O.T.: Taking Pulse on Don Imus issue

[Johnny O]

Since I'm old, I remember this stuff.



Stevie Wonder, "I Wish", from 1976:



Looking back on when I

Was a little nappy headed boy

Then my only worry

Was for Christmas what would be my toy

Even though we sometimes

Would not get a thing

We were happy with the

Joy the day would bring

 

[Thomas Rogers]

JohnnyO, it's part of that double standard of "We can say it but you can't!"....and even that is more like a quadruple standard, because it doesn't go both ways.



Case-in-point:



Spike Lee makes a movie called School Daze and it plays on black-held stereotypes of light skinned (wannabe) and dark-skinned (*******) blacks. The names in parenthesis prior were in the movie. Spike Lee is black, so he can get away with that because of the standard and rule that says "We can say it but you can't!"



Now, rewind to last week and Imus riffing on the game. He noted the darker, tougher, tatted Rutgers team against their softer looking opponents and his producer made reference to the Spike Lee film and and "Wannabees and Jigaboos". I don't know how many interviews, news programs, and talkshows since I have heard Imus accused of using the word *******, and that's not even what he did. He (actually his producer) made reference to someone else in the black communities use of that term.



Then, once that reference was made, then the line was crossed, but Imus was already on the line because he had stepped into the shoes of the black man, using black man references and calling on the examples set by Spike Lee. Once in that mode, he said "Nappy headed hos"...again, names that if he were black there would be no problem.



So, that's the standard, and the reason it is so inequitable, is that there is absolutely no similar rules going in the other direction.



Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, ...you name it, they all have done some hilarious skits and riffs talking about the differences and oddities of whites (can't dance, stay in a haunted house, can't handle a black woman, talk funny, no butt, etc, etc...).



And as a white man, I find those things hilarious.



Sure...I guess a black person might defend it all by saying that Chris, Dave, and Eddie don't have hate in the heart when they say what they say, or that they are just joking, or that since the white man is on top and the black man on bottom for centuries that it's about time....



....Whatever. It's two different standards, and applying different standards to people BECAUSE of their race IS ABSOLUTELY the ulimate in racism.



TJR

 

[TrainTrac]

This just in: Imus was fired from his radio show...

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

Yup, it is all over the cable news shows about Imus being dropped from CBS radio. I was watching a little bit of an interview with a rapper M6 (I think) and he said that rapper's & hiphop singers are encouraged to use negative language by the record companies because that is what sells. That type of music (if you can call it music) needs to be boycotted to send the music industry a Big message because that type of language being used does not empoewer people of color, but actually tears them down by keeping them in a negative frame of mind.

 

[Bill V]

Now, rewind to last week and Imus riffing on the game. He noted the darker, tougher, tatted Rutgers team against their softer looking opponents and his producer made reference to the Spike Lee film and and "Wannabees and Jigaboos". I don't know how many interviews, news programs, and talkshows since I have heard Imus accused of using the word *******, and that's not even what he did. He (actually his producer) made reference to someone else in the black communities use of that term.



Then, once that reference was made, then the line was crossed, but Imus was already on the line because he had stepped into the shoes of the black man, using black man references and calling on the examples set by Spike Lee. Once in that mode, he said "Nappy headed hos"...again, names that if he were black there would be no problem.

TJR, I need to throw in a correction here--the "Jigaboos vs. Wannabees" references to Spike Lee's film "School Daze" (incorrectly attributed on the Imus show to Lee's other movie "Do the Right Thing") first occurred on Imus's show moments AFTER the "nappy-headed hos" comments. So clearly, it wasn't a discussion of Lee's film that disintegrated into the "nappy-headed hos" comment, as you're seeming to say--if anything, it was the other way around. See the link below for a transcript.



That said, I agree with everything you say about the inherently racist multiple standards for saying things like this.

 

[Dingo]

So what if he said it?



I didn't see the NAAWP jumping all over him... Oh, that's right. We'd be racists if the NAAWP existed.



I didn't see the story on WET. Oh, wait. That'd be racist, too.



I didn't see it during a commercial break on the white movie awards, the white music awards, or on "Miss White America." Oh, crap. More racism.



I'm not racist. But I'm also not stupid. One can recognize differences between behaviors and standards of a race without saying they're better nor worse. I have no problems with any race. I don't think any race should be "exterminated." I DO, however, think that people as a whole need to sprout some collective sense.



My great-great-grandfather was pretty big in the confederate movement (My last name's Calhoun.) I don't agree with slavery, but I don't agree with reparations, either. Why should I have to pay for the actions of whites that were dead and rotten before my parents even met? As far as I'm concerned, I should be paid reparations every time someone calls me "bro, bra, homey, dawg, etc." I was raised southern and I'm proud to be raised southern. That doesn't mean I'm a toothless redneck, nor does it mean I'm uneducated nor ignorant. It means I was raised with values I feel are very important and I'll make sure my children are raised similarly. I think that anyone should be called "sir," or "ma'am" if there's a remote possibility that they're at least 30 minutes older than me, color aside. The world as a whole needs to stop focusing on the wrong things.



I don't care what he said. It doesn't impact my life. I don't care what R. Kelly says. Again, no impact. As a matter of fact, nobody's words impact my life. Their actions do. If you want to lead, lead by example. Al Sharpton doesn't. He tells the world how it should be. The only reason he gained popularity at all was for actions amazingly similar to those of Don Imus. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Isn't that the cliche? It seems frighteningly true.



Incidentally, if any of you are offended by what I've said, I'm not sorry. I don't know what color any of you are, and frankly, don't care. What color you are doesn't impact who you are or how you behave. It doesn't change your morals or character. Let your actions define your character, not your color.



*steps off soapbox.*

 

[Richard L]

Rich Stern,

I agree that the media hype regarding some of these non-issue issues is excessive, however when you are trying to watch the news to get the important news, you are bombarded with this trivial crap. I have flipped from channel to channel hoping to skip over the trasn but it's pretty much impossible.



So the real problem is that the news is being overloaded with much of these "Who cares" stories about Britteny, Anna, Imus, OJ, etc. The news media attempts to build the trivial stories in to major news stories when they do not deserve more than 15 seconds of air time, and only after all the important news has been reported.



...Rich

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Bill V, thanks for keeping that straight.