[Peace-discuss] "Thank you, Don Imus."

Thu Apr 12 14:41:01 CDT 2007

This seems to be part of a long thread of moralistic
nonsense that started (to my knowledge) with the
social linguists depicted in "My Fair Lady" and
recently championed by Bill Cosby - and possibly some
local leaders...  

How can anybody who has been paying attention believe,
for example, that the biggest threat to black
communities is, as Cosby seemed to say, bad English
and baggy trousers?  In a sense this is just about the
oldest story in the book, the one that starts off,
"Kids today..."

Or that, as I think we read in the News-Gazette
recently, the real problem when black kids and cops
meet is that the kids' *parents* haven't taught them
the proper respect for authority?  Or that hiphop
teaches them the opposite (like demon rock-n-roll
before, or jazz before that, etc.).

The problem is too often the authorities don't *earn*
respect.  Just the opposite.  Why would a person who
has committed no crime flee the cops - at night? 
Probably knows somebody who got beat up by cops. 
Maybe just for acting nervous in the face of his/her
fears, or just for being scared/upset/angry.  Is that
a crime now?

I feel a rant coming on, so I'll just close with this:
 Is this guy really saying that crime, unemployment,
poverty, and related turmoil in black communities
today is due to *music*?  

I won't run through the socioeconomic alternative to
this nonsense, except to point out that the latest
federal slavery conviction in Florida (a series of six
initiated by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers)
involved a grower there enslaving African American
*citizens* recruited from a homeless shelter with the
promise of good jobs and good pay, then sold for
$3000-4000 each to work in the fields - and paid at
the end of each week in tobacco, alcohol and crack
cocaine.

Think they took the jobs because of hiphop?

Ricky

--- Chuck Minne <mincam2 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: http://www.kansascity.com/159/story/66339.html
>    
>   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 at kcstar.com. For previous
> columns, go to KansasCity.com
> 
> 
> 
>   
>   
>   
>   But judge for yourself, don't be afraid, Watch
> This or This
>   
> 
>        
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