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

[John W.]

At 02:41 PM 4/12/2007, Ricky Baldwin wrote:

>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..."


Egad, Ricky.  You think all rap culture is is bad English and baggy 
trousers?  Really?



>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.).


SOME hip-hop doesn't teach them the proper respect for THEMSELVES, which is 
what Jason Whitlock is saying.



>The problem is too often the authorities don't *earn*
>respect.


This is ALSO true.



>  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*?


He's saying that SOME hip-hop and the gangsta culture, and the self-images 
created and perpetuated by such, are a large part of the problem.  They 
simultaneously reflect the problem and exacerbate it.



>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?


Nope.  It's more complex than that, of course.  Just don't throw the baby 
out with the bath water.

John Wason



>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