Before we get into the nap of talk show host Don Imus’ hair (kind of curly, don’t you think?), let’s try to get some perspective on ethnic and gender humor.
His “joke” about the Rutgers women’s basketball team being “nappy-headed ‘hos” aside, Don Imus is not the biggest problem on the landscape when it comes to misogynistic, bigoted “hate speech.” The most dangerous voices of racism and sexism in the U.S. today are coming not from whites, but from within the black community, especially musicians.
I suggest that in this post-Civil Rights era, the opinions of one’s self carry more influence upon one’s behavior and opportunities than the opinions of one’s adversary (in this case, ignorant comic DJs and their corporate sponsors).
Imus’ chief error was to forget that one can say anything one wants about one’s own kind (whatever the “kind”), but an outsider has no such license. It is ultimately defeating in the struggle against bigotry that pop culture’s widespread use of the words “nigger,” “ho,” “bitch” and worse seduced Imus into thinking he can say anything on the air without consequence.
Imus was just parroting from this week’s top 5 rap songs on the Billboard Hot R & B / Rap charts:
#1 Robin Thicke – “I’m Lost without U”Baby you’re the perfect shape Baby you’re the perfect weight Treat me like my birthday
I want it this way
#3 Mims – “This is why I’m hot”
Another bitch another drop
16 bars, 24 pop
44 songs, nigga gimme what you got
#4 Lloyd – “You”
tha boy got dollars
So women come frequent like flight mileage
… Send a nigga a text message girl
#5 R. Kelly – “I’m a Flirt”
When it come down to these ‘ho’s
I don’t love ‘em …
That’s why these niggas can’t stand em
I’ m a chick mag-a-net
And anything fine - I’m baggin’ it
I realize that any campaign to roll back the crude attitude of today’s pop music stands about the same chances as Britney and Justin getting back together as Mouseketeers. It just won’t happen. But someone somewhere must begin to deal with the impact of this negative self-image in the young African-American vernacular. Lest we be consigned to another generation of fatherless kids, diploma-less students, and cash-less communities.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
MSNBC jumped off the Imus bandwagon first, suspending him for two weeks after a passel of sponsors bailed, including Staples, General Motors, Sprint Nextel, GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble, PetMed Express, American Express and Bigelow Tea.
Altruistically, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said he felt the heat from co-workers in the hallways. His concern: “the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society.” Sounds honorable. Will Moonves apply this standard to other CBS enterprises (CBS and The CW television networks, cable’s Showtime and CSTV, local CBS television stations, CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution Group, CBS Outdoor, Simon & Schuster, CBS Interactive, and CBS Consumer Products)? Is America’s corporate media ready to take its responsibility for the shadow it casts across the land? That’s a lot to ask.
But again, advertisers were bolting from “Imus in the Morning.” Under those circumstances, the choice was easy and Trump-like: “You’re fired.” Commercial broadcasting is a business first.
CENSORSHIP
The nation’s leading media voices do a disservice to the word “censorship” when they bring it up in the Imus case. In nations around the world, journalists are disappearing in pursuit of government accountability. Laws repress and control the media in many parts of the planet. But here in the good old U.S. of A., you can pretty much watch, listen to or read anything material you want.
A corporate slap on the wrist, or even a firing from a multi-million dollar glamour job does not come close to censorship.
THE RETURN OF IMUS
No one is shedding any tears for Don Imus. He’s a shock jock with a legacy of racist, sexist, mean, stupid, outrageous quips, sketches, parodies, satire and rants. (He called PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill a “cleaning lady” when she joined the N.Y. Times. He called Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz a “beanie-wearing Jew boy.” On the occasion of Yasser Arafat’s funeral, he broad-brushed Palestinians as “animals.” Imus’ sports announcer called the U.S. women’s soccer team “juiced-up dykes.”) His 1974 comedy album on Bang Records: This Honky’s Nuts.
Media analysts say his interview style and audience attract top newsmakers from politics, media and entertainment. He’s raised millions for charity. Taken together, this is called “good radio.” He was paid a handsome $10 mil a year for his national syndicated radio show and cable TV simulcast.
And can we expect prominent African-American “leaders” to carry this banner and not rest until rappers, comedians and programmers clean up their act and find other words for women and African-Americans? I’m not holding my breath.
Look for Imus on satellite radio or cable TV after a nice two-month vacation.
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LINKS
CNN: Imus has a history of offending, surviving
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/10/imus.show/index.html
