First of all, I am a Don Imus fan. As a radio person, I have admired his radio abilities for decades. He started the old fashioned way, the way we all did in the old day, he ground it out in a small market station and worked his way up.
Now he is one of the most recognized radio men in America.
We all know what he did a year ago or so but now Reverend Al Sharpton and his race baiters are after him again for his comments on Monday on his new radio show.
I found a great article from an African American news company and the author is a Black writer who sees this situation through his life experience and gives a great editorial:
From THE ROOT.com
The Race Police Need to Lay Off Imus
June 25, 2008--Although I didn't think it was possible, the latest Don Imus controversy is almost as ridiculous as the first one. Imus recently made an off-hand remark on his radio show about Adam "Pacman" Jones' string of arrests, noting that "Pacman" was black. "There you go," he said. "Now we know." Some people chose to infer that Imus meant that Jones' blackness lay at the heart of some inherent criminal proclivity. Suddenly people are up in arms, ready to gather a posse, fire the torches and go after Imus. Again.
Never mind that his explanation is completely plausible. Since his kerfuffle after he referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hoes," there have been people out there unfulfilled by Imus' public, ugly mea culpa, unhappy with his dismissal and completely predictable return to the airwaves. These people, consumed by the business of taking offense, have been waiting for him to say anything that could be construed as racist, ready to pounce and take him down. Again. He may say something insensitive to blacks in the future, but his latest sound bites don't rate.
I found his comments about the Rutgers team insensitive but only slightly off-sides. Imus commented that the girls team was a little mannish and rough-looking (real talk). These observations were not altogether shocking or fresh; black commentators have said similar things about other female basketball players for years. And even though his jibe was consistent with his other shtick designed to rile sensitive ears, Imus should not have called those young women names—they didn't have a knock coming. He apologized. His mistake then, as now, was trying to explain himself.
Once you begin apologizing, you can never stop, and it will never be enough for some. So he has allowed himself to be put under the thumb of the preacher-pimps and race cops who make a living off the misery and discontent of the black bourgeoisie who believe it is their responsibility to decide when and how much black people should be offended by the white man's ignorance.
They sit in country-club canteens parsing language and reviewing tape in hopes of finding evidence of racism. Then someone can ring the BlackFone™ and have the Rev. Al Sharpton rush to the scene of the crime with a trunk full of T-shirts demanding an apology, maybe even shake loose a donation or two for good measure. When Sharpton's on message, he's sharp, but who can tell anymore? Sharpton is an uneven activist who has trained the media to turn to him as the arbiter of race and Pope of Blackness. America waits breathlessly for his ruling on this week's racial injustice. Most of America. Not me.
Imus is in the business of talk radio, and his business is caustic wit and irreverence. But if Imus can't order a cup of coffee—black—without a special dispensation, without the need of some kind of interpreter or co-signer, then soon he'll be out of business, along with a lot of other folks. Black folks. Because when you start trying to censor other people, you're next.
Never mind that his explanation is completely plausible. Since his kerfuffle after he referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hoes," there have been people out there unfulfilled by Imus' public, ugly mea culpa, unhappy with his dismissal and completely predictable return to the airwaves. These people, consumed by the business of taking offense, have been waiting for him to say anything that could be construed as racist, ready to pounce and take him down. Again. He may say something insensitive to blacks in the future, but his latest sound bites don't rate.
I found his comments about the Rutgers team insensitive but only slightly off-sides. Imus commented that the girls team was a little mannish and rough-looking (real talk). These observations were not altogether shocking or fresh; black commentators have said similar things about other female basketball players for years. And even though his jibe was consistent with his other shtick designed to rile sensitive ears, Imus should not have called those young women names—they didn't have a knock coming. He apologized. His mistake then, as now, was trying to explain himself.
Once you begin apologizing, you can never stop, and it will never be enough for some. So he has allowed himself to be put under the thumb of the preacher-pimps and race cops who make a living off the misery and discontent of the black bourgeoisie who believe it is their responsibility to decide when and how much black people should be offended by the white man's ignorance.
They sit in country-club canteens parsing language and reviewing tape in hopes of finding evidence of racism. Then someone can ring the BlackFone™ and have the Rev. Al Sharpton rush to the scene of the crime with a trunk full of T-shirts demanding an apology, maybe even shake loose a donation or two for good measure. When Sharpton's on message, he's sharp, but who can tell anymore? Sharpton is an uneven activist who has trained the media to turn to him as the arbiter of race and Pope of Blackness. America waits breathlessly for his ruling on this week's racial injustice. Most of America. Not me.
Imus is in the business of talk radio, and his business is caustic wit and irreverence. But if Imus can't order a cup of coffee—black—without a special dispensation, without the need of some kind of interpreter or co-signer, then soon he'll be out of business, along with a lot of other folks. Black folks. Because when you start trying to censor other people, you're next.
This says it all. America is about Freedom, and Don Imus is entitled to say what he wants on his show until his bosses say differently.
If you don't like his style, listen to something else, but stop censorship!
Notice in the article, it is LIBERALS who are always censoring!
Conservatives understand the meaning of FREE SPEECH!
10 comments:
I guess stories like this are why my views have started to shift from conservative to moderate. Let freedom ring? Offensive. I'm not a liberal, but I do not think it is appropriate to stereotype people of any race black or white, good or bad, especially on radio. Maybe it's my niece from Haiti that makes me more sensitive to racial comments. Every time I hear anyone speak differently about someone who is black, I cringe. For me it is very very personal. I take comments like that personally, because I think of someone I love very much.
Imus should keep his mouth shut. Even if Imus' defense is true and he was talking about the guy being "picked on" because he is black, no matter, the dude has lost his privilege to go there. Maybe if this was his first offense, it would be different. But, once you step over the line with racial comments, even if you make your way back to being respected, you can never go there again.
My moderate opinion. Jen
what about the other way around though?
Ever watch BET? They are HEINOUS with their White jokes and I don't accept the argument that they are allowed to due to the past.
You are right, racism is wrong, completely, BUT, free speech is free speech.
We are a Capitalist system. If Imus's advertisers don't like what he is doing, they will pull their ads and he will go away.
Same for listeners.
I hate Censorship more than I hate the thing being censored.
I consider myself a liberal in this regard.
I agree, Bill. With our freedom comes choices and consequences as well. We made a choice to be politically correct in the US. The consequence of that particular movement is a generation(s) of pansies that have little or no conflict resolution skills. Rather than taking the direct approach (which also happens to be the Biblical model, as well), we scream, publicly, for the racial sensitivity police. I can understand where jen is coming from. We have a lot of people that take things said to them very personally. However, if I took every unkind word to heart, I'd be giving them the victory.
I'm not commenting on your blog anymore until I get invited to play golf w/ you guys.
I think the fact that we are white and making comments about whether or not Imus can say or not say racist things is silly. None of know what it is like to grow up black in America but I imagine it is not easy. Plus, using BET and the white jokes carries no water. We were not enslaved or suppresed or denied housing and called niggers and segregated so I would think of walking in the shoes, realitically, before saying that the censoring is the problem. Imus is the problem...
Please don't use the Slavery issue as an argument for racism towards whites.
I don't have slaves, my dad didn't, my granddad didn't and in fact I don't think anyone has for about 150 years.
Isn't there a term limit on past transgressions?
If not, then I want payment for my ancestors who were enslaved by the Babylonians in 568BC.
Or more recently my ancestors who were enslaved by the Romans in 67AD.
Every people group on God's green Earth has been enslaved at some period. This one is just more recent.
Don Imus, is an entertainer, and as such is protected by Free Speech.
If you don't like it, talk to your congressman.
Your response makes no sense as I expected. I am talking about the deliberate use of power to keep blacks down as being the problem. Yes, slavery ended, but the rights of blacks were not exactly instilled afterwards. Jim Crow was an ugly thing not only in the South, but in the North. Many blacks who left the South hoping to find a better way of life by coming West and North found themselves in the same boat. The discrimination blacks have endured are endless (see the recent AMA apology) and as early as 1990 were receiving letters in Jesse Helms' district threatening arrest if they tried to vote.
Yes, Imus is an entertainer, but that should come with some responsibility. Being honest is one thing, but being an outright fool by using race to entertain offends me. I am all for free speech, but you still can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater--even if you are an entertainer. And why would I need to talk to my congressman about it?
Slavery and Jim Crow laws have nothing to do with the present day at all.
You have the freedom not to listen to Imus.
He has the freedom to say anything he wants that does not endanger anyone, like "fire" in a theater.
How dumb an illustration that is.
So,was "nappy headed ho's" albeit nasty, dangerous?
Probably should watch good clean tv like FAmily Guy or South Park.
Um, actually, slavery and Jim Crow have EVERYTHING to do with the present day. As silly as it may sound to you, I think Imus uttering those words is very dangerous because it sends the wrong message to people listening that it might be okay to say those things--which it is not. And, by the way, plenty of conservatives are engaged in censorship. Anyone remember the gangsta rap flap a few years ago when the Republican contolled Congress tried to censor them? But you'll say it's not the same thing because you cannot think outside of your little white suburban box.
You mean the conservative group led by TIPPER GORE?
Ya, that's what I thought.
The only music censorship I can possibly remember was AL MR. INTERNET CREATOR GORE'S wife.
AL GLOBAL WARMING GORE'S WIFE.
Democrats are all about censorship. Until it comes to flag burning or crosses in courthouses or anything Christian, then it's free speech be danged.
Go away silly little libs!
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