Current Events: April 2007 Archives

Well, I guess I would lose my already endangered blogger cred if I didn't say something about Don Imus. So here it is: Good riddance.

Now, what about his enablers -- the guests, sponsors, and networks that kept him and his foul mouth on the air all these years? Really, they're like a bunch of kids who egg on the class clown but play dumb when he gets caught and leave him to take the punishment alone.

Imus wasn't born yesterday (unless by "yesterday" you mean "sometime during the Holocene Epoch") . He wouldn't have been filling up airtime with that kind of trash if he thought he'd get in trouble for it. The networks were paying him to be coarse and vulgar. So he did coarse and vulgar, and was paid big bucks to push people's buttons, and he happen to push the wrong button during a slow news week and now he's been hung out to dry.

"We are shocked -- shocked! -- that he would say such a thing!" If anyone should be apologizing to the Rutgers team, it should be CBS and MSNBC, for putting Imus on the air and giving him the idea that it would be remotely okay to say such a thing. (Followed by the record execs who are getting rich off the filthy rap music that puts slurs like that out there.)

People who don't use words like that don't have to apologize for them. Our society had boundaries and rules for a reason. But when you're always trying to "push boundaries" and "be edgy" it's only a matter of time before you fall over the cliff.

I actually feel bad for the guy. My husband thinks he was probably always a closet racist. My poor husband is super jaded and thinks that about most people. Hemight be right, but I think Imus suffers more form stupidity than racism. The man has been on the air stating his thoughts about everything under the sun for like 40 years now. He was bound to say something really stupid. After all that time clocked in as an established radio personality, he probably mistakenly thought he was "down" enough to use more ebonically-centric language to speak his mind. He forgot for a second that only people of certain skin colors are permitted to use that type of vernacular. You see, had he been black, no one would notice if he used the term "nappy-headed hos".

So what is the result? The Al Sharptons (most especially Al) see an opportunity to cash in and make a mountain of a mole hill and set us all back another 20 years in race relations.

I am not saying Imus should not have been reprimanded, his language was wrong and offensive. He most certainly should have been. Racially charged or not, offensive language should not be acceptable. But his comments are not an example of everyday racism that injures the average American. And the circus that ensues contributes more to the average, everyday racism. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that when white people see so much attention being drawn to the remark "nappy headed" they are baffled and think minorities love to make mountains out of mole hills. I have heard white people say that black people use these situations as an opportunity to get something for nothing. I think that is true for Jesse and Al. Not for me, or my family.

Recently my husband was up for a promotion at his job. He was passed up before he was even offered the position for a white person with much less seniority and a number of write-ups (where my husband has none) by a manager that has no compunction by freely calling people "Buckwheat" and using the 'n' word. I doubt that Imus using the term "nappy headed" has any influence on this manager's ignorance, and Al Sharpton has done nothing to improve race relations for the everyday average minority.