sober but intemperate re: the con man Imus
"Come and get me, copper!" someone wrote about the current P.C. controversy.
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Now CBS has dropped the old con-man too. I can’t wait for Maureen Dowd, a frequent Imus guest, to write about her attitude toward Imus.
He came on in 96. It was odd for that genre of radio to be on TV, it brought the anger of the Bronx to the mainstream, I thought. And only now, the idiots are acting surprised that it’s sometimes rough language. Satire. Angry politics on there. Some will actually go back and review the record: it’s hardly neccesary. All these media heros like Brokaw, Russert, Dowd, etc. loved Don Imus until this little straw that broke the liberal back.
I think what did Imus in was a gwen ifil op-ed that was in the times on tuesday. He’d years ago referred to her as the clinton white house’s “cleaning woman”. Which, as an NBC correspondent at the time, no doubt she fing was, if you remember how they bent over backwards deflecting or delaying reporting each new clinton scandal.
But Gwen Ifil has been on Mcneil Leher now for five years or so. That is as an exalted position/ chair any news reader could possibly get. To offend her, to draw her voice out in dignified protest, means you are in serious trouble.
I can just imagine what those Leher Hour essayists like Roger Rosensplattt have been saying this week. “It’s time America finally has a discussion about race.” ha!
I think it’s time we finally have a discussion about race hustlers. And if they are going to be so stupid as to review everything Imus has said since 1996, they might review everything Sharpton DID over those years, too.
You should see the video of Imus visiting Sharpton’s camp. Sharpton kept saying something like “i admire your courage coming down here”. And then, most chilling, Sharpton brought his college age daughter out to stand in front of Imus, and basically challenged Imus to call her a “’HO”. While the girl stood there, arms crossed angrily, hips jut. It was like two gangsters, only Imus is a comedian and not a gangster. Sharpton is a thug and nothing else.
it’s been my guilty secret that i usually preferred Imus to cspans washington journal since I got msnbc...
Some people are saying this is terribly portenteous. Things to come. I don’t know about that, right now I will just miss my show... I used to set my clock, if Imus was on I’d get up a little earlier.
dam dam damn!
posted by Jackson @ 9:25 PM
11 Comments:
I would not say this is a sign of things to come. Look at Rodney King and OJ; those incidents brought out rage that quickly simmered down. Things get quiet, then the doo-doo hits the fan and another rash of hullabaloo ensues. It is a sad cycle. But you are right...someone needs to remind Jackson of all the stupid things he's said, and Sharpton needs to have his mouth closed with a hot glue gun. When will one of them say that they are sorry for lambasting the lacrosse team this time last year?
There are a lot of people who need that hot glue gun(-:
Well, I am offended for the white women on the team who somehow got little sympathy for the insult to their hair. And BTW is nappy hair an insult? I thought it was like any other hair,,frizzy, limp, curly, dry, etc.
Imus was wrong and stupid and mean but Sharpton has caused way more mmisery in his life. Tawana Brawleys victim for one.
goodness knows, white girls spend so much time on their hair and then to hear that!
(i can hear anonydoc's concern, heheh).
Anyway, I don't see it just as another revealed, racial schism in our culture. Everyone condemns the flip remark because it landed on too narrow (and youthful and innocent) a target.
What angers me is that these speech codes are from the P.C. crowd of the Left.
In any day and age a broadcaster would be fired for making an outrageous, insulting remark (recall Arthur Godfrey's career ended when he was simply abrupt and rude to a young singer on his show). Politeness, decency and civility were required, and advertisers enforced those (more obvious) rules, just as vigorously as the New Age Kings enforce political correctness and its attendant dishonesty, fear and willful blindness.
Nowadays, it's not about decorum and good taste, it's about identity politics (you know, the 'good' racism). Therefore the Left is in judgement and like children they demand the world be fair and tender hearted toward select groups.
Look at us now,--- look at Imus himself, no conservative!--- deferring to Al Sharpton for direction about public discourse.
It's so perverse it's actually confusing. It's so hypocritical and opportunistic, you don't know who to trust. Political speech codes evolve into totalitarianism.
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"Nappy" means kinky hair. It's about as juvenile a joke as making squinty eyes while imitating Orientals.
"Nappy" also refers to the kerchief worn by field workers, incidentally.
"'Ho" was, or you would think it would be, the real offense. That is both racial (since it's black slang) and sexist (unless of course you are referring to prostitutes!) Which ever!
Ironically, the two were complimenting the team for their being tough. They'd almost taken a championship, coming out of nowhere. The Imus crew was expressing admiration when the offending remark was made.
Imus' use of the word "'ho" was a verbal hijacking, a regular part of his and Mcquirk-Jerk's lampooning of prison/gangster culture as portrayed by rap artists.
Their failed, comic view of the world in New York City isn't racial, it's cultural. They were always down and dirty in their humor about this ongoing disaster in our modern cities. Remember, Imus gained fame during the worst of the Mayor Dinkins era, when the crack epidemic was just emerging and there were incidents of "wild-ing" in Central Park.
But we are to look away. It's not the state of inner city black culture that is urgent, and needs "discussion", it's generalized, almost meaningless "racism" America must talk about, according to the Left.
We aren't being truthful about the fear of being accused of racism, actually, and that is what Imus and his fools were parlaying into mean humor every day for the last ten years. They walked a thin line, almost daring people to accuse them of racism.
To me this is like watching another flying Walenda hit the dirt.
Far worse, the so called race hustlers are now more powerful than ever, and the media elite all the more cringing and fearful of speaking the truth about the root causes of poverty, illiteracy, and crime: the truly pressing issues where blacks suffer the most and are discouraged from finding their way free.
I will never forget a discussion we had in a social work class back when I spent one semester as a social work major (and got the heck out). The discussion was about "reappropriation" of language, groups taking back the epithets and such, which is how sociologists justify the use of the n-word among the Black community. The argument had to do with context and the motivation behind the declaration (hey, that sounded rather Jackson-esque!). Any word launched with hate will have the same effect as an epithet. I agree that Imus and his sidekick were simply commenting on how these women were bad-asses and that they looked the part. There is no argument that better words could have been used, but then again, what do you expect from Imus? I would like a review of all the ridiculous things Jackson has said (hymie-town) and all the hateful things that have erupted from the cake-hole of one Mr. Sharpton (who has the audacity to call himself 'reverend'). Also, I would like to see the end to the use of the term 'reverse discrimination' whenever someone feels a white has been discriminated against due to his skin color. Discrimination is discrimination, no matter what. Oh, and thanks to that ultra-Leftist young pioneer social worker class, I now feel compelled to mention that the use of the word "his" is meant to be "gender-inclusive".
BTW, Jackson, I didn't know that about Arthur Godfrey.
it was Imus' "swan song"...
Interesting topic. But what about the white girls,,should they be called "ho" as well as "nappy haired". Double insult if you ask me. Nobody seems to focus on the "ho" part.
But that aside, Imus was trying for ghetto cool and I don't know why we have elevated ghetto cool to its place. Even I say "yo" when I see friends. I must stop doing that.
The hypocrisy is all round. But JOhn is correct, there is the fear of being called racist. Every white man must fear that.
Still is "ho" a racist insult. White women are called "bitch" and "ho" frequently. So had Imus just called them "tough ho's" would he have been on safe ground?
Is sexism, misogyny, somehow more okay than saying someone has nappy hair.
And can white women have nappy hair? I think so, if my def of nappy hair is correct.
ARthur Godfrey fired Julius LaRosa on air saying, after he sang, that it was his "swan song". I don't think Godfrey was fired. I remember it. LaRosa was a sometime opera singer who got full of himself as I remember.
ANybody remember Snooky Lansom?
I don't know if Imus was trying to achieve 'ghetto cool'. Really, I've watched for almost a decade and it's more disapproving than elevating. Plus, he certainly wasn't playing up to black "folk". He was playing up to Russert and Maureen Dowd.
You're right about Godfrey (daniel!) He wasn't fired but I think the public hated him after that and he got into the same spiral down, making it worse. Wikipedia's bio of him actually talks a great deal about the incident. More than a footnote.
point being, these things used to take care of themselves. Would Brokaw, Dowd, and company have abandonded Imus if that very typical throw-away line wasn't caught by the assoc. of black journalists?
tell us about Snooky. !
"Even I say "yo" when I see friends. I must stop doing that."
i about bust a gut re=reading that. See how loveable you are even if you don't wanna be?
I am adorable. A strange man at the airport said that to me today. He was from New Jersey and had that cool jersey accent but was in BR doing something with a recording studio. So I asked was it MasterP's place and told him the story of Master P and Baton Rouge along with tales of my sightings of Snoop Doggy Dog and the inside gossip on all the BR rappers. Then he asked me if I listened to Rap and I said I had Master P's album and liked it. He started laughing and said I was cute.
Anyway, Snooky was on the Hit Parade I think and there was some problem, he was fired.
Godfrey was hated b/o his ego and his firing of LaRosa. LaRosa was like Liberace in that women loved him and everyone thought Godfrey was rude and hateful so everyone turned on him. I remember because my Mother was shocked.
See how easy it was for people to get shocked then.
I am stuck on nappy ho being a worse insult that just ho. And nappy is worse than anything. I would much rather be called nappy haired than ho'ish. Although being called nappy haired would so insult me.
BTW none of those girls, black or white, had nappy hair.
And I am being concrete I do believe. Maybe Imus was being ironic, making fun of how the black culture denigrates women. And nobody got it but John!!!
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