south.” They truly were not ready for the truth he had to present and therefore not him.