Imus Unemployed

[Bassmama]

Imus (the radio/TV personality that referred to the female Rutgers BB team as "nappy-headed hos" has now been fired from ALL his employs, after Al (Tawana Brawley) Sharpton & other black leaders met with Imus's bosses this morning.

While I'm STILL outraged by what he said over the air, I'm also outraged that it's not OK for him to say it but IS OK for black rappers to say it. They refer to their own race members as "niggas" & women as "hos", but because a white man repeated it, they get all apeshit about it & get him fired. They need to know that it's no more OK for anyone of ANY color to refer to anyone else with those words, ESPECIALLY if they don't want anyone else to use the same words.

An insult is an insult is an insult. And while the press & community 'leaders' that crave ANY excuse for more press coverage to further themselves are flapping their gums to the press, the death toll rises daily & the politicians continue to lie & deceive while King George tries to convince this country that we're "winning" & we NEED to stay.

Let's get back to what's important in the scheme of things & try to save some lives by getting our men & women home & depose that fuckwad in Washington. I hope someone in the press "gets it" soon. I don't have a lot of hope as far as the politicians are concerned. (at least, most of the Repub.s)

[James]

I agree with you. It is blatant racism to say that this man can't say that word because of the colour of his skin. Another thing that is racist is that had the roles been reversed, and the commentator been a black man who called a white team a "bunch of crackers" or whatever, there would be no outrage from the likes of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, and very little media coverage if any at all.

[trekbugging]

the american white male is the ONLY person who can be racist--according to both sharpton and jesse--bullshit-- like bass and james said it doesn't matter the colour or gender if you insult someone else by saying something disparaging about their heratige, race, creed, religion, hair colour, body colour --YOU ARE SAYING A RACIST STATEMENT-- which living in the south i hear all the time, but if no one of the offended race, gender, colour isn't there it isn't supposed to be racist-- i try to walk away from someone like that-- here we even have the racist that are south verse northerns-- same thing the frigging civil war is OVER
:rant:

[Bassmama]

I have a friend that lives in North Carolina & she keeps trying to talk me into moving down there (as does my birth mother) I tell them both there is NO way in HELL I'd ever live down south. I'd end up either killing someone that didn't like my "yankee" ways (speaking out against the blatent racism) or getting killed myself.

I agree- there is now 'reverse racism', especially from the likes of Al SharpTON. The glee he expressed while verbally thrashing Don Imus went above & beyond, IMHO. (Funny how the report that linked his heritage to a certain white (& prejudiced) southern redneck politician suddenly disappeared from the media within 48 hrs of coming out. That means he's part white- huh, imagine that!)

Yesterday, soon after hearing the report of Imus being fired by CBS, my mother expressed how good it was that something was being done about people calling other people names & how good it was that things were changing- after all, "the COLORED people have feelings too." She's 87 & has changed a LOT of her ideas in the last 4 years that my father's been dead, but still can't seem to get past calling black people 'colored' or 'them'. At least she doesn't say the "n" word. My father did- then said how HE wasn't prejudiced.

Poor thing- I feel sorry that she has to deal with this radical old 'hippie' in her old age. (It tends to get comical as all hell sometimes.) At least she thinks about things a lot & sees many of my points. I also see where she's coming from- the mind set of the 1900s.

[Mr. Bojangles]

You know, maybe it's because I work in a prison, or maybe it's because most of my co-workers are black...but I don't get a whole lot of exposure to racism, unless it's the reverse kind. Black people in the south have been touted as martyrs because of the "racism" that the white southerners expose them to. It's bullshit. I don't care if you live in Atlanta or Alto, the racism here is hardly different than it is anywhere else.

[Amaurote]

I initially didn't understand the fuss here - "nappy" means "diaper" over here, so it just seemed a little random - but obviously he has to go (a black man appropriating the n-word for ironic, self-deprecating or other purposes is obviously subtly different). What bothers me over here is the lack of equality in these campaigns - for example, the campaign for an apology from the European nations concerning the slave trade is not accompanied by a similar campaign against Islam for a slave trade which was if not worse, than certainly no better (it used slaves primarily for sexual purposes - eunuchs and concubines - more extended and on the one or two occasions it became economic it led to massive African slave revolts in Iraq, of all places. But there will be no campaign against Islamic nations, because they don't fit the Hollywood villain profile (effeminate lisp, effete Oxbridge or Parisian accent, lily-white skin).

[Bassmama]

Bo- I think the racism has equaled out & possibly gotten so it's worse in the northern states than the southern, in some ways.

I guess it's where you are & the age of the person you're with. My uncle (born & brought up in an EXTREMELY redneck little town south of Atlanta) constantly referred to blacks as 'nig....', monkeys, etc. & one day while we were going through a parking lot, bitterly griped about the 'nig...s' thinking they were BETTER than "US" & cut "US" off with their cars all the time- ESPECIALLY "the female monkeys". After that, I couldn't keep my mouth shut & started putting down "little old men that can't drive for shit & shouldn't have their licenses".

Yeah, unfortunately the KKK is just as big up north here as it is down south- only not quite as open about it. (At least, that's what I've heard. Sick fucks.)

Am- 'nappy' refers to the kinkyness of black people's hair.
You guys on your side of the pond will 'knock someone up' in the morning- meaning, you'll wake them up. (Correct?) On this side of the pond, that means the person you 'knock up' will be getting pregnant by whoever's doing the 'knocking up'. Knocked up means pregnant over here. So- if you want to wake me up in the morning, call me or whatever- just don't 'knock me up'.

[Amaurote]

Am- 'nappy' refers to the kinkyness of black people's hair.
You guys on your side of the pond will 'knock someone up' in the morning- meaning, you'll wake them up. (Correct?) On this side of the pond, that means the person you 'knock up' will be getting pregnant by whoever's doing the 'knocking up'. Knocked up means pregnant over here. So- if you want to wake me up in the morning, call me or whatever- just don't 'knock me up'.

It means the same thing over here these days, Bass - that's one Americanism which has caught on this side of the pond, in fact I provoked some tittering at a pub by unintentionally using the old sense a few weeks ago (knew my mistake straight away, but it was too late). One that's more interesting is our version of "snicker" - I can't use it on this board because Diva's censor software asterisks it out, you'd think it might have been replaced by "snicker" long ago, but not a bit of it.

Mind, if I did intend to knock you up in the morning, be reassured, I'd ask nicely first.

[Unforgiven]

I've read many accounts (lately, from World War II) that have said that racism was always worse in the north, we just hide it better. The reasoning was that in the north, they were still a sort of foreign people. Even today in Detroit, for example, de facto segregation is said to be some of the worst in the country.

[Bones]

Don't rap starts make millions of dollars for doing this?
Fuck this shit!!! I live in San Antonio, Texas. I'm surrounded by Mexicans.I put up with them insulting me like it's a sport. I'm in the minority here. But if I say something even remotely racist sounding , I'm in for a world of shit. When they do this stuff, it's just playing , be tough and take it. For me though I'm obviously a racist. It's time for this crap to end.

[JakeD]

Oh, hey, it's not just Imus! What a surpriiiise! I never knew that practically all right-wing pundits were hateful racist fucks! Consider my mind blown!
(http://mediamatters.org/items/200704120010)

Also, for all of the obvious disgust towards Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, which is more deplorable? The fact that these two guys might not be the best spokesmen out there for the black community, or the fact that these two guys seem to be the only consistent spokesmen out there for the black community against an innumerable amount of white detractors?

I hate the fact that people keep bringing up the Tawana Brawley case against Sharpton. How in the fuck was he supposed to know that she was lying? He chose to help stand up for a young black female, that, for all he knew, was violated by six white men and the case was essentially marginalized.

Forgive the crossposting, but I was having a racial discussion the other day, and most people don't realize just how badly segregation fucked over black people in the U.S.

Between schools that would NOT teach black children, white people who would consistently give blacks shitty, underpaid jobs (if they even gave them jobs in the first place), and just the general condescension of white people to black people over those decades, the decisions of white people in power have pretty much created all of the "stereotypical black" behavior that both racist idiots and garden-variety whitefolk often mock and decry.

And institutionalized racism is still a massive problem across the United States. It's fairly obvious truths like these that leads me to convict films like Crash or The Pursuit of Happyness of being nothing but utterly unrealistic, patronizing, white-fantasy bullshit.

Also, race is such an issue today (at least in the American South) because everyone still makes it an issue. From my own personal small atmosphere of witnessed racial hypocrisy, you have the rich crackers of East Texas (and other places, I'm sure) who "don't want none of them thar filthy ******s makin' their lurvely towns unclean", and then you have the black community who's utterly disgusted with how they're constantly shat upon by a bunch of racist white bureaucrats, and therefore aim to misbehave over such transgressions. As I said before in a previous race-related post, a lot of people like to joke about how "slavery's over" and "the blacks need to move on", while still calling them *insert racial slur here* and just not leaving them the fuck alone, which is what a lot of black communities want.

Unfortunately, the remnants of the segregationist movement and the steady rise of institutional racism are both very real issues which Southern US black communities still face to this day(and I'm sure, by extension, many other black communities), and while such obstacles aren't endemic to either the South or East Texas, it's still a cause for concern. Sort of like when two kids are having an argument and one keeps prodding. You scream at them to knock it the fuck off or you'll ground them, but how long will that solution last?

It's easy for a bunch of white people to make calls on racial politics because they've never experienced just how virulent, hateful, vicious, and spiteful race relations can be in the South. They feel safe making such statements and decisions because they've never had to deal with any backlash from making a decision in either case. They haven't seen the worst of backwoods Southern boys bent on racial purity, nor have they seen the worst of angry Southern black men and women who just want the fucking right to be treated as human beings. They haven't seen exclusive "black communities" in the South, which are basically areas where all the white people forced the black communities to stay. Not to intermingle, not to socialize, but that's where the whites think that the blacks belong and deserve to stay.

I've had best friends, girlfriends, people who I treated as family members called stupid fucking porchmonkey ******s and told that they needed to be killed in the worst ways possible. I've been broken up with by black girls because they were too afraid of all the racist remarks and death threats they had received once the hicks found out that they were dating a white guy. I've received many of the same remarks, that I was a disgrace to my white Southern heritage for crossbreeding with filthy junglebunny ******s, etc.

You can't take mindsets like that into consideration and say, "Hey, slavery's over, get over it, I'm as oppressed as you are, blahblah." Because a lot of these bastards don't listen. They don't have time for rationale. It's only their way, or you face their wrath. And as long as that kind of shit exists, slavery's not over. The word "******" isn't going to disappear. But I'll be goddamned if I'm not going to shove it in their toothless redneck fucking faces, because they're the epitome of everything that I can't fucking stand about this planet all wrapped up into one doughy, pimply, inbred ball. Even if it's a goddamn wrinkly old wannabe redneck hack commentator.

Double-fuck these people. Seriously.

And it's also taking into account the fact that Imus called these women 'hos'. For all of the pro-feminist shit I've seen on this site, it's bizarre to see people pretty much justifying a white male calling black women ho's by saying "Well, I can't do it, so that's not fair". Fuck that. We either stand together, or stand alone. Don't bring stock gangsta rappers into this shit, because they're either too busy marketing something or making a living off of base misogyny and glorification of stupidity and violence. And you want to know why they're doing that? White teenagers eat that shit up. It's making money for them. It's giving them all the advancement that white people have denied them over the years. While I might completely disagree with what they're saying, I'm not going to condemn them for exploiting staples of the genre in order to make a better life for themselves and their loved ones.

But for Imus to call these women, these hard-working athletes "ho's", is insinuating that they've fucked their way to get to where they're going, and that all of their talents are actually just something that's for sale. That completely dismisses all of the hard work and all of the hurdles that these women (not only as women, but as minorities) have had to overcome. And yet people still want to howl about reverse racism and how they're being oppressed.

Jesus Christ.

[Bassmama]

I agree with you mostly- but I keep bringing up the Tawana Brawley incident, because of WHO the six accused "rapists" were, what they supposedly did & how they did it, & even after it was a proven fact that her story was a lie concocted by her & whoever she conspired with, Sharpton & Jackson (ESPECIALLY Sharpton) kept up the loudmouth bullshit screaming "RACISM" at the top of their fucking lungs- including continuing their marches, during which, BTW, Sharpton would get picked up by his limo & taken to the next stop point to walk around the last bend & meet the press- giving another speech against the racist white men. After Tawana Brawley collected her settlement $$ & moved out of state, I didn't hear any apologies or admissions of "oops, we were wrong- sorry" from any of their group or a demand for Tawana to give back the $$ AND she wasn't prosecuted for the hoax she perpetrated. BTW- I lived near Albany at that time & many blacks were walking around openly expressing how "whitey OWES that money to us". I thought again how fucked up everything's gotten when skin color means more than honesty, fairness, & right from wrong.
Here, (http://www.slate.com/id/2087557) and here (http://www.courttv.com/archive/legaldocs/newsmakers/tawana/) are a couple of accounts of the hoax.

It's gotten a little better up here in the north as far as some of the prejudism's concerned, but there are still incidents that are throwbacks to the "old' way of thinking- like the black families that have had words & swastikas painted on their houses, jewish families that have had the same problems recently, continuing burnings of churches & synagogues (sorry- don't know how to spell today.) The prejudism up north is more hidden, but just as nasty.

I had a friend in college that would give me rides from campus to home (he was going that way) & I was called "n..... lover". There are still assholes around that talk about "Coons", "pitspitters' (referring to watermelon pits), & all the rest of the insults. My father was one of the ones with the big fucking mouths that would spout off about it- I vividly remember the reports on TV & radio back in the '60s about the marches, hangings, beatings by citizens, law enforcement & military of marchers, workers, & black citizens with my father spouting about how right all the violence against them was because the dumb n.s aught to KNOW their place & stay in it.

I was told constantly that I'd BETTER NOT get 'knocked up' by some nasty N. or I'd be disowned. He'd rather see me beaten & treated like shit by a white man than be happy & treated great by a black one? I asked him once- his answer: Hell, yes- at least I wouldn't be embarrassing the family by popping out some little 'n..lets'. I never did tell him before he died that his great granddaughters are part black. I figure that the old bastards are dieing out, but unfortunately there are new ones taking their places.

The "ho" crack from Imus insulted ME as a woman- & should have insulted EVERY woman. Just because I was born without a penis does NOT make me (or any other woman) weaker mentally, physically or emotionally than a man. And because I or any other woman likes sex does NOT make us "hos", tramps, whores or any other name judgemental society has made up for us.

I'd write more, but my headache is getting worse again & I need to get it under control- another pill autta do it & a nap...

[Diva]

I found some of the replies quite interesting. I don't quite see how one persons' sexist and racist comments lead into defending them based on the use of 'reverse racism'. I loathe that term. Racism is racism. Anyway... I'm not one to speak kindly about Al Sharpton but this isn't about him. Imus went on Sharpton's show to give his side of things and Sharpton wasn't swayed. And he shouldn't be. Some comments Sharpton said:


The Rev. Al Sharpton had pressured CBS to cancel Imus' morning show, but the issue "was never about Don Imus," he said Thursday."It was about the misuse of the airwaves," he said."We cannot afford a precedent established that the airwaves can be used to commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism. But there will be no champagne bottle popping by those of us involved in this.

This is not about gloating. "Sharpton said he wants to show the media and the public that it is not necessary to "be misogynist and racist to be creative or to be commercial in this country."

Sharpton is right. We shouldn't need to go to that level in order to be creative. There are thousands of descriptions he could have gone with. He chose those and now he's out of a job.

We're all guilty of off color humor. The NON-PC humor as it were. But there has to be a point when it's more hurtful than funny, more harmful than entertaining. When do you think it crosses the line: When someone says it or when someone in that demographic hears it?

[Mr. Bojangles]

Well Diva, you can't control how people feel. So if there is a line to be crossed, I would think that the line is a personal one.