Why the Imus Thing is a tragedy
A friend of mine asked me what I thought of this latest mess with Imus. I'd heard about it, but here in "End-of-the-Semester Land" it didn't get a lot of traction. But I owe him an answer and here it is.
It's not that it's okay for Black people to call other Black people what Imus called the ladies of the Rutgers basketball team (I'm not putting it in here– there are plenty of other places to find it if you haven't already). It's that it is definitely not okay for White people to call them that.
Why?
Interestingly enough, this idea came up in an entirely different situation this week. Text requires context to acquire meaning.
An older White man making racially and sexually suggestive comments about much younger Black women still calls up all kinds of cultural and historical wrongs, pain and shame. America has not sufficiently dealt with the racial divide and reactions to events like the curiously simultaneous Imus-gate and the acquittal of the Duke lacrosse team make that painfully clear.
That's the tragedy. In 2007, that kind of visceral reaction still exists. And it is likely to continue.
The argument that it's "all just funnin' around" and that people are just trying to make a living doesn't cut it for me. There has got to be a better way to entertain than to demean. And don't think this disregard for people in general and women in particular is victimless. Any number of studies shows that things in your environment affect your outlook and actions. Sound is part of our environment; particularly in the age of iPods, YouTube and 24/7 video channels.
One of the less obvious reasons why the use of such speech by the hip-hop crowd is such a bad thing (caveat: not all hip-hop is like that, just ask my brother-in-law Edreys) is that some of the primary consumers of hip-hop are affluent young White men. Who then grow up to take their place in the prevailing power structure (it is what it is until it isn't) having been steeped in this miasma of misogyny. What then?
This could be a really long post, but chicken, George Crumb and the Ferrarese madrigal eagerly await my attention.
Other firings in the news this week? Four more pounds. Total released: 51.5.
It's not that it's okay for Black people to call other Black people what Imus called the ladies of the Rutgers basketball team (I'm not putting it in here– there are plenty of other places to find it if you haven't already). It's that it is definitely not okay for White people to call them that.
Why?
Interestingly enough, this idea came up in an entirely different situation this week. Text requires context to acquire meaning.
An older White man making racially and sexually suggestive comments about much younger Black women still calls up all kinds of cultural and historical wrongs, pain and shame. America has not sufficiently dealt with the racial divide and reactions to events like the curiously simultaneous Imus-gate and the acquittal of the Duke lacrosse team make that painfully clear.
That's the tragedy. In 2007, that kind of visceral reaction still exists. And it is likely to continue.
The argument that it's "all just funnin' around" and that people are just trying to make a living doesn't cut it for me. There has got to be a better way to entertain than to demean. And don't think this disregard for people in general and women in particular is victimless. Any number of studies shows that things in your environment affect your outlook and actions. Sound is part of our environment; particularly in the age of iPods, YouTube and 24/7 video channels.
One of the less obvious reasons why the use of such speech by the hip-hop crowd is such a bad thing (caveat: not all hip-hop is like that, just ask my brother-in-law Edreys) is that some of the primary consumers of hip-hop are affluent young White men. Who then grow up to take their place in the prevailing power structure (it is what it is until it isn't) having been steeped in this miasma of misogyny. What then?
This could be a really long post, but chicken, George Crumb and the Ferrarese madrigal eagerly await my attention.
Other firings in the news this week? Four more pounds. Total released: 51.5.
posted by YankeeHobbit | 10:08 AM
2 Comments:
I stumbled across your blog looking for, of all things, fish. Porgy to be exact. Having some awareness of Gershwin, I even entered "porgy fish" to limit my search. But you popped onto my results page anyway, much to my pleasure. Adjectives like "intelligent", "articulate" and "perceptive" seem to be increasingly hard to apply in our current red-state culture - and that, unfortunately, includes the increasingly vast cultural desert we call the blogosphere. Thanks for being a refreshing oasis in that desert.
Caveat: I am an old white guy. Who doesn't capitalize the names of colors. I view them as simply descriptive, much like the words "tall" or "skinny". I am politically incorrect. I therefore should, really should, have some empathy for Don Imus. And I do - except... he was just flat over the line on this one.
But Don's foot-in-mouth suicide attempt scarcely touches the tip of the racial iceberg lurking in the murky social depths of our nation. There's a Titanic analogy there somewhere for our ship of state, but I won't stretch for it.
Racial roles: They're out there. Should we ask the black guy to play Othello? Patrick Stewart, or Paul Robeson? James Earl Jones, or Laurence Olivier? What did Shakespeare, Verdi, Rossini intend? Can a black man kill a white woman on-stage in Alabama? Hmmmm - maybe not... An artificial example, true, but a microcosm of the roles that are expected of us in this society.
The real issues are far deeper, so much a part of our cultural atmosphere that we are scarcely aware that we breathe them daily. I mentioned that I was an old white guy. From a red state, no less. I was, however, for a time, married to a black woman. But I had a problem. How to explain to my kids that the language her kids used was not okay for my kids to use? Not a situation 'The Brady Bunch' ever dealt with - and not an easy tightrope to walk.
I'd like to propose that racism has no color. I have friends who use positively Clintonesque dictionary hair-splitting to explain to me that you must be white to be racist. Bull. Being a minority doesn't give Reverend Jackson, for example, a free pass to label Jews as "Hymies". But Reverend Jackson apologized, so that was okay. And then went on to lead an anti-Imus rally at the NBC building where protestors held signs saying, "no apologies, no forgiveness." No irony there. Reverend Sharpton has also had more than his share of racial gaffes. But both were in the forefront of the charge to crucify Imus.
In short, this isn't a problem that can be solved from one side. You cannot build half a bridge and expect it to work. Was Imus wrong? Oh yeah. Not even a question. But if we're going to crucify someone for racial transgressions, let's have the integrity and honesty to nail a few more to the same cross - regardless of color. Until then, I fear Dr. King's dream may remain just that - a dream.
Cheers,
Neptune
Thanks for your comment, Neptune! I forget that occasionally people who don't know me find their way over. You are right on the money. Incidentally, my capitals are a throwback to an earlier stylebook. Old habits...
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