Comments On Don Imus Debacle
- I take back what I’ve been saying about “at least blacks are no longer treated with as open contempt in the media as Asians are” blah blah. I guess it was said more in wishfulness than in truth.
- After an hour on Google News, I still haven’t found a white commenter who thinks anything other than blacks are overreacting. They’re all male. I haven’t found any random white women commenting. Is every white male on the internet a privileged cracker? Is every white woman on the internet a fucking ostrich?
- Oh My God. Why did it take me half an hour on Google to find out about the “Jigaboo” comment? Why did that not merit attention?
- The white (male) commentary ranges from “You’re all reverse racists this is free speech fuck you lynching Don Imus Free speech fuck you!” to (sadly, wryly) “Yeah, he shouldn’ta said it, but it’s teh blacks overreacting that gives his comments meaning” (no shit. somebody actually made that argument.)
- Not a single white male in my search has been found to have the imagination to wonder what the Rutger’s women’s basketball team members feel about all this … like maybe are they feeling hurt or insulted. It’s all about Don Imus and what he does and doesn’t deserve. Can it be that this all comes down to a lack of empathy? Talk about identity politics! Look who’s identifying now!
- It took me all of five minutes to find commentary by “a black man” who thinks teh blacks are overreacting. I don’t know which is worse: the possibility that the writer isn’t really black, or the possibility that s/he is.
- I’ve found every possible breakdown of Imus’ comments, saying that this element was offensive and the other wasn’t. There was one that said that “ho” was offensive, but “nappy-headed” wasn’t. There was one that said that “nappy-headed” was the offending remark. There was one that said that if the comment had been made about, say, that nappy-headed ho Foxy Brown, instead of those fine, upstanding Rutgers wimmin, then no one would have said anything because, let’s be honest, she is a nappy-headed ho. There was one that said that the use of “Jigaboo”, which the commenter apparently only knew from Do The Right Thing, made the whole radio exchange a grand allusion to Spike Lee, and not a racist insult at all. All of these comments tried to do away with the offensiveness of the whole by placing it “into context” as if there was any context in which two white men talking about a largely black women’s basketball team’s looks using the terms “nappy-headed ho’s” and “Jigaboos vs. Wannabes” might not be offensive.
- Let me break it down for you again:
- “nappy-headed”: no, whites don’t get to use it. It’s insulting: it’s too familiar, it’s too racist. And no, you don’t get to be arbiter of what teh blacks get to say to each other. Buleeve me, if you bothered to read anything that black people write, you’d already know there’s a long-standing and lively discussion of this issue. Your input is not needed.
- “ho’s”: no, you don’t get to say this about any women, black, white, or ignored. “Ho” is short for “whore”, which is insulting slang for “prostitute” and an insult commonly used to deride women, in the belief that a woman’s chastity is still important. Once again, black rappers may well be using it. Doesn’t mean Don Imus gets to. See above. Plus, who says black rappers get to use it with impunity?
- “jigaboo”: also not okay. No, it’s not from Spike Lee. It’s an old school racist term on par with the “n-word”, only never used as much. There is no universe in which it is not offensive.
- “context”: here’s the context, folks. The Rutgers women’s basketball team was news because they had just lost a championship game. Imus and pal decided it was appropriate to discuss both the Rutgers players’ and their opponents’ looks, because they are womenz. They pronounced the Rutgers team “rough-looking” (i.e. not good looking) and backed it up by saying they had tatoos and were “nappy-headed ho’s” and “jigaboos”. Spot the “ism”! This is racist, sexist, and entirely off topic. There is no way you can tweak this context to make it okay.
- How long, sweet Jesus, must we sing this song?
(cross-posted at SeeLight.)
For the love of everything, please take back the internet from whining, thin-skinned hypocrites who like to tear down anyone they feel is beneath them, and police everyone’s language. Free speech is free speech, and granted, there are restrictions on it in certain mediums, but it is NOT your duty to police the world. Yes, I’m white and male. But I’m also dating a black woman. Know what she thinks? She doesn’t care a whit, and thinks everyone is overreacting… a lot. And no, “ho” does not mean whore. This is the ’00s, people, new contexts are given to words all the time. “Ho” would refer to attractive women in ebonics. Look it up. I just wish everyone would mind their own damn business.
Scott, do you really think that Imus’s intention was to flatter these young basketball players when he called them “hos” and chuckled about it? Didn’t sound like a compliment to me.
It’s a complete lack of empathy and class that leads a rich white guy to equate a bunch of 18-year-old women who did their best in a sports competition to women who offer sex in exchange for money. (And I’m sorry, but “ho” still equates to “whore” for non-ebonics speakers.)
Or maybe Imus doesn’t really think that the women look like “hos,” and he just went with the cheap shot and played it up for the benefit of his audience, because that’s where his paycheck comes from. There’s a word for that, you know: prostitution.
hey, how many cliches can we spot!
“my ___ is ___ and s/he thinks it’s just dandy”
“ebonics!” bonus points! nope, nothing offensive there!
“you’re all just too sensitive; as opposed to all the people like little ole me who nearly shit a kidney when it’s so much as implied that i or someone i admire might o horrors gasp shock be saying or doing something RACIST. I AM NOT A RACIST! I AM NOT DEFENSIVE!! YOU’RE THE RACISTS! YOU’RE DEFENSIVE, YOU FUCKING FUCK!!1ELEVEN!”
zzzzZZZZZzzzz. -who’s- whining? -who’s- thin-skinned? hey, y’know what, sunshine, “free speech” does not mean “can say anything you damn please with no consequences or even disapproval or response whatsoever.” I know that’s a really fucking difficult concept, but TRY to process it. No one’s throwing Imus in jail. No one’s released the hounds. He has a high powered media job (which in fact, no, the First Amendment does -not- guarantee you, even if yer Mom did tell you you’re really, really special); as with any other job, his position there is not unconditional. In this case, his job is to say things that pull in an audience and make his bosses and corporate sponsors money. If he’s losing the audience–and he is–surprise! Bosses worry he’s gonna lose ‘em money; buh bye Imus. Unless you’re prepared to now say that yer agin’ capitalism 101, so sorry: that one won’t play.
p.s. your fly’s unzipped.
Listen people say stupid shit all the time like most of the comments on this site you haven’t stop it yet.
Is Imus racist maybe in a sense the same way you all are just in your kitchens with your clicks. Next if you do like it turn the fucking channel it is free speech comedians do it all the time. Go back watch Eddie Murphy’s Raw and tell me that wasn’t racist,listen to Jesse “Rev” Jackson that asshole is racist too. Take it as you want you have the right to listen and you have the right to change the channel last I know nobody stops you from doing that. Better yet right the sponsors or the show but getting fired is extreme,I know everybody has some discontent in the one way or other. My point shut your holes and live on if you like blacks whites latino I don’t care and if you make off character comments I ignore or change the fucking channel.
Well, thank you for popping by and sharing! and, um…not caring.
p.s. does it hurt? i mean…*pokes gingerly in general direction of dented forehead, waves hand in front of glassy eyes, clicks tongue worriedly*
This quote cracked me up:
Right on Claire… I agreeand yeah it’s unbelievable what white people say (and don’t say) while talking about this. They (we) get the misogyny part (sometimes) but don’t understand how racism magnifies it several orders of magnitude.
But yeah, it’s bizarre how in the same breath sometimes, people can deny there’s any such thing as sexism, and yet totally swallow that “whore” or worse yet “ugly whore” is the ultimate way to insult and dismiss a person. (Just as the worst insults men use on each other are about being *women* or woman-like.) Misogyny is a powerful weapon and it does a lot of harm.
So, I want to go on about hair for a bit — In the past few years I have learned a little bit (from a distance) about the intense politics of black women’s hair and for weeks now have been trying to explain it to other white people, because of the Imus controversy. To me it seems like a crucial and elementary point of knowledge about race where many white people are completely ignorant and could benefit from learning, for some background. Pam Spaulding’s posts are a good place to start learning about the politics of hair: effects of slavery permeate our society to this day – The politics of hair (again). Another excellent thing I came across lately, A Girl Like Me (short video about black women and girls, racism, and self-image). I also thought of Rep. Cynthia McKinney and the whole deal about her hair and the radio jerk who sparked another discussion about this.
Hair is a crucial point of gender enforcement and for black women I think especially so. Fat, as well. So, I just think before people open their mouth to dismiss concerns with Imus as trivial, and “who cares what some guy says about your hair” Well, look at what is going on.