A Message For The White Majority

For today's post I am copying for you a story that appeared in The Daily Times, a Delaware newspaper. I came across the posting in the related news section that appears to the left on this page. But in case you miss it or it is gone by the time you read this, I wanted to make sure you read it because it is an important piece, not just for the intended audience, but for all of us.

A message for the white majority: We can overcome our racist history
By Joyce Mullins

It's sad that as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first game in major league baseball we must face the incontrovertible fact that America is still a racist nation. We -- and by "we" I mean the white majority of us -- can't seem to wash away the stain of our slave-holding history. It's more than skin deep, as is our fear of people of color.

We're racists not simply because Don Imus felt confident he would get laughs when he dredged Rutgers University's women's basketball team through the dirt in his own mind.
It's because it took CBS and MSNBC days -- not hours, but days -- to get Imus and his show, "Imus in the Morning" off the air.

It's that the big, white power boys of the American media thought it was OK to ignore the racist slurs in the banter Imus enjoyed with Bernard McGuirk, executive producer of the show and Sid Rosenberg, Imus' former sports announcer who was filling in that morning.
It's that the networks didn't have the backbone to act until AFTER sponsors started pulling out. Only money -- or the loss of it -- had the power to make these overgrown, overpaid playground bullies do the right thing.

Kudos to the sponsors, I guess. There's no way to be sure that they intended to take away the financial underpinnings of the show for the right reasons. Maybe they stepped up only because someone realized that the color of money is green and it doesn't work any differently coming from the wallet of a white person or a black person.

I hate to be such a skeptic, but where were the sponsors back when Rosenberg referred to tennis star Venus Williams as an "animal?"

If any closet, or for that matter any openly, racist readers feel tempted to justify the Imus exchange because of the disgusting, woman-hating language used by this or that rap star, just don't bother. As my late mother so eloquently preached, "Two wrongs don't make a right." There are no excuses for racism, not for grownups. Hating someone because they look different from us is so intellectually and emotionally lazy. We aren't born with hate in our hearts. As the song from "South Pacific" says, "You have to be carefully taught to hate all the folks your relatives hate."

So how do we stop handing down this ugly lesson?

I've always thought the public schools could do a lot more than the lick-and-a-promise kind of cultural teaching that's done. I didn't get to be the mommy in a bi-racial family without the help of my parents. It wasn't easy for southerners and I did start school in segregated Virginia. My dad anticipated that I might have some overcoming to do that first morning of my new fourth grade in integrated Pennsylvania. He said something simple and reassuring about looking for things that might be similar about the "little colored children" I was about to meet.

Before anyone leaps to the wrong conclusion -- "colored" was politically correct in 1949!

When I came home from school that day, I happily reported that the "little colored girl who sat next to me wore a dress exactly like mine!"

I wholeheartedly recommend my father's advice for us all.

Rap and Sexism

I am a big fan of rap music. Always have been since the early days of Afrika Bambaata and The Sugar Hill Gang. I think rap music and its influence on popular music of all kinds, as well as on world culture in general, are part of a the continuing contribution of black culture to the world. I also believe that some of the best rappers rap on subjects and issues that are deep and meaningful, and that they do have something important to say about social and other issues. Take a listen, a real listen if you don't know what I'm talking about, to "In The Ghetto" by Two Short, or almost anything by A Tribe Called Quest, or 'Jesus Walks" by Kanye West or even "Dear Momma" by Tupac. I could go and on. And if you doubt the influence of rap and hip hop on other forms of music, listen closely to Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Fergie, Gwen Stefani or any number of mainstream artists.

Now with that being said, that does not mean I like all rap music and artists. That would be silly. Any more than someone who likes rock and roll being expected to like all rock and roll songs or artists. Rap definitely has within it a segment, generally referred to as the gangsta or thug side, that is incredibly objectionable to me. I do not and cannot listen to that stuff. No doubt Imus and the others who are using this whole Imus affair as an opportunity to get on rappers and their awful language and message, have a point that there are those in the rap business who exploit and demean women. This segment oftentimes also condones violence and the ghetto lifestyle like it is something to look up to.

But while I disagree with and do not choose to listen to this vile stuff, I do not expect nor believe we can stop people from putting out this category of music, or some from buying it. Nor do I think we have the right to stop it. The difference between Imus and gangsta rap is people can choose to purchase what they want. It is a buying decision. And yet I think the public airwaves, radio or free television, are not the places for it to aired to the public, simply because it is indecent and does ultimately do harm to people, if only in a secondary way. Imus spewed his venom on the public airwaves. If he finds a way to make a living saying the same thing through the private market, then I have no issue. I don't believe we as a society should police everything people say. As long as it is not publicly backed or supported, stupidity should be allowed.

I think this whole debate in the aftermath of Imus is good though. I just don't want people to put all rap under this umbrella of degradation because that would be unfair and incorrect. Like everything else, there is good and bad in rap music. The bad, as much as I dislike it, has a right to exist as long as there are people who choose to support it. It just doesn't have a right to be out there in the public space where anyone can inadvertently come across it. I do wish those men (and women) who rap about the degrading things they do (and put out the videos they do) would make smarter choices. But we, as a society, cannot force people to be smart or enlightened. We just have to make sure their stupidity is contained to appropriate places where those of us who prefer not to listen to it do not have to.

Imus In The Morning

Don Imus has got to go. By now you have likely heard about the latest controversy surrounding Don Imus. If you haven’t, here is a synopsis. Last week on the air he referred to the women of the mostly black Rutgers women’s basketball team as a bunch of “nappy headed ho’s” sparking days of apologies as well as the requisite protests and speeches from many black leaders including Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who have called for his immediate resignation. In response his station, as of this posting, has decided to suspend the shock jock for two weeks, which is, in my opinion, like that of many others, not enough of a punishment.

I am not a fan of censorship. Nor do I think everyone who says something stupid on the air should be fired. But in the case of Imus, this is not the first time. He has said other stupid, racist, sexist, and generally ignorant things on the air over his many years on the airwaves. At some point, enough is enough and I think this is enough, particularly when you’re talking abut federally regulated airwaves. Were Imus on satellite radio, like Stern, then I would give him more room for his idiocy. But these are public airwaves where he spews these hurtful statements and in that context it should not be allowed. He should be fired immediately.

This morning Imus appeared on The Today Show in an effort to further defend himself, but in doing so, he may have hurt himself even more. In an interesting strategy, he went on the offensive and made the point that while he had no right to use the word “ho’s” as a white man, he said the most common users of this word were black men who were the worst offenders at disrespecting black women. What an interesting strategy. It won’t get him off the hot seat. Nice try.

But with that being said, on this point, Imus is right on target. Black (and Latino) rappers frequently use this word, and many worse ones, in some of the popular raps being gobbled up by record buyers. And Imus is right; the word was largely the invention of blacks. Jesse and Al will not however spend as much energy challenging the immensely popular hip-hopsters as they do Imus for his use of the word. It would be too touchy a battle for them. It is easier to go after Imus since he is white and he violated the code that says though we can talk disparagingly about ourselves, you cannot if you are not part of the community. The “N” word is the same way. Rappers and some blacks use that word all the time, but boy don’t let Kramer think he can use it. It doesn’t work that way. Or at least that seems to be the code.

By the way, Imus’s offensive defense ignores what may have been as equally offensive in his rantings about the Rutger’s team, calling them “nappy headed.” His new strategy ignored that part of his statement entirely. At least for now, until he can find a rap or something where he can say he learned that from black people.