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While I can agree that there is a major point that is being made, this is not a fucking partisan issue and it's pathetic that Boortz, Tom Delay (on CNN tonight), or any other Winger is trying to make it into one. And if any librul makes this a partisan issue, they deserve my criticism just as much.
This is about respect and shying away from obvious bigotry and racism. If Wingers are having a desire to turn this into a partisan issue, then perhaps they themselves (and not their party) are on the defensive a bit. For example, take a look at Glenn Beck:
| quote: | BECK: OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. I've been to mosques. I really don't believe that Islam is a religion of evil. I -- you know, I think it's being hijacked, quite frankly.
With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, "Let's cut and run." And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."
November 14, 2006 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck |
Or any of these given quotes in question:
| quote: | The anti-gay slur “******” is nothing more than “a naughty name.” [1/23/07]
“[Hillary Clinton is] the stereotypical bitch.” [3/15/07]
“What happened to the Duke lacrosse team was practically a lynching without the rope. And for the first time in my life, Mr. Oreo Cookie without the chocolate on the outside can understand why people celebrated when O.J. Simpson was acquitted.” [1/15/07, using a racial slur for African-Americans that refers to “being black on the outside and white on the inside]
“I wonder if I’m alone in this — you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims’ families? Took me about a year.” [9/9/05]
“And that’s all we’re hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we’re seeing on television are the scumbags.” [9/9/05]
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/12/franken-fire-beck/ |
So if Glenn or Limbaugh has a problem and wants to make this an anti-librul issue, then I think the evidence against them speaks fairly well for itself.
But this to me shouldn't be put into that political partisan limelight. The screams for hypocricy against Sharpton and Jackson are absolutely 100% correct. There is no fucking way Jackson can justify his stance against the Duke players while pretending to feel such a horrific betrayal of one senile white shock jock throw out a bigoted racial slur towards those women basketball players. Jackson is and continues to demontrate what an utter fucking disgrace he's being in this regard.
And I also think there's some definite repurcussions that should take place towards the promoters of the "hood"-type culture of African Americans with their obvious self-bigotry in their hip-hop/rap music and videos. That is just as much an equal disgrace. If anything, I'd contend it's a much, much more disgraceful act towards their own culture than a senile white man shock jock could EVER do to them. They disgrace their own people by promoting that hootchie-mama shit on the radio and MTV/BET.
To his credit, Sharpton has called out these rap videos today as well. But seriously, where the fuck was he before? Where the fuck was Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition, holding up signs of disgrace while protesting outside of Geffen Records? Or how about Atlantic Records? Any fucking rap-artist record company and/or producer?
The bullshit hypocricy is obvious, and Jackson continues to show how fucking much he is so full of it. In closing, one of my favorite local sports op-ed writers from the KC Star, Jason Whitlock, has some very interesting things to say that support my sentiments well. And for those of you who don't know him - he's an African American who's not afraid of pulling out the race card on occasion in his commentary. I don't always agree with him, and sometimes I think he's off base with his opinions, but by and large he's got some very good points and tends to hit the local/national sports issues on the nose:
| quote: | Posted on Wed, Apr. 11, 2007
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.
http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html |
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Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...
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