Distraction Distraction Distraction

This is the strategy that every good defense attorney uses on a jury. “Look over here, don’t look at the facts!” is the battle cry. Look away. Look away. Look away. That’s how I feel when I hear the supposed connection between Imus’s racist and sexist comments and rap music. This is the last time I will talk about this situation. But, I had to say this one last thing. First, there is no connection to rap music and the reprehensible behavior of this aging, attention wHOre—Don Imus. It is a wicked distraction. Yes, wicked and evil. How would the fact some rappers who call all women, not just Black women, bitches and hos be used as an excuse for a 60 year old man to say “nappy headed hos”? Rap cannot be blamed for this man’s statements. I want somebody to post one lyric where some rapper actually said the phrase used by Imus. The argument has been widely circulated that rappers have some how normalized the term “ho” to describe a woman, a black woman more specifically; therefore, it is rap who can be thanked that these student-athletes were called out of their names. BS is what I say. Complete bull.

The question that should be asked is: why do whites look to the worst in Black humanity as their example of what a black man or woman is??? Why is a black woman a video dancer or a welfare mother and nothing else? Why is a black man a criminal or filthy mouth rapper and nothing else? There is no way a white person can say these are the only images of Black people they are exposed to and therefore have nothing to juxtapose these negative images. Untrue. A bold face lie. A cop out. There are tons of positive images of black people on TV—men and women: Oprah, Barack Obama, Bill Cosby, Condaleeza Rice, Colin Powell to name a few. There are tons in Louisville---Chief Robert White, Attorney Olu Stevens, and Dean Blaine Hudson at U of L. There are tons of rappers that don’t call women out of there names: Common, Mos Def, Nas, and The Roots. The question becomes why whites love to highlight and focus on the worst in Black people. Black people are lawyers, doctors, policemen, teachers, etc. The sickness of this is in white people. The racism is in white people. The sexism is in men. Why judge a whole race of people on a rap music video? Does the white race judge all white people based on rock music videos like Marilyn Mason or Rob Zombie? No, whites are individuals. Blacks are a group.

Ho is an insult. Always has been, always will be. Repeating it over a million times does not change this. Anyone who says “we thought this was the ‘urban way’ to talk about women” is being intellectually dishonest. This is the number #1 problem in this society: dishonesty. On all levels. White people never want to hold the mirror up to themselves and say: we have deep-rooted prejudices and racism against black people and we need to examine it. Racism is always talked about in the abstract and not like it anyone is afflicted with it. Racism is a white problem and it effects colored folks. The prejudice in the brown people is the hate that hate produced and doesn’t affect white people in anyway.

There is no way in 2007 that a respected journalist could make this analogy: Women are promiscuous and wear slutty clothes. They are in countless porn videos. So, it is stands to reason that men think they can rape and molest them. Women have to change their behavior because porn stars have normalized promiscuous and outrageous sexual behavior. Or this analogy: Jews had all the money and power during pre-WW II Germany. With their behavior as unscrupulous businessmen they have normalized crooked business dealing. So, it stands to reason they were put in ovens. This would not be tolerated and should not be tolerated. But, black people are judged by a few rappers and told if it wasn’t for all your criminals and rappers and bad-behaving athletes, you would be treated with respect. If black people just acted right, there would be no racism. If black people were just perfect, then Imus couldn’t have said those student-athletes were nappy headed hos. It makes no sense.

This so-called rap and Imus connection was a distraction, because white people do not want to deal with their racists psyches. In fact, they are decidedly NOT going to deal with it. They have externalized it as a problem outside themselves…like they are fighting a Giant Monster roaming the US cities and countrysides. It’s outside themselves. Really and truly it is in their hearts and minds. And don’t get me wrong, this is a very, very, very complex issue, racism. Being racist doesn’t mean you hate all black people or that you go around saying nigger. It's subtle and insidious. At its very core it means you believe in white supremacy and black inferiority in all aspects of human behavior and life. Everything/one white is better than everything/one black. Think about it. It is a not accusation nor is it a insult. It is problem that needs to be addressed. Like alcoholism or any other addiction or disorder.

I’m glad Imus was fired. Extreme behavior deserves an extreme response.

Don’t Fire Him, Bankrupt the Bastard

Even if you haven’t heard yet Don Imus the original shock jock called the Rutgers’s Women’s Basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” Unfathomable. But I disagree with the call for his firing or resignation. I think we should stop listening to his show and BOYCOTT all corporations that sponsor the show. That’s the only thing that sends a clear and precise message. The corporate suits will fire him quicker than he can take off that ridiculous hat he wears sometimes if the advertising dollars dries up. Firing him will not do a damn thing, really. He’ll get another show, another network. Put him in the poor house. Take away his livelihood.

On another more important note: His spewing of hate speech only fuels pitiful race relations. Don Imus has only shown a light on America’s dirty little: racial stereotypes are ingrain in our society never to be extricated. Blacks can dance. Blacks like fried chicken. Blacks are lazy. Blacks are criminals. Black women are ugly. Black men have big things. The list goes on. There are stereotypes about EVERYONE. And the citizens of the US believe them all. They are repeated, regurgitated, re-tooled, re-vamped, and re-packaged for a new age, a new generation. These ideas are inescapable. I wish we could eliminate them. I wish we could start with a clean slate. But we can’t. What we have to do is confront these stereotypes instead of continuously sweeping them under the rug. And when I mean “we” I mean white folks. It has never made sense to me that black people talk about racism ad nauseum. Shouldn’t the ones who are afflicted with this malady be the ones to discuss it? Don’t even mention “black racism” cuz that is nothing but the hate that hate produced. Plus there are black folk that hate white folks but at least there is a reason behind this hatred. White folks usually hate black folks without any reason other than the black skin and what they think it means or represents. Blacks have never done anything to whites. You can’t even say crime, because according to the FBI statisticians crime is nearly always intra-racial and inter-racial. Of course, we know introspection will never happen. Whites have had over a hundred years to heal their psyches from the poison of slavery and over 40 years to excise the venom of Jim Crow. They have no need to. They are in the position of power. They are in the majority. When they are outnumbered by the Latinos, maybe they will finally see the light.

It’s a CANCER Vaccine

Why are these religious freaks veiled as “concerned parents” against a cancer vaccine? We as Americans are BEGGING mega-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies to use their inordinate wealth to develop and create cancer drugs. But, I cannot believe when I hear people saying they don’t want this new cervical cancer vaccine. We could wipe out some of the viruses that cause this horrific disease. But ‘people’ are upset because this particular form of cancer is usually caused by a sexually transmitted disease---Human Papillomavirus ---so I guess they have no need for this cancer vaccine. Why? It makes no sense. I bet a dollar to a donut (learned that nifty saying from a great friend who is a Army veteran) if this was a breast cancer vaccine, there would be NO opposition. We all know that breast cancer is not caused by any sexual contact. The new drug has mistakenly been called a STD drug. It’s not a STD vaccine. It’s not a license to have sex. It’s not good for some women and not other. It’s for girls before they become sexual active. It’s for GIRLS. For women my age the vaccine is not effective. Eighty percent of women are exposed to HPV. It’s not just for the sluts. It’s not just for the whores. It’s not just for the prostitutes. It’s just not for the immoral Black and Latin girls. It’s for all girls who could be exposed to this virus that could potentially cause cervical cancer. Uh, 80%. (I don’t know who this 20% is---nuns, lesbians, I don’t know.)

Get educated women. (There’s even a Louisville connection to this phenomenal drug.) Stop being drug down by sexual myth, sexual hypocrisy, sexual domination, and sexual oppression. Sex is natural. Sex is one of the things in nature that is as strong a desire as the search for food and water. I’m sorry, evangelicals, sex is GOD given. Sex is not bad. Sex is not evil. Sex is not dirty. Sex is necessary. Sex is beautiful. Sex is natural. Your daughters will have sex. Your daughters are having sex. Your daughters think about sex. This vaccine could save their life one day. This vaccine will save thousands of lives. Don’t believe the hype about it hasn’t been tested. “We don’t know the long term effects.” They know that Viagra may cause blindness. Where’s the outrage? Over the counter drugs kill hundreds every year. Natural gas kills hundreds every day. Binge alcohol consumption kills thousands every year. Cigarettes kill, no doubt, but we still want to light up in the local restaurants. Immunizations kill children. But will we give up the virtual eradication of polio, small pox, measles and other childhood diseases? This is ridiculous. If I had a daughter I would do everything humanly possible to save her from suffering. It’s a CANCER VACCINE. Stop fixating on sex. It PREVENTS CANCER. That’s a damn good thing.