An op-ed piece on the Imus situation

[JV]

COMMENTARY
Imus isn’t the real bad guy
Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.
By JASON WHITLOCK - Columnist

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call (816) 234-4869 or send e-mail to [email protected]. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com

http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html

[RastaGurl]

Hear, hear. Brilliantly written article. As a Black woman, I believe that once we start respecting ourselves, then we can expect others to respect us. When we stop financially supporting "artists" who spout misogynistic and racially charged lyrics, then maybe things'll change, but I think that's the idealist in me talking. I do, however, believe an apology was in order, and Imus did apologize. I, (and I'm sure everyone else), am growing increasingly tired of the: say something derogatory - apologize - go to rehab - thing. It's pointless.

We, as a people, need to heal ourselves, and put the emphasis back where it belongs: family, education, respect for yourself and others, etc., and yes, it all begins at home. It begins with teaching our children their history, in the hope that it will not repeat itself. Teaching them that education is important; good manners are important; respect for yourself and others is important, regardless of race, etc. I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point, and the article by Mr. Whitlock expresses the sentiment better than I could.

[JV]

Originally Posted by alpine rasta

When we stop financially supporting "artists" who spout misogynistic and racially charged lyrics, then maybe things'll change, but I think that's the idealist in me talking.

Excellent point, and not to spark a tangent here, but the ones who make the most $$ off of the sales of that kind of music aren't even black! The artists routinely get roped in with a huge advance and no back end percentage on sales. There's very little royalty income, due in large part to the music not being very "evergreen" (when was the last time you heard an oldies rap radio station? or a remake of a rap song?), and once they use the advance to buy that expen$ive car with the $5000 a piece rims (I did the same exact thing first time I ever got a big paycheck, not judging), and maybe a house or two, they are pretty much tapped out.

Ultimately, someone (why not Jesse or Al or the NAACP) should put more focus on the record companies to stop putting out the product. No product, no consumers.

[Wagner]

They were covering this on the radio this morning.

[noncom23]

Now, that said. Do you think their focus can be shifted to this topic?

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by JV

Excellent point, and not to spark a tangent here, but the ones who make the most $$ off of the sales of that kind of music aren't even black! The artists routinely get roped in with a huge advance and no back end percentage on sales. There's very little royalty income, due in large part to the music not being very "evergreen" (when was the last time you heard an oldies rap radio station? or a remake of a rap song?), and once they use the advance to buy that expen$ive car with the $5000 a piece rims (I did the same exact thing first time I ever got a big paycheck, not judging), and maybe a house or two, they are pretty much tapped out.

Ultimately, someone (why not Jesse or Al or the NAACP) should put more focus on the record companies to stop putting out the product. No product, no consumers.

I don't know brother, that may have been true but...

Sean Cater and Sean Combs have some pretty lucrative companies....

Sean Cater (JayZ) sold his clothing line alone for 204M.

[JV]

Originally Posted by WagnerX5

I don't know brother, that may have been true but...

Sean Cater and Sean Combs have some pretty lucrative companies....

Sean Cater (JayZ) sold his clothing line alone for 204M.

True, but they are backed by financiers who need to use sunscreen.

[Wagner]

On a side note, Warren Buffet got bumped from the 2 richest man by Carlos Slim Helu, a comms guy from Mexico.

[R8DX5]

I agree with the article. I think they are blowing this way out of proportion and they are making a scapegoat out of Imus. I actually thought his comments were funny.

[Wagner]

Time Magazine...good read:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...9490-1,00.html