This past week, the sharks have been circling Don Imus for the comments that he had of the Rutgers womens basketball team.
Let me say this again, what Imus said was completely wrong. You can see my earlier post, ” .”
There were two great posts this week in the blogosphere.
One of them was by Charles Karel Bouley on the Huffington Post. In his post, “Politically Correct Lynch Mobs“, he describes how
“…the Black Offensive Police, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson sprang in to action (is there like a Bat Phone for this sort of thing?) and began demanding for Imus to be fired. Yes, these two masters of media manipulation were calling for a fellow broadcaster to be fired for what he said on air. And of course, no one is talking about the real issues because they’re too busy screaming racist! Racist! Fire him! Remove his livelihood, drag him through the mud!”
Sharpton and Jackson are too worried what would happen if they don’t speak up, they will speak up without completely knowing the facts. Do I bring up the Duke lacrosse case here? But, they saw the blood in the water with Imus and went for the juggler and succeeded. But they were going after the person and not trying to tackle the bigger issue.
What Imus said was completely wrong, but it is not something said by people all the time. Specifically rappers and hip-hop artists. But because he was white, he paid the price. Bouley even calls it reverse racism.
How insulting all this is. If he had made homophobic remarks, this wouldn’t be news. If he were Black, say Chris Rock, Mo’Nique, Marsha Warfield, this wouldn’t be happening. In fact, he’s a victim of reverse racism. The very definition of racism is when one race believes it can do something that no other race can, when they feel they have the right to do something no one else can do. Well, saying that a Black person could make these remarks but not a White person is an inequality and is wrong no matter how you slice it. But no one ever looks at it that way. If something is so horrible that it hurts people, then no one should be able to say it, period. Selective censorship is stupid, and racial censorship is even worse.
Sharpton, Jackson, and many others have been after Imus for his comments, but they are not holding others accountable for these same comments. They are hanging out with them, they are friends with them, and they don’t criticize them for the degrading comments that they make towards women, especially black women.
I would bet CBS radio has many radio stations that play rap or hip-hop and those same words and some worse words are played several times a day each. Are they firing those DJ’s? Are they going to stop playing those artists? I don’t think so.
I want to finish up talking about Pat Buchanan’s post yesterday entitled, “The Imus Lynch Party.”
No one should judge Imus for what he said. It is wrong what he said, but he is being held to a different level because he was white and made comments about black women. Here is what Buchannan said,
The issue here is not the word Imus used. The issue is who Imus is — a white man, who used a term about black women only black folks are permitted to use with impunity and immunity.
Whatever Imus’ sins, no one deserves to have Al Sharpton — hero of the Tawana Brawley hoax, resolute defender of the fake rape charge against half a dozen innocent guys, which ruined lives — sit in moral judgment upon them.
Buchanan finished his article with a great quote.
Imus threw himself on the mercy of the court of elite opinion — and that court, pandering to the mob, lynched him. Yet, for all his sins, he was a better man than the lot of them rejoicing at the foot of the cottonwood tree.
I whole heartily agree. Imus was truly sorry and remorseful for what he said. He does a lot of good things in this world. He was fired in the middle of a telethon for children with cancer and he takes sick and inner-city kids to his ranch in New Mexico. He has done great in the world.
Imus will be back on air soon and he will have as many listeners, if not more, when he comes back. He is a good person who made a bad mistake. We should forgive, not forget and have a larger discussion on the whole issue.
CBS Radio also needs to look at itself and also get rid of all the music that is degrading women. If not, they are two-face and hypocritical. They have set the bar for behaving like a radio network. Now they need to be equal in it across the board.
Mile High Soapbox 