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.
3 comments:
Poor Mr. Imus...comparing the looks of two basketball teams what a pity. If Steve Harvey had uttered these comments hilarity would have pursued and life would have went on as normal. Did he mean these women were whores...probably not...did he mean they were unkept whooped up on sisters yes. Now the whole team has perms when last month cornrows and raggedy pony tails were all the norm. Disrespectful...maybe..the burning torch for racial relations...please don't make it that.
1. Black hatred of white folks is acceptable because there are facts to back it up? Ummm noooo.. What that says to me, a white woman, is that just because I'm white I deserve to have a black person hate me. This hatred and racism that comes from each and any segment of society is wrong and tiresome. Please do not make exceptions dependent upon who hates on who.
2. Don Imus' statement was and is ridiculous and hurtful. He should and will be punished, however, I do not think he really "gets it" and probably never will. That is what is most disturbing to me, that he clearly doesn't get it. Even though he has issued his standard apology, he tries to defend the statement still by stating that black society perpetuates this stereotype thru music and movies and so on... Obviously he does not believe that what he said was inappropriate, wrong and hurtful.
3. I don't give a cr@p how much $$ he gives to charity or how much $$ he raises on his radioathon... I HATE that he had to throw that little nugget of info into his apology... that we need to remember his "true" character. He just showed us his TRUE character.
4. To the poster who mentioned that Imus was accurate in his statement that the team is "unkept whooped up on sisters"... do you really think having a perm during basketball season is the smart do for women? Cornrows, ponytails are a more sensible hairstyle to sport when you are playing sports. And I hate to tell ya, but even us white girls have "raggedy ponytails" when we are shooting hoops.
Imus did not exist to me 24 hours before I read the article centered on him as well as the 4 to 5 other articles that made mention of his remarks and the all-too-common cop- out statement concerning black music as his reason/excuse for saying what he did. As if hearing someone utter the term "hos" would cause a justified lapse in his observance of the unspoken social consideration that should give him pause. That same social consideration that some rappers ignore. If he was a man about the issue he would have handled it differently, I think. But as I begin to comment further on the subject, I cant help but to be discouraged by the pure and simple fact that I dont care. I dont care about his views, his feelings or his general position in life. Frankly, there are plenty of people in much, much more influential places with infinitely greater influence into your world and mine. I could find myself concerned with them, but a guy who's running his mouth on the radio? Just remember, he is only saying what others may be thinking. And I hardly believe that this man or any other will become a saint as a result of any punishment. He believes what he believes, some of it may be politically incorrect, some of it I may not agree with, some of it may be completely insane. So how does that make him different from you or me? No, I don't agree with him ,nor do I condone his actions. I would be here all day and night telling you the things that people do that I don't agree with, his story is one of many. A.G.
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