The Attack on Imus

[The_Professor]

Is that because of the color of skin or a cultural situation?

Because of a multitude of variables that have led to gross inequality.

Can a poor black child escape from the ghetto by making good choices and utilizing the tools offered? The same choices and tools offered to poor white children, BTW.

Can a small percentage overcome the obstacles of inequality? Yes. Will the vast majority? No.

The truth is that cliche-riddled stories of pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps and living the so-called "American Dream" is hampered by the very American system of capitalism, which breeds the inequality itself. Cities like Memphis, Detroit, and Saint Louis do not have the level of inequality between the races simply because black culture is somehow "inferior" anymore than Mexican or Vietnamese cultures are "inferior."

Note the desire above is not to end the racism, but to end the perceived doublestandard.

Are you saying that blacks do not rise out of this? Because I can provide example after example of this happening like Ben Carson.

[domer]

Without adopting the predicate comments in this thread, though not disavowing them, either, I assert that the standard is not "double" but "comprehensive," as it must be, or, more colloquially, "honest" and "true."

[The_Professor]

Please clarify, Domer. I'm not entirely sure I know what you are espousing here.

[terra]

What is wrong with this country where belittling others is fine?

Seems to be standard fare.

Knute does it in here all the time.

So do you.

Knute does not say a thing abbrasive unless it is asked for. He certainly does not open up with guns blazing...but he does come prepared. Those black women did not ask to be belittled by someone of power like Imus.
All you right wingnutties stand up for the right of freespeech, unless its what we have to say against Bush, the war, or your bigotry...(you as in your herd, the republicans) . But hell as far as you are conserned calling someone a ho is fine...just never say Bush is a lyeing pile of dog shit that should be not only impeached but taken to the Hauge, put on trial and imprisoned  for crimes against humanity.

And Cheney should stew in his own juices... for a long time until tender.

terra

[BT]

But hell as far as you are conserned calling someone a ho is fine

Could you provide a quote where i said that?

Perhaps a quote from any person on the right who has said Imus was correct in calling the women ho's.

[Michael Tee]

<<What Imus said was wrong and inappropriate, but it is far from being the end of the world and the re-establishment of Jim Crow. >>

Another planet heard from.  Who ever said Imus' comment meant the end of the world and the re-establishment of Jim Crow?

<< Imus's comment did not prevent these women from getting a job.  It didn't prevent them from voting, or getting an education. >>

And no one claimed that it did.

<< The fact is that there are always going to be ugly people in the world, people who are crude, mean, ignorant or any combination of the three.  >>

Yeah, but they aren't always gonna have a national audience of millions like Imus did.

<<Get over it.   It isn't right, but that's the way it is.>>

No it's not the way it is.  If you noticed, there is one less racist prick polluting the airwaves today.

<<If you want to change it then you need to prove the people that hold those thoughts wrong. >>

They've already been proven wrong.  Again and again.  Only a moron would fail to realize that.  The task now is to get their asses booted off the MSM.

<< In an ideal world it wouldn't be this way, but this world is far from ideal. >>

We're making it more and more ideal, one racist ass-hole at a time.  Today it's Don Imus' turn.  Tomorrow, Neil Boortz.

<< You can't have this one-sided social prosecution . . . >>

All prosecutions are one-sided.  In case you haven't noticed.  When was the last time you saw a prosecutor tell a jury, "Joe Blow is a lying, thieving, conniving, murdering bastard.  But, at the same time, he's good to the neighbourhood kids, supports two dozen homes for the aged, and has a wicked sense of humour?""

<< . . . all that does is reinforce the ignorant ideas in some people's minds.>>

Personally, I think all it does is prevent a racist ass-hole like Don Imus from reinforcing ignorant ideas in the minds of his millions of listeners.

<<Then there is the overreaction from the press and babbling heads about a comment that can be heard on just about any gangsta rap album out there. >>

Don Imus, if you haven't noticed, is not a gangsta rapper.  He was supposed to have a little more credibility.  Hosted many major political figures on his show.  Unlike any gangsta rapper I ever heard of.

<<But if a white man says it, well, crucify the bastard. >>

When you hear a black man, gangsta rapper or not, deride the Rutgers team as nappy-headed hos, get back to us.

<< It's ignorant and stupid.  It would be like a gay man such as myself deciding that since Isaiah Washington used a crude slur, that all blacks are homophobic, or actors, or whatever.  >>

Uh, actually, it would be nothing like that.  Your example has absolutely nothing to do with the situation.  Nada.  Zilch.  Zip.  Nobody has decided that Don Imus was representative of all white males.  In fact he's so out of line with mainstream white males that other mainstream white males decided they had to can his ass.

<<People need to grow up and move on. >>

I'm grown up and so are the folks who canned Imus' ass.  So is the Rutgers team.  So is Rutgers' president.  So is the team's coach.  So are the parents of the team.  Maybe it's Imus and his defenders who really need to grow up.  Think so?

<< Some people are going to always going to be stupid (and after three or four years in this forum, I can see that much is true) >>

NOW you're talking! ! !   

<<And if you stand around waiting for them to change then the favor you are doing isn't for yourself, but for them.>>

I don't know about favours, and I don't know about standing around and waiting, but I think people can change.  Some people.

<<Just about any minority in society, whether it is racial, sexual, religious, whatever, faces some sort of crude and ignorant behavior from others. >>

We're trying to reduce the incidence of that crude and ignorant behaviour.  In the first place by keeping ignorant and crude people and their ignorant, crude behaviour off national MSM.

<< By acknowledging it and overreacting to it, we dignify it.  >>

I don't know what's so dignified about getting your ass canned and your reputation shredded in front of an audience of millions, while you grovel and beg to keep your job, but if that's what you call dignified, we must be using different dictionaries.  Do you also subscribe to the theory that no sex is good sex unless you're peed on and whipped by your partner?

<<That acknowledgement reinforces the ignorant ideas in others.>>

I think the idea that was really reinforced in others was the idea that there's no profit in being a sexist racist pig anymore and that ideas like Imus' are really better off left unsaid.

[sirs]

No one is stopping you from saying it. Maybe it is a double standard, so what?

So what??  Supporting a wrong, when it's wrong, is right?

Here's an idea, you trade places with a demographic that is diproportionately poor, unemployed, in prison, and more likely to die at a younger age.  Then you can benefit from the percieved double standard you seem to care so much about.

I have a better idea.  Instead of trying to rationalize and give a pass to blatantly improper, if not immoral behavior/rhetoric, let's be consistent and call it for what it is, regardless if its from an old white male on the radio or a young black man in recording a song in a radio studio

[Plane]

Talking , or singing ,rough language can make one a lot of money.


Imus got rich deriding people.

Gansta rappers got rich shouting anger .

Is there any money in being polite?

[sirs]

[Michael Tee]

<<Is there any money in being polite?>>

Good question.  Why don't you dig out Forbes' (or is it Fortune's?) past lists of wealthiest Americans one year at a time and see how many of them are gangsta rappers and how many are not.  Of those who are not, try to figure out how many got where they are by not being polite or by inheriting the wealth of the impolite, and how many didn't.

[modestyblase]

Well, MT, to be fair, don't just grab Forbes, look at its entertainment equivalents-Rolling Stone, I would presume? Spin?

[Plane]

<<Is there any money in being polite?>>

Good question.  Why don't you dig out Forbes' (or is it Fortune's?) past lists of wealthiest Americans one year at a time and see how many of them are gangsta rappers and how many are not.  Of those who are not, try to figure out how many got where they are by not being polite or by inheriting the wealth of the impolite, and how many didn't.

Warren Buffet is polite , he is a deal maker , and deals are easyer to make with courtesy.

[_JS]

Talking , or singing ,rough language can make one a lot of money.


Imus got rich deriding people.

Gansta rappers got rich shouting anger .

Ah! Now you're getting it.

It is the free market right? Don't you, Sirs, et al love the free market?

[sirs]

Talking , or singing ,rough language can make one a lot of money.  Imus got rich deriding people.  Gansta rappers got rich shouting anger .

Ah! Now you're getting it.  It is the free market right? Don't you, Sirs, et al love the free market?

Umm, yea......and?  What i don't love is the hypocritical double standard by so many in the mainscream media, and even those here in the forum that give a "so what?" to it

[_JS]

But some of those African Americans are lifting themselves out of poverty and more than that, making more money than you and I will likely ever see, by writing those lyrics. If there wasn't a market for it, they would never see the success and wealth, correct?

So what is your problem? You aren't arguing that the language is wrong, just that the double standard is wrong. It is your economic system Sirs, go out and buy some white supremacist music if it bothers you so much.