Yet another social commentary on the Don Imus Affair

So, Don Imus was fired by CBS for the statements that he made in regards to the Rutgers female basketball team.

How interesting. I bet that if he was called ‘Don-immie’ (or some such hip/hop type bullshit name) and was black and that he said such a thing in a rap song, that he would not have gotten in any trouble at all. Indeed, if such a thing was stated in rap, with the inclusion of sex and violence, there would have been no attention paid to such things stated.

But, since he is a white man, it is said to be sexist and racist. I would say that such is true enough, but I will add to that by saying that the “reverends” Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are being MORE racist then Don Imus, because they are only going after what he stated, and demanding his job, for three words said by Mr. Imus.

After their victory outside the studios and offices of CBS, are they going to be hanging out and haranguing the record executives of Sony, and other record label companies, for profiteering from the sexual degradation and racist comments by their artists? I sincerely doubt it.

Personally, I do not believe that it was white men did not come up with the word “ho”. That is a derivative of the word ‘whore’, which was shortened and altered to better fit the urbanesque vocabulary changes that we see brought about by rap and hip-hop lyrics/jargon. Blacks were calling each other niggers and hos for many years before Don Imus sat down before his microphone. And while some would say that the black community did not originate the word “ho”, they still have certainly used to predominantly in their entertainment (be it rap or hip hop or movies or comedy). I believe that Al Sharpton and Jess Jackson would do better to serve their respective congregations and communities to show some outrage at the cancer that is within those communities in regards to such “entertainment”. I suggest that they start to verbalize their disgust and disquiet not with those whites outside their communities that say things that are bad, but at those people within their communities that are making money from such statements on a continual basis.

I have heard that Don Imus should be fired because we have an obligation to the young people of this country. How many of these ‘young people’ listen to Don Imus?? How many of them listen to Snoop Dog, or 50 Cent, or the current hoodlum of the hour (aka rap star)? I bet that there are a whole lot more people that give credence to what rap they listen to on their I-pod, then by anything they may of heard from a Don Imus broadcast. We must also look at the context that it was given. Now, while I am not a fan of Mr. Imus, I still recognize a joke for a joke (even bad and stupidly made ones). He was not making it with malicious intent against those basketball players.

Personally, I think that Mr. Imus should of just been suspended. That he met up with the women from Rutgers and have his heart to heart with them, and apologize to them personally, and that would have been that. But, once again, we see an item blown way out of proportion by the media, who has made Don Imus their own sacrificial goat to the altar of political correctness. A white male who said 3 words in “wit” is more dangerous to the black community and their women, then the scores of “entertainers” who speak of breaking the law in a number of ways (rape, drug dealing, murder, assault, etc), and are seen as “role models” by that same black community. What about statements made in those contexts??

Does anyone think that the firing of Don Imus will affect one single sale of a rap album? Will prevent one “gangsta” from shooting another black over some supposed slight of machismo honor/respect?? That this will teach any teenager growing up downtown LA or Detroit or where-have-you that women (of any color) are to be treasured and respected in all things, in all ways, and at all times?? Even ONE??

CBS, MSNBC, and the right reverends Al Sharpton and the Jesse Jackson want you to think so.

Call me a pessimist, but I really and sincerely doubt it!

(Originally posted April 13th, 2007 on my 360 Blog followed by the following posted on April 16th, 2007... see below, of course)

Secondary Thoughts on the Don Imus Affair

As time has been advancing and more things have been said about the Imus affair, I have been spending more and more time on the web and reading about the situation. I have found out a few things that I fell that I must make another statement on this matter.

First, let it be known that I am not a fan of Don Imus. The few times that I listened to him, I switched to something else within a couple of minutes. I didn’t find his caustic attitude and insults to my liking. I really did not think too much or too deeply about him or his show, as I was channel surfing the radio when I came across his shows, listened a few minutes, and then moved on. I knew that he was famous, I knew that he was well known and a respected radio personality. He just wasn’t my type.

Well, from reading articles from a number of sources, it seems like these insults that caused me to turn to another channel were not rare or unusual, but what his shtick was based upon. He made his living off of insulting others, and making derogatory comments about people, especially females and those of color. He was famous for being a misogynistic racist and bigot. And not just sometimes, but ALL the time! Yes, he was also a skilled interviewer who was able to get high profile people to his show to interview, including prominent politicians. And, no one, not even those politicians were exempt from his acerbic “wit”, which maybe was his only saving grace with his superiors and sponsors (that being, he insulted EVERYONE, and not just those of color).

So, upon second (and third and fourth) look upon this situation, I am surprised that he lasted as long as he did. Perhaps it is an issue of our technological age, and the power of the Internet in how fast and how far protest grew and spread against him, following his comments about the Rutger’s female basketball team.

Now, do I blame Don Imus for his words? No, not really and particularly. He is who he is, and has said what he always has said about others. He is not going to change his nature in this point of “the game”. A leopard cannot change it’s spots, as it were. No, the people I fault over all of this ARE his supervisors and his sponsors. Why, after all these years of his insulting and degrading comments are these 3 words finally taken as being so over the top that it deserves his termination? And, why is it just Mr Imus who is fired, and not his on-radio producer as well (cannot recall his name at this time… and he may have been disciplined as well, though I haven’t seen anything in print at this time)? After all, it was the producer that first called the basketball players “hos”, before Don Imus called them “nappy headed hos”. Is one ho worse then the other, or are not they both equally bad?

Now, I have stated that I see that there is a measure in hypocrisy in this because there is much of the same, if not worse, within other realms of the entertainment industry, namely the rap/hip-hop genre, and there is not (or seems not to be) the same amount of outcry against such words being spoken their by young black artists as there are when such words are uttered by an older white males. I was kindly taken to task for such an attitude in my prior blog, and rightly so. Such complaints are being made within the black community against the record labels that produce such misogynistic and hateful “music”, but to many, if not most, of the artists, such protests only serve to sell more recordings, and to add to their image(s) as being big and bad and tough ‘mutha-fuckas’. And, indeed, it is not the black urban community that supports the sales of these people, as much as it is the suburban white teen aged male demographic.

Still, these people did not grow up in a vacuum. Not Don Imus, not 50 cent, not the Beasty Boys, not Hank Williams Jr (who have you). What they say and what they talk about and write about and sing about is not something that someone else forced upon them. Mr Imus cannot say that he called the Rutger’s basketball team a bunch of “nappy headed hos” because the people on his show expected him to call them that, and wanted him to call them thus. And, while some may have expected there to be something(s) said of a “shock jock” value, and thus not surprised by what he said, I would say that a vast majority of his listeners did not wish to hear the players insulted that way (or insulted in any way). Their views on race and gender and sex did not just come to be over night. These views, just like yours and mine, are opinions that are based upon years and years of personal experiences. We have our viewpoints influenced by our schooling and our friends, by what we hear and see on the street as well as at our churches and places of employment. If we surround ourselves with racists and bigots, we will soon have that very same mindset, because we have no personal experience otherwise that would effect our feelings and beliefs, be they right or be they wrong.

This whole affair is something that will be talked about, in many avenues (including this blog), for a long while to come. Hopefully, some good will come from this. But, to state it frankly, I do not see it being much more then a small flash in the pan. It will be a short term media fad, that will soon move to the back pages, behind the likes and antics of Paris Hilton and Donald Trump and Brittney Spears, etc. We are a society that looks at the surface and the superficial, not at the inner workings of our society, and those things of greater depth and importance like religion and racism and gender and sexual issues (as in equal right issues, and not “Lair” issues). We look at things that are of instant gratification, things that we can get others to do for us, and not things that we can do for ourselves or others (that would take thought and effort). The issues that our society has between the races is not something that will be solved over night. They have been causing hate and dissension for many generations now, and the firing of one racist “shock jock” is not going to make the races come together as one big happy family from this point on. Because, as long as one father tells his son that this race or that is lazy or stupid or criminal or what have you, or as long as an artist sings about stringing up “ragheads” or shooting “honkey”, or another rape victim is told by a police department that she brought upon her own assault by the way she looked or acted, we will continue to find that these seeds of hatred have brought upon poisoned fruit that we all must eat upon for decades and generations to come.

And, that is not something that someone else has to see, or that you have to recognize, but something that I have to see and recognize and follow, myself.

It won't be easy