Oh, *that* hypocracy.

[Rogue]

Oy vey.

[Mighty Mouse]

@Hugo...lol...I can see where the thread is starting to go off on a tangent. Let's just say not nice man for now.

Why can't we just say Imus was fired for being a jerk to bunch of college girls who didn't do him or any of us wrong? He's entitled to his opinion and speech, but when he's sponsored by corporations who are mindful of their image (getting his pay yo), anything he says on the air is open to scrutiny. If he just said that around the office cooler, probably not as big a deal.

[Jerry]

Heres alittle reading on the subject from home
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 jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com




Recent Comments

What a difference perspective makes -- I certainly can appreciate...
Mr. Whitlock--my friends and I up here in Montana salute you and...
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[Three]

Exactly.

[Rogue]

That is a great article and the one I posted at the top of this page.

Do you know why Whitlock left ESPN? The suits at ESPN wanted him to be more black.


Who purchases hip-hop? From my findings the consumers are between 60 and 70 percent white.

Hip hop at it's roots simply gave the disenfranchised a voice. I don't like the current "gangster" hip hop culture at all. However, it sells like mad and these hip hop groups aren't getting rich off of minorities. Guess who's making them rich?

Is the current "negative" hip hop culture a true look into the lives of minorities? No, I don't think so. I think as Amercians we've become enamored by shock value entertainment. Compare TV, radio and any other medium from two decades ago to now. Hip hop, just like your MTV, has simply followed our thirst for shock value.

I think some of you are missing a very important point. There's a double-standard in America for a reason. Racism is still rampant, plain and simple.

Do I condone the fact that nobody has been able to control the "gangsta rap" mentality or violent video games, movies, tv and radio programs from any and all genres? Of course not.

Bottom line on the Imus issue, he's irrelvant IMO, he has a history of such comments. Again, he won't be missed. Anyone who pollutes the public airwaves with racism or hate should be removed from the airwaves. Currently, "gangta rap/hip hop" is not a prime target because we created racism in this country and in-turn created a double-standard. You made your bed, go to sleep.

I can't even respond to some of the comments here because I'll be accused of flaming and since it's obvious this is a very important issue to me I won't.

[Three]

I personally did not create racism in this country, nor have I chosen to pursue it. Therefore, it has left room on my hate roster for one major prejudice, self-proclaimed victimization. I'd rather cut off the angry inch, and feed it to a crocodile than listen to people whine.

Listening to Vivian Stringer continue the tarnishing of what her team accomplished, rather than taking the high road, made me want to puke. She already had Jackson and Sharpton to run that course, and as the coach of an excellent group of women, all she had to say was "We just played for the national championship. Don Imus is who? And he matters why?" But no, all she accomplished during her half hour diatribe was to make this non-racist sports fan feel less sorry for her team.

Don Imus is a beatoff. He's not fun. He's not funny. And I don't listen to him. That said, even I could tell the idiot took a stab at rolling with some "hip" lingo'd humour. It failed, but to fire the guy? I guess it has been at least a month since the latest media witch hunt, and the public was getting restless. Pathetic.

It seems to me that the only guy not able to poke fun at other races is the white guy. George Lopez, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, et. al. have cracked many a joke at the white guy's expense. And you know what? Each and every one of them is hilarious in my book. Of course, my book isn't riddled with excerpts on how to overplay the victim card. No, that one's already been authored by Sharpton, Jackson, and coming soon to a bookstore near you, Vivian Stringer. She could've taught her team an equally important lesson on rising above cheap shots from outdated media beatoffs, but no. She blew it.

[Rogue]

I think I can explain why minorities can crack white jokes Three.

Keep in mind my analogy is just that, an analogy, and has nothing to do with race.

Walk up to two women. Make sure that one is thin and smoking hot. Then grab her obese and not very attractive friend.

Face both of them and call each of them a digusting slob.

Which girl is going to be offended the most?

The one who knows she's not what you've said by simply considering the unwritten rules of American society? Or, the one that knows she's considered a digusting slob by that same society?

[Mighty Mouse]

There is a thing to consider. The white man has a history of oppressing minorities. I have yet to see a minority "oppress" the white man. (Oppressing = slavery, economic pillaging, ...)

The white man can't crack jokes at minority expense without repercussion because it carries with it the pain and suffering of generations past, fair or not. No such limitation exists for the minority because it is deemed to be coming from a position of lack of power. Now in a utopia, both should be judges with same set of rules. But we all know that isn't the case.

[Jacob the JESUSFREAK]

Racism is NOT white only...
Its a Majority thing. Here I live next to Mexico and everybody is Mexican. Guess who got picked on.

[Rabban]

@mouse

I should have been clearer. The Media may have made this a bigger deal than it needed to be, but don't they always. Kinda like how they're hyping "The Virginia Tech MASSACRE" and such. We always have to remember that the news is no longer the news, but another brand of entertainment that's competing for ratings.

And my public opinion comment was meant to convey the idea that some people jumped on the story, added fuel to the fire and got the man fired. I'm not sure public opinion is so cut a dry on this issue that everyone agrees that he should have been fired. And just because the sponsors pulled out doesn't mean they don't support Imus, its just that they don't want to be seen as supporting his comments. As we've already established, many other people in entertainment say something offensive to one group or another in order to be shocking or on the edge. I think a penalty of some sort along with apology would have been enough instead of firing the guy. On the other hand, maybe CBS and MSNBC were looking for an out and took it while Imus is now free to take something better (which he's inferred that he will).

And another thing...I've been playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas lately. First, I just wanted to see what all the hubbub was all about, but then I started liking the game play. The whole gangsta culture/lifestyle is there, including the language. I eventually decided to cut back in my game time since I was incorporating the speech into my everyday conversations. Even though I was using the terms in context, I'm sure if someone other than my wife heard me, there would surely have been an "uncomfortable" moment.

So now I'm playing Ghost Recon, still violent, but now using that cool, hard-corp, military speak.