Don Imus and the reason Barrack Obama doesn't stand a chance
Racism is woven into the fabric of our lives .. we just have to learn how to live with it and control it. It may be as human a trait as the survival instinct. From our earliest beginnings it may have been ingrained into all cavemen of one kind to stick together and be wary of those who look different .. of outsiders.
From newsday.com:
"Calling himself "a good person" who made a bad mistake, radio host Don Imus said Monday he would check his acid tongue after being lambasted for making racially charged comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team." [..]
"Calling himself "a good person" who made a bad mistake, radio host Don Imus said Monday he would check his acid tongue after being lambasted for making racially charged comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team." [..]
It was who he said it about. He wasn't talking about some thong-clad hootchie mamas in a rap video .. he was talking about hard-working college girls, children whose parents were proud of their achievements. Using that kind of language to describe kids participating in a school function would be offensive in any racial context.
Don Imus has been saying stupid ridiculous racist things for years, and NOW people are finally paying attention? And it kinda makes you wonder what Imus says about black people when millions of people aren't listening.
Watch this and pay attention to what his cohort says ...
Now I'm not defending Imus, what he said was outrageous and should bring consequences, but notice how his cohort kind of led him into it, saying "hardcore hos." Why is Imus the only one getting heat?
Why don't certain black comedians and hip hop rappers get the same heat? They use "nappy-headed" and "hos" to refer to themselves .. also "niggah." Why do they get away with it? Why do they still get bookings and music contracts? And I read that just as many whites buy rap music as blacks.
Maybe the best thing to come out of this dust-up is that a number of people in the black community are asking the question -- "how can Imus or any other white person be expected to say anything about blacks that's any different than the things blacks say to each other all the time?"
I don't listen to Imus for the same reasons I don't listen to Howard Stern -- shock jocks are not my thing -- and I never could understand why ANY politician would appear on Imus. Maybe because his demographic is mostly beleaguered 50 y/o white guys?
As usual, the media and bloggers are turning all this into a political thang .. saying if a Fox News commentator like Hannity or O'Reilly had made the same "nappy-headed hos" remark they would be crucified .. that since Imus "leans to the left" he will just get a slap on the wrist.
Leans to the left? Give me a break .. Imus is all over the map politically. Neither Democrat or Republican, he's just plain Contrarian. He takes the easy way out, saying "everyone is corrupt." That makes him right of center and left of Fox.
On the air he has called Gore "the most evil man in America" and referred to Hillary Clinton as "Satan" many times, once calling her "that buck-tooth witch, Satan."
He supported John Kerry .. supports McCain .. calls Dick Cheney a war criminal .. and called Newt Gingrich "fat" and a "disgrace." This is a man and show that spew nastiness toward everyone, Republican OR Democratic.
He regularly makes anti-gay slurs and called one reporter a "beanie-wearing little Jewboy" .. and called PBS journalist Gwen Ifil a "cleaning lady."
To be fair, I have to mention that Imus did a lot of ranting about the Feds ignoring the Katrina victims because they were poor and black. And he was pushing black Congressman Harold Ford's campaign for Senate as hard as he could .. AND blasting the "white lady" ads as racist.
Go figure.
As one who thinks that varying degrees of racism are buried deep within ALL of us, I think people who let it slip out -- Imus, Mel Gibson, Michael Richards -- ought to be allowed to apologize and keep their jobs. The public will make them pay the consequences .. or not.
Just because the words are erased doesn't mean the thought doesn't remain. And why we may not be evolved enough to elect a President Obama.
So MSNBC took Imus off the air for two weeks .. a slap on the wrist instead of a pink slip, because they want to see how this plays out. They'll surely want to capitalize on a boost in his ratings.
Everything is always about the money, honey ...
