April 14, 2007

• Imus Rant

  Kinky Friedman: "There's something not kosher in America when one guy gets a Grammy and one gets fired for the same line."

  I combined my Imus rant series into one entry so I can get over it and move on.  May all of the garbage be taken out by all who are producing, pandering and purchasing.

  April 10

  So Don Imus is in trouble about his references to an Afro-American basketball team?  I am not defending him here.  Yes, he did push too far and this was beyond the limit, but so is a lot of the stuff he says. I knew that over 30 years ago when he mocked Christianity with his Billy Sol Hargis character whose theme song was, "I don't care if it rains or freezes, 'long as I got my plastic Jesus...sittin' up there by my pair of fuzzy dice".  There was no talk of suspension of Imus for mocking Christian beliefs.

  But let Imus use words that Afro-Americans use about themselves and he finds himself in a messy kettle of fish.  Hello?  Where, pray tell, did the word "ho" in reference to women come from in the first place?  I don't think the term was coined by whites.  Imus just used a term that was invented and taught to him by AAs themselves. How come the AA rap singers can call women hos in filthy "songs" where half the words are censored?  Where is the protest?  It is now all right to call women in general "hos" but not members of a women's basketball team?   How much sense does that make?  I have to suspend rational thought!  Of course the basketball team deserved better, and so do all women of any color.  Why are rappers allowed to spend years polluting the airwaves with their ho-ribble rhymes? Because they don't refer to any specific hair styles or any specific ho?  Was Imus's "nappy headed" offensive, or was it "hos" or the combination?  The only difference between Imus and the rappers is the quantity of raunchy comments produced, and the rappers are inarguably the winners.

  Let's be consistent, people!  You can't call one big mouthed white man on the carpet without calling everyone who is guilty of the same offense hundreds of times over.  To chastise Imus without chastising nasty gansta rappers is total and irrational hypocrisy.  Are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton equally concerned about what spews forth from the lips of those of their own race?   AAs need to get after some of their own as well.  What is wrong is wrong no matter who says it and no matter the color of their skin.  I would challenge those so upset by this comment to work at cleaning up all of the garbage without being selective.

  Imus should get gold chains, a band and chant his comments on a CD like Fifty Cent or Snoop Dogg.  He would earn money, praise, a Grammy Award and be put into a hall of fame.  Isn't that what happens to the rappers?  What's the difference?

  Another question...  Why do black people have no problem using the n-word and "ho" among themselves, but yell racism when a white person says it?  I don't understand at all. 

  The world is getting generally crazy about what it thinks is and is not offensive.

  April 11

  Thanks to a fellow xangist for providing information about the movie scene referred to by "jigaboos vs. wannabes."  In the opening scene they girls make references to jigaboos and pickininnies...  I am white and was taught not to use that kind of language.  These terms are racist as well, aren't they?  Why can Spike Lee say things like that and it's no problem?  Am I missing something?  I honestly don't understand.  Why take Imus to task and ignore this?  Maybe it's like in Japanese how you can call your own son stupid, but woe to anyone outside the family who says the same thing.

  Remarks from Fox New's Mike Straka:

  Radio jock Don Imus' comments last week regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team were deplorable, there's no arguing that.

  However, the notion that he should quit or be fired over those remarks is questionable.

  While I'm not defending Imus for comments ・not worth repeating here ・during a segment on his radio show, I am a little confused over the outrage coming from the likes of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and several more who want the man fired, including The National Association of Black Journalists.

  Sure, the above-mentioned individuals and groups have spoken out against gangsta-rap stars and the record labels that profit from such "art" - where rap stars refer to women as much worse on a regular basis in music marketed to impressionable young consumers - they never persist to the point where they say Snoop Dog or Diddy or Jay-Z or Russell Simmons should be fired.

  Never. And why is that?

  And notice how most of the ire about the Imus incident is directed at Imus himself, and not his longtime radio producer Bernard McGuirk. Is that because McGuirk - when he went on to call the game "jigaboos versus the wannabes" - was quoting from Spike Lee's "School Daze," and any uproar directed at McGuirk would be an indictment on one of the country's leading black directors?

  I guess we'd have to go to the film archives and excise that scene and speech from all future printings of the film, and a nationwide call to burn any existing copies would be initiated. We'd have Spike Lee VHS bonfires at Blockbusters everywhere.

  Highly unlikely.

  Imus might be a loud-mouthed jerk ・and he most certainly should be punished with either a fine or a suspension, or both ・but to be fired would be such a double standard as to only be described as reverse racism.

  Sharpton, on his radio show Monday, commented in his opening monologue that what makes Imus' remarks even more deplorable is the fact that he said them on a "mainstream" radio program that features the likes of senators, presidential candidates and evening news anchors.

  Is that to suggest that Don Imus should be more responsible than a rap artist or the people who profit from rap music that prominently features mysogynistic lyrics?

  Click for Father Jonathan's comments on Imus.  Imus's sponsors are not reacting to any moral issue, but rather to the bottom line of what is financially profitable.  All of the worms are coming out here...

  April 12

  Barack Obama had a good comment about Imus's comment:

  "The comments of Don Imus were divisive, hurtful and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds. With a public platform, comes a trust. As far as I'm concerned, he violated that trust," said U.S. Senator Barack Obama.

  Yes, of ALL backgrounds.  But I suppose pressure was put on him to say more.

  From ABC News - Jake Tapper

  April 11, 2007 -  In an interview with ABC News Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., called for the firing of talk radio host Don Imus. Obama said he would never again appear on Imus' show, which is broadcast on CBS Radio and MSNBC television.

  "I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."

  Last week, Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team, most of whom are African-American, as "nappy-headed hos." He has since apologized for his remarks, and CBS and MSNBC suspended his show for two weeks.

  "He didn't just cross the line," Obama said. "He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America. The notions that as young African-American women - who I hope will be athletes - that that somehow makes them less beautiful or less important. It was a degrading comment. It's one that I'm not interested in supporting." (You can't criticize Imus and ignore rap, which does much more to degrade women!)

  Though every major presidential candidate has decried the racist remarks, Obama is the first one to say Imus should lose his job for them. His proclamation was the latest in an ever-expanding list of bad news for Imus.

  Sponsors, including American Express Co., General Motors Corp., Procter & Gamble Co., and Staples Inc. ・have announced they are pulling advertisements from the show for the indefinite future. (This is about money, not morals.  No sponsors pulled their advertising when Imus mocked Christians with Billy Sol Hargis.  No sponsors pull their ads when Imus tells a woman caller to sit on her radio while he licks the microphone.)

  Tuesday, the basketball team held a press conference.  "I think that this has scarred me for life," said Matee Ajavon. "We grew up in a world where racism exists, and there's nothing we can do to change that."  (RACISM? WHERE DID THE WORD "HO" COME FROM??  BLACK RAPPERS USE THE WORD ALL THE TIME WITH NO PROBLEM!  NAPPY HEADED?  THIS TERM IS USED IN SPIKE LEE'S MOVIE ALONG WITH TAR BABY AND OTHER WORDS THAT WOULD BE RACIST ON THE LIPS OF A WHITE PERSON.  I STILL don't understand the double standard.)

  "What we've been seeing around this country is this constant ratcheting up of a coarsening of the culture that all of have to think about," Obama said.  (WHY ARE PEOPLE ANGRY WHEN A WHITE MAN COARSENS THE CULTURE BUT NOT BLACK RAPPERS?)

  "Insults, humor that degrades women, humor that is based in racism and racial stereotypes isn't fun," the senator told ABC News. (NO, AND NEITHER IS RAP!!)

  "And the notion that somehow it's cute or amusing, or a useful diversion, I think, is something that all of us have to recognize is just not the case. We all have First Amendment rights. And I am a constitutional lawyer and strongly believe in free speech, but as a culture, we really have to do some soul-searching to think about what kind of toxic information are we feeding our kids," he concluded. (YES, AND FIRE THE RAPPERS WHILE YOU ARE AT IT!  And then take a look at what Hollywood is putting out while you are at it.)

  How come Imus is not allowed to say "ho" but Hollywood is allowed to use the f-word all it wants as a noun, verb, adjective and exclamation?  Let's go after all the smut, folks of every color.  (If "people" is off limits, is "folks" all right?  Maybe not - some AA lady called the Ed Schulz radio show to complain that she was insulted by his use of the word.  Is "folks" now a four letter word?)

  A couple of years back I would listen to the Armed Forces Radio Network here in Tokyo.  They played a song called "Darling Nikki" whose lyrics by Prince I will not print here.  If you feel you need to see them, click on the link.  I called the station and asked them if this was the image of American culture that they wanted to be broadcasting over the Kanto Plain, and I was told that this was what Americans liked and wanted to hear, and that there was nothing wrong with the song.  I began to hold my nose and listen a bit more carefully to what was going out over the air.  A song by 50 Cent went out over the air.  Look at those lyrics, too if you dare.  The naughty words were "erased" but one's mind does a good job of filling them back in. 

  These "artists" were being featured in the late afternoon.  The kids of the military families stationed in Japan are all listening, as AFRN is the only English station on the air.  I put up a brief protest against the smut, the broadcasting of which your tax dollars are paying for, but was told that this was the kind of music that Americans LIKED and that I should go away and stop harassing them.  It was all stuff from the top of the music charts, and that is what they would play.  I was truly embarrassed for my country.  If this is what America likes, then God has to hold his nose to bless it.

  If Imus is going to be fired, then America must totally reexamine ALL that goes on in the name of "art."  Freedom of speech must be tempered with responsibility.

  In connection with Imus, I am reminded of something that Pastor Nishida once said in relation to the Livedoor scandal that was front page news a few months back.  He said that it was better for those involved in wrongdoing to be caught and brought down for their own good, that they might examine their lives, find God, be turned around in repentance for their sin and redeemed.  Imus, look to God and see if He has anything to say to you in this hole that you have spent years digging for yourself.

  April 13

  (CBS/AP) CBS announced Thursday that it has fired Don Imus from his radio program, following a week of uproar over the radio host's derogatory comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

  "There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said.

  So Imus got fired, even though a CBS news poll shows that twice as many people are in favor of forgiving him over firing him.  I challenge CBS to be consistent and clean up ANY AND ALL PROGRAMMING that would have a negative effect on young people of any gender or color.  Anything else smacks of hypocrisy, a double standard and more concern for the bottom line than for morality.  If CBS fires Imus, it also has not a leg to stand on if it plays rap music by people of color that calls women bitches and hos and describes more about their sex life than I really want to know.  You can't just clean up what hurts your pocketbook and claim to be concerned about morals and young women of color trying to make their way in this society.  Again I ask, didn't Imus take the vocabulary from his stupid comment from people of color themselves?

  This is all so much media hype and political maneuvering...  What is really behind it all?  Imus has been Imus for a very long time.  Why suddenly go after him now?  This needs to be cleaned up on all sides.  It all stinks.  Now give the girls a well deserved party.

  April 14

  I was listening to the radio this morning to hear a black lady rejoicing that Imus was off the air, and that now people could listen to alternative better programming, like the Tom Joyner Show.  I have heard this over the American Forces Radio Network, and it is also smutty.  A better alternative?

  Well, here is a quote from one of their news stories:  "Jackson called the firing "a victory for public decency. No one should use the public airwaves to transmit racial or sexual degradation."  Said Sharpton: "He says he wants to be forgiven. I hope he continues in that process. But we cannot afford a precedent established that the airways can commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism."

  And they have nothing to say about the worse damage done by the calling of their own women bitches and hos by AA rappers?  Where did the term "ho" come from?  If Imus is guilty of using the public airways to "transmit racial or sexual degradation," then what do you call what black rappers are doing??

  Condensed from Patrick Buchanan.  You can read the entire article here.

  When Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team "tattooed ... nappy-headed hos," he went over the top. The women deserved an apology. There was no cause, no call to use those terms. As Ann Coulter said, they were not fair game.

  But Imus did apologize, again and again and again.

  And lest we forget, these are athletes in their prime, not 5-year-old girls, and they are capable of brushing off an ignorant comment by a talk-show host who does not know them, or anything about them.  Who, after all, believed the slur was true? No one.

  While the remarks of Imus and Bernie about the Rutgers women were indefensible, they were more unthinking and stupid than vicious and malicious. But malice is the right word to describe the howls for their show to be canceled and them to be driven from the airwaves ・by phonies who endlessly prattle about the First Amendment.

  The hypocrisy here was too thick to cut with a chainsaw.

  What was the term the I-Man used? It was "hos," slang for whores, a term employed ad infinitum et ad nauseam by rap and hip-hop "artists." It is a term out of the African-American community. Yet, if any of a hundred rap singers has lost his contract or been driven from the airwaves for using it, maybe someone can tell me about it.   If the word "hos" is a filthy insult to decent black women, and it is, why are hip-hop artists and rap singers who use it incessantly not pariahs in the black community? Why would black politicians hobnob with them? Why are there no boycotts of the advertisers of the radio stations that play their degrading music?

  Answer: The issue here is not the word Imus used. The issue is who Imus is ・a white man, who used a term about black women only black folks are permitted to use with impunity and immunity.  Whatever Imus' sins, no one deserves to have Al Sharpton ・hero of the Tawana Brawley hoax, resolute defender of the fake rape charge against half a dozen innocent guys, which ruined lives ・sit in moral judgment upon them.

  Me again:  This is heading in a scary direction!  Have a look at this article - now the critics are out to silence Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and other conservative talkers? Liberals can talk all they want but conservatives have to shut up?  Political satire is not allowed in North Korea, China or Moslem countries...  Is this where we are headed?  Are we headed for a country where we are thrown in jail for speaking out against what we think is wrong?  Are Dr. Dobson and Dr. Laura nest on the list?  Admittedly, some talk show hosts and political commentators are sometimes as over the top as Imus and should indeed be reigned in to standards of common sense decency.

  But why is nothing said about silencing Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent??  If the word "ho" is a problem, then would it not seem obvious to anyone with a walnut half for a brain that the attention should be focussed to eliminating that from the airwaves first?  Why do black rappers get rich while Imus gets fired?  I hope that the walnut police don't come after me.

  Michelle Malkin asks "Have you seen the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart this week?"

  Now this makes sense!

  Condensed from Rush Limbaugh

  Let's look at the content of the songs that are played on public airwaves.  Sharpton has now said, dozens of times, and we gotta clean up the public airwaves. We've gotta detoxify the public airwaves.  Well, look at some of the music and look at some of the lyrics played on the public airwaves being sung -- not spoken, by hosts, sung -- by recording artists and stars, and I don't hear the Reverend Sharpton concerned about that.  In fact, I hear the Reverend Sharpton and the Reverend Jackson defending those lyrics as "art," ladies and gentlemen.  I heard Snoop Dogg. How many times has he been indicted?  Well, he's under charges. Snoop Dogg said the other day (paraphrased), "Look, don't come after us and our music and our art.  This reflects the way we were raised, reflects where we were growing up.  When that H-word is used by us, it means women who are fat and dumb in the projects who are just waiting to steal our money.  We're not talking about basketball players at college.  So don't lay this off on us." 

  Somebody said, "Wait a minute. Don Imus didn't just learn this phrase. He didn't wake up and have it come out of his own mind. He had to hear it someplace."

  "Don't blame us for that," said the famous Snoop Dogg.

  Anyway, if you look at the lyrics that are on radio, the public airwaves that need to be detoxified, where are the Reverend Sharpton and Reverend Jackson dealing with those lyrics, not just the words uttered by deejays and hosts.  I mean after all they are the public airwaves. These songs should be banned now!  If this is about cleaning up all this garbage, these songs need to be banned, and when we're done fixing TV and radio, folks, next we're going to move on to Hollywood...  Now, has Reverend Sharpton picketed anybody in Hollywood? Has Reverend Sharpton or Jackson picketed any urban radio stations? 

  • 09:30
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