Don Imus called the women of the Rutgers basketball team "nappy headed hoes". And like the comedy of Buster Keaton movies and early vaudeville, it was assumed that the joke would be absorbed in the genre of accepted insult. After all......rappers say it. However, Imus struck a gasoline line and it exploded. Most minority communities have a brand of self deprecating humor. It takes the sting out of insults from outsiders. But that does not give "outsiders" the same privilege. The ideal image of Barbie, Madison Avenue and Hollywood have historically excluded Black women. The blond beauty and virtue held in a higher esteem. So Imus's remarks whether innocent or not served to reinforce a cruel stereotype. In a week where Anna Nicole Smith held a "whose the Daddy" contest posthumously, young Black girls wept at the accusation of being called "hoes". These were scholar/athletes reviled for pleasure and ratings.
Imus has apologized. There are calls for his firing. That will not solve the issue. One can only hope that a chastened Imus will serve to enlighten those who would find humor in racist remarks. And that his ten million dollars a year, Connecticut estate world will be brightened by the wisdom of the Rutgers girls basketball team.
Well as of now Imus has been fired and I for one think that is exactly what should have happened. You say it's not going to solve the issue and to that I say of course not. The problem is racism and pointing it out here and there in public persons is not going to make it go away like magic but that doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye. Those offended have every right to exercise their power over Imus just as much as he has the right to speak. To say that doing so does not end "the issue", which is racism is to say we might as well not do anything about what we think is wrong because we can't chance it anyhow. What Imus did was make abusive statement publicly and while that stupidity is federally protected speech it doesn't save him from the freedom of the people who's attention he was trying to grab. Those people respectably chose to judge him based on what he had to say and not on totally unfounded assumptions.
ReplyDeleteLuis you make a good point. The issue here was not freedom of speech, it was clearly a very cruel and racis statement. We who were offended have a right to our own freedom of speech, and for what it is worth the network listern. Maybe it took loosing revenue from big time advertisemens, whatever the reason was, it work. Now how about dealing with the hip hop community "poetic license" that depricates the black female has no place in our society. Wanda
ReplyDeleteWhat Imus did is protected from government prosecution. He exercised his right of free speech. What he did not do is exercise his obligation of responsible speech. You see, he had his free speech amplified by the public airways. That put the obligation upon him and others who have that opportunity to speak in a socially responsible way. Uttering racist remarks always does public harm, dividing rather than uniting people. Racism in American society is kept alive by being stirred up by such remarks. Imus did not exercise the necessary discipline to serve the public and so it was important to take away his opportunity to be on the air.
ReplyDeleteHoward Stern says similar things everyday and gets away with it.
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