Black sports reporter's take on Imusgate
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http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html
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.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call (816) 234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com
Thank God there is someone with a level head speaking his mind from the black community. This has gotten beyond ridiculous.
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.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call (816) 234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com
Thank God there is someone with a level head speaking his mind from the black community. This has gotten beyond ridiculous.
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Comments
I definately agree these women are fabricating their hurt.
Imus is tiny... Imus is stupid... Imus doesn't matter.
I love him. He's exactly the guy I see on college campus everyday. The moron left is taking over the national media. I can't wait for the inevitable destruction of our culture.
Rawking!
I've always claimed rap as a generational thing, not a racial thing, but I'm losing patience with no-talent gangstas using their forum to spew bullshit.
Rap is my generation's rock & roll and like rock & roll, rap has been highjacked by hacks. Rap needs a grunge-type catalyst to move it back towards socially-conscious music. But, like I said, I could be viewing this through older, white eyes.
I've always defended rap when my friends would criticize it but it's becoming harder to fight off their (increasingly) correct complaints. I think Whitlock is on to something.
Can you see me now
I am myself
Like you somehow
I'll ride the wave
Where it takes me
I'll hold the pain
Release me
I still purchase Snoop and some other's who put out the rap music. It is like bubblegum rock to me. I don't go around falling in puppy love and I don't go out and shoot people. It is music with words you either dismiss as stupid or take to heart. But you shouldn't be stoopid
Anyway, I always liked Whitlock on ESPN (and did not realize he had a falling out). He certainly makes some great points. I think Imus deserves criticism. What he said was racist and should be acknowledged as such (you do not have to use the "n word" to be a racist).
But Whitlock is right. Some radio clown lets his feelings about black women slip. Big deal. Regardless of whether he gets a slap on the wrist, suspended or fired, Whiltlock is dead on that this is not at all a problem for blacks. Parts of their very own culture promote violence, disrespect women and claim you are trying to be "white" if you get educated, thereby pressuring elementary school kids to not do well in school. I happen to think that they treatment from whitey has had a key role in this (mainly putting them in their poverty), but the time where whitey's bigoted remarks is what is holding them back is well in the past. Yeah, there are instances of racism. Yeah, there are people taht would never hire a black person (please no affirmative action sub-thread), but if gangsta rap culture is driving a significant portion of the community, that is the main problem to overcome right now.
-Enoch Powell
Can you see me now
I am myself
Like you somehow
I'll ride the wave
Where it takes me
I'll hold the pain
Release me
the people i grew up with in the 60's and early 70's started smoking pot because our music taught it. music had a great impact on our behavior. i recall a movie being banned in some theaters because the audience exited the theater fighting. i think it was new jack city or something like that.
never underestimate the power of music.
he took shots at hip hop, yes. but i dont think he was knocking chappelle, only pointing out that chappelle got paid millions to do what imus did.
preceisely. for another example, look what junior high girls are wearing... then look at the cd's on their shelves... paris, lohan, britney. youth buy into the glamor of the lifestyles these songs are selling. the biggest threat to blacks is not white racism, it is a refusal to deal with their own declining values.
Also, where I think Whitlock's argument is strongest is the point where he talks about how minorities are using these words all the time, while majority culture gets fired for it. The funny part is, that majority culture often takes a victimhood stance on it (like why can't I say the n-word, or nappy headed, or hos?), but stop and think about what it is both sides are fighting to say...it's just stupid. No one should use it in the first instance, least of all white people who have used those words to assert their dominance for years.
Where I think it falls apart is the fact that most of these rappers songs/videos/films etc. are written by, produced by, managed by, signed by, and MOST IMPORTANTLY purchased by little white girls, and their super-rich white daddy's. So really how can you blame young black men for writing songs, or performing in movies that perpetuate these stupid stereotypes when the only way you can really get a job and make money in the entertainment industry is to be stereotypically "black" so that little white girls can fulfill their fantasies, and the rest of the white majority can reassert their moral/mental superiority - besides the white majority doesn't want to fund their schools so they can get an education, pay for equal access healthcare, or provide welfare so that they don't have to work after school. For a quick song break I think Nas's "Coon's Picnic" is a good descriptor of this whole situation.
Mike Lupica on the other hand absolutely sucks balls. I am all with him on that too.
No one pretends racism dosen't exist. It's certainly prevalent and horrible where it exists, but some people are living in the past and failing to self analyze. It may be harder to internalize problems and easier to blame society, but that keeps you in exactly the same place. It's harder to work on ones self but it's the only way to get anywhere.
Yeah in general there is some pretty bad stuff going on in the hip hop culture as people try seemingly to live out lyrics, it just kind of annoys me that it's so often categorized only as negative. There is a lot of good and positive in hip hop too. Just as there are a lot of people of all races who are different, unfortunately there are biggots who attempt to make everything clear cut.
East Rutherford '98
Merriweather '98
Gorge '05
Vancouver '05
Los Angeles I,II '06
Santa Barbara '06
Fonda Theater '06
"No one cares about climbing stairs, Nothing at the top no more." Chris Cornell
"I'm falling up flights of stairs, scraping myself from the sidewalk, jumping from rivers to bridges, drowning in pure air. Hip Hop is lying on the side of the road, half dead to itself. Blood scrawled over its mangled flesh, like jazz, stuffed into an oversized record bag. Tuba lips swollen beyond recognition. Diamond studded teeth strewn like rice at karma's wedding. The ring bearer bore bad news. Minister of information wrote the wrong proclamation. Now everyone's singing the wrong song. Dissonant chords find necks like nooses. That nigga kicked the chair from under my feet. Harlem shaking from a rope, but still on beat. "Damn that loop is tight." Nigga, found a way to sample the way the truth the light. Can't wait to play myself at the party tonight. Niggas are gonna die. Cop car swerves to the side of the road. Hip Hop takes its last breath. The cop scrawls vernacular manslaughter onto a yellow pad, then balls the paper into his hand, deciding he'd rather free-style. "You have the right to remain silent." You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to remain silent. And maybe you should have before your bullshit manifested.
These thugs can't fuck with me, they're too thugged out. Niggas think I'm bugged out, 'cause I ain't Sean John or Lugged out. This ain't hip hop no more, son, it's bigger than that. This ain't ghetto no more, black, it's bigger than black. So where my aliens at? Girl, we're all illegal. This system ain't for us. It's for rich people. And you ain't rich, dawg, you just got money. But you can't buy shit to not get hungry.
Telegram to Hip Hop: Dear Hip Hop .(stop). This shit has gone too far. (stop). Please see that mixer and turntables are returned to Kool Herc. (stop). The ghettos are dancing off beat. (stop). The master of ceremonies have forgotten that they were once slaves and have neglected the occasion of this ceremony. (stop). Perhaps we should not have encouraged them to use cordless microphones, for they have walked too far from the source and are emitting a lesser frequency (stop). Please inform all interested parties that cash nor murder have been added to the list of elements. (stop). We are discontinuing our current line of braggadocio, in light of the current trend in "realness". (stop). As an alternative, we will be confiscating weed supplies and replacing them with magic mushrooms, in hopes of helping niggas see beyond their reality. (stop). Give my regards to Brooklyn.
These thugs can't fuck with me, they're too thugged out. Niggas think I'm bugged out, 'cause I ain't Sean John or Lugged out. This ain't hip hop no more, son, it's bigger than that. This ain't ghetto no more, black, it's bigger than black. So where my aliens at? Girl, we're all illegal. This system ain't for us. It's for rich people. And you ain't rich, dawg, you just got money. But you can't buy shit to not get hungry."
R.i.p. My Dad - May 28, 2007
R.i.p. Black Tail (cat) - Sept. 20, 2008