And it's not that I live on the liberal West Coast, either. I grew up in a conservative home in the Midwest, and respect was one of our family values, as it was for the families who lived around us. No one I knew growing up, children or adults, talked that way. I would have been in huge trouble if I'd ever used a racial epithet.
So the controversy surrounding Imus puzzles me. He's too old to have his mouth washed out with soap. Fire him.
If anyone cares to read it, One of our writers on Highbrid Nation actually worked wit Imus over the last few years and had some really interesting things to say about the whole situation with Imus and he also has some inside info that the media hasn't mentioned about the whole story.
I've known people who spoke that way. I don't now. This sort of talk does exist in the world.
Actually, I don't know anyone who speaks the way people speak on the radio, or on TV! It's a highly contrived, highly stylized environment.
If you're going after Imus, you have to go after a lot more -- Stern, of course, Opie & Anthony, George Carlin, probably all the reality shows, most of the sitcoms, and so on.
If we are going to talk about degrading and demeaning, then we'll have to talk about advertising!
I have exactly the same response. how can anybody say "he didn't mean it, he's a great guy" etc? he could have many fine qualities, but he's clearly a racist and a sexist, at minimum, and shouldn't have the microphone he has now.
I watched a clip on the ABC morning news of Imus on Al Sharpton's radio program.
I won't apologize for Imus. I never listen to shock jocks anyway. But him and Sharpton together--isn't that sort of like the radio version of professional wrestling?
I've seen only occasional TV coverage of Imus and that was years ago--never would think of listening to him on the radio. But I have known people who say the things he said. I think they are more foolish than hateful, more humorless than intentionally hurtful.
Robert Benchley once criticized Eugene O'Neil for lacking a sense of humor and pointed out that the true value of a sense of humor is not what it enables you to say, but what it keeps you from saying. He meant the serious statement so grotesque that it is laughable. I would add the witticism so lame it is disgusting.
I grew up hearing this kind of language and worse from one half of my family. The other half of the family strove valiently to ensure that we understood that talk to be ignorant and insensitive. The bad thing about saying something that you will regret is that once you have said it, you really can't take it back. Especially if it was recorded and replayed over and over again. This guy has some major mea culpas to do before he can be respectable again, if he ever was in the first place. There are still good ol' boys who think this way and talk this way and think it's okay. They will continue to think so if there are no repercussions. Fire him.
Has anyone heard of Tom Leykis? He has a radio show out of L.A. that basically degrades women on an every day basis. He convinces his listeners that single moms are nothing but "booty calls" and that it is okay to trick a woman into having an abortion. It is an utterly insane concept to have him on the radio, preaching to so many penetrable minds, but, there's one simple fact everyone is overlooking...WE LIVE IN A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY WHERE WE CAN SAY WHATEVER WE WANT. Our beloved men and women are going overseas in mass numbers to try and defend a very minute iota of freedom that was attacked one Sept 11th. Remember when that happened? That morning...no one was thinking about stupid racial "slurs" or frivolous lawsuits (pretty much the same concept, unless you are that one lawyer that defended the infamous attempted shoe bomber who tried to blow up an airplane. That lawyer, I am convinced, is the antichrist). EVERYONE I knew was deeply, to the core, concerned for our country's future, our loved ones, friends or our loved one's friends. What a terrible, terrible thing to happen. But how beautiful to see a country of 300 million people unite. 300 million people...and nearly everyone united for a purpose, a cause. Please don't forget our Constitution. Please don't forget the principles our WONDERFUL country was founded on. Yes, certain concepts have changed, and for the better (no more racial segregation, women voting, etc.), but remember those basic principles set forth. The most important was Freedom of Speech. I disagree with many beliefs that are anti-family and anti-society, but that is the beauty of this wonderful nation. And you know what...I'll get over it. And so will you. Don't let the media dictate how you feel about some random shock-jock's stupid comment. Realize the news is one big ratings-driven reality show,and get over it. Move on. Instill the values you believe you should in your children. Isn't it nice to have that option?
I think it's hard to argue with the following bit from Lee's comment:
Don't let the media dictate how you feel about some random shock-jock's stupid comment. Realize the news is one big ratings-driven reality show,and get over it. Move on. Instill the values you believe you should in your children.
But, at the same time, radio hosts have a platform; when they speak on the air, they aren't speaking as private citizens, they're speaking as entertainers. Freedom of speech is the freedom to stand on the corner and say whatever you want. Broadcasting is a business; we have no problem boycotting companies that test on animals or that have racist or anti-gay policies. I think that's the issue here, not the concept that people should understand that freedom of speech is about protecting the views opposite to yours, not just your own. (I mean, I would LOVE it if white supremacist or dominion theology websites were illegal, since I think they cause nothing but harm, but I would be upset if something like Food Not Bombs or Microcosm Publishing was deemed too radical to be legal.)
I'm of two minds about this Imus thing ONLY because I used to know his daughter, Toni, who was* a great person & babysat me a lot when she was in college. I don't think it'd be fair for me to talk about the quality of her relationship with her dad, especially twenty-some years later, but this whole drama has made me feel for her. Still, that means, "Her dad shouldn't have made an ass of himself on national television," not, "I don't want anyone to ever criticise anything Don Imus does."
*Is? I haven't seen her in a long, long time.
Peace,
We as black people need a knowledge of self, understanding of self and appreciation of self. These things lead to us not having to demand respect but command respect by us respecting self. Brother and sister rappers need to stop falling into the game of our self destruction.
"As a person thinketh in their heart so are they" Bible
What you see on these records is the manifestation of the warped mind that has been produced under the U.S.A.