Why Don Imus should still have a job

Here's an interesting take on the whole Don Imus debacle:

"Imus has a long history of these kinds of sensitive remarks. He’s been making them for longer than I’ve been alive. He’s presumably an intelligent man, you don’t survive in the radio medium by not being able to read and interpret people and being able to build and serve a captive audience. Imus had done that in spades (no slur intended). Now we are to assume that this man who is a leader and a trailblazer in talk radio is naïve enough to not have known the significance of what he was saying? I don’t believe that. However I also don’t believe that a man should lose his job because demagogues are campaigning for his slot (and presumably the money that comes with it).

Neither Don Imus or Hip-Hop created the word "ho’s". Whore is a biblical word. It’s older than print. Is Jesus responsible for the “nappy headed whores� They do say “hair of wool.†But I digress. At the heart of this matter is not a cultural condemnation. My issue with Mr. Imus is that he commented on children. Make no mistake, college age “adults†are still children regardless of the age of majority. They still have boy trouble, they still have pimples, they still have an exam to take in the morning, and these children had an even bigger hurdle. They are athletes. Not the ones driving booster-bought SUVs with rims bigger than their age, but the D-1 athletes that actually have to go to class, because there isn’t anything on the other side of the NCAA plantation. Oh yeah, under D-1 rules these girls can’t even get a real job if they’re receiving a scholarship during the season. They play for pride, they play for dignity, they play so an organization with a 2 Billion dollar CBS contract can continue to make money off the sales of their games, the use of their image, the sale of jerseys attached to their performance, and additional alumni moneys and associated revenue. All for a scholarship. Maybe that’s where the whore part comes in. But then that would make the colleges in Utah, and New Hampshire, and every other team with a significant amount of white players nappy headed hoes too. Also include the football and baseball and hockey teams as well as those Duke Lacrosse boys (recently exonerated from being accused of raping their nappy headed ho...no really. (Would that have been ho on ho crime?)

Make no mistake Don Imus was wrong, but not why you think he is. He was wrong because his comments, which were stupid (as opposed to ignorant because Imus knows better) and wrong, and because he slandered the reputation of children. Those players bust their ass for everything they get and don’t deserve that kind of attention, especially in the midst of a dream run in the NCAA tournament. He should have been sued for slander and hit in the pocket where this would really hurt him. This just frees him to take his act to the haven for this behavior, satellite radio. And god speed. Censorship, and the fight against it make strange bedfellows it would seem.

Feast your eyes on how we turn an agent for social change, and a contributor to Tibet Freedom, Farm-Aid, Live-Aid, lemonade and all other forms of world music causes into a hulking monster of rape, murder, and misogyny. Without gamma rays, no less! Watch as a movement with the balance of a Common and a Kool G. Rap makes one half invisible and be only known for bullets instead of ballads! Impossible you ask? No. That’s exactly what is happening to the perception of the Hip-Hop movement and culture.

You’ll find no shortage of people who want to make Hip-Hop better, or remove it. You’ll find even more who want to protect good will towards women. The question is twofold. One, is it right to pin a gender war that has raged since we looked down and saw one had a plus and the other a socket on something that’s barely 30 years old? Secondly, is it patronage to come to women’s rescue with our capes flapping like Dudley Do Right as if they were incapable of protecting themselves? And you thought chivalry was dead. Women run Fortune 500 companies, they go to school in larger numbers than men, they graduate at higher percentages than men, and one is even running for president. What makes you think they need someone’s help to protect themselves? Can’t they just stop buying albums, stop dancing, and support something that makes them feel good? Do we need laws to help them do that? Do we need marches?

Women certainly have no problem dishing it out. How often are men referred to as dogs (male bitches)? How often are fathers portrayed as the chuckling moron of the house while the woman is the only one that knows what’s going on and keeps the family going? Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, and The World According to Jim are three examples that don’t even have Black characters or have anything remotely to do with Hip-Hop. Should those be taken off the air for depicting men as bumbling idiots for almost a decade? Hip-Hop has nothing to do with that discussion. As long as our plumbing is different, we’re going to have gender beef. It has been that way before Hatfields and McCoys, Arabs and Israelis, Lakers and Celtics, Blue Devils and Tarheels.

So why exactly IS Hip-Hop involved in this discussion? It didn’t create whore, and Imus doesn’t play Hip-Hop on his show. It wasn’t playing on the loud speakers during the game. Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s plane, it’s a scapegoat! Rap albums have stickers for parental advisory. Just like the R-rated movie Grindhouse where the main character seduces women to ride in his car, and subsequently murders them. I’m sure that’s really encouraging to all those burgeoning rapists out there. It’s not free, you have to either buy it, or go through channels to get it unless you’re in your garage annoying your neighbors. Its largest audience is not Black men or Black women, but young white people, and that Hallmark of Hip-Hop skillz MC Karl Rove.

An entire generation of us grew up during its most “negative†periods, with no ill effects to our psyches. Just as we watched slasher movies, and the crack fueled crime numbers went through the roof. Now that crime is at historic lows, and the imagery is more fantasy than reality, now we say that Hip-Hop is causing community disintegration? Based on what? Never mind the lack of movement against the radio outlets that allow questionable material during hours that vulnerable children could hear it. Never mind the lack of boycott or movement against the conglomerates that fund the lyrical “terrorism.â€Â

Perhaps that’s the answer. Perhaps Hip-Hop should defend itself the same way others do…with it's checkbook. Maybe it’s time to get a lobby. Time to start paying that political protection money. Hip-Hop IS a billion dollar industry. I’m sure it can support a few decision makers. Maybe it is time for Hip-Hop as a culture and a movement to grow up…but not the way you think.

Don Imus didn’t think his advertisers would cave. He didn’t know that people would take offense after many years of similar sophomoric behavior. Don Imus didn’t know how seriously Black people’s issues affect their world. Nappy hair is Black heritage. Is it someone else’s fault that Blacks don’t value their heritage? Is Don Imus responsible for the cultural climate that aids in the devaluation of Blacks self image? No. He is only the setup. He’s only the microscope for those who are not intimate for their struggle to dissect their movement.

It’s time for Hip-Hop to grow up. To be proactive and not reactionary. To self police and to understand the difference between policing and censoring. Adults should never be censored no matter what they think or how they live as long as it doesn’t infringe on the lives of others. Don Imus’ comments did just that. But not the way you think."

 

Whoaa!!

Worth the read!

Something about your post brings to mind Def Jam Fight for New York
Now there's some colorful language and imagery...

Think about the opening and closing statements to each fight if Def Jam FFNY compared to VF.

Its actually relevant to your post in a round-about-kind-a-way.

DEF Jam is gritty no doubt, What part does the profanity play in the success and appeal in that title, why is not appropriate in VF. Although there are probably some here that would like to see it there. And there's something about the violence in that game that sets it apart. Is there some sort of guilty pleasure involved in playing DEF Jam? There is no shortage of endearing attachments of the word BITCH in DEF jam and there are some female fighters in the game!

Should EA Games take a hit for Def Jam?, Even inf the rappers willfully gave their voices and likeness to the game?

Whoaa /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/sick.gif

 

I think he should have kept his job.

Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and other Nazi bitches say far worse things on the airways... everyday.

 

Re: A different perspective

"I could tell by the way the media were pumpin' up the Cam'ron 60 Minutes interview days prior to the airing that this wasn't going to be one of Hip-Hop's stellar moments.

With Hip-Hop already under fire in the Don Imus aftermath, which was only eclipsed by the Virginia Tech murders, America needed a new bad guy; a Hip-Hop Hitler to point to as the source of all of America's problems...Enter Cameron Giles...

Let's face it. It was ill advised, (or for the less politically suave, down right dumb) for Cam to say that he wouldn't turn in a serial killer livin' in the crib next to his, while Ethel Lou in Topeka was still shook from the story about the Virginia Tech shooter.

However, in reality it was a set up that stank to high heaven. White America needed a new mainstream posterchild to blame for the deterioration of America's moral values and Cam'ron gave it to them, signed, sealed delivered and decorated with a golden eagle medallion.

Historically, America has always needed a Black boogie man, a sacrificial lamb on whose back all the sins of the world could be placed.

If you look back at the Civil Rights Era, when Reverend Martin Luther King was leading his march to bring attention to racial/economic injustice in Memphis, the media focus was not on the smooth talkin' dude in the nice suit, but on a gang of paid-off ruffians called The Invaders, who allegedly wrecked havoc on innocent bystanders. This served as evidence that segregation was indeed justified because Black folks were not quite civilized enough to eat a hot stack of pancakes at Howard Johnson's.

Things became increasingly worse in the late ‘80s as White folks went from trying to segregate a swimming pool to trying to segregate an entire ocean at Virginia Beach. The cause of the of problem was not discrimination. No, according to the press, the real problem was that Black college kids were shattering the plaster in Biff and Britney's summer cottage with their darn "ghetto blastersâ€Â...

During the early ‘90s, I remember how the videotape of Rodney King being brutalized by the L.A.P.D. was replaced by Reginald Denny getting a mediaeval beat down by a four man army of "street thugs." And no, the "rioters" in L.A. were not making political statements about systematic socioeconomic inequalities, they were just monsters on a blood thirsty rampage fueled by N.W.A. lyrics and St. Ides malt liquor.

Things have remained the same in the 21st century. Back in 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the questions about broken levees and government cover-ups were drowned out by America's outrage over Black thugs stealing wide screen TV sets from washed out department stores. And since they didn't have any electricity the thugs spent their afternoons target practicing at helicopters that were trying to deliver food and medical supplies to storm victims.

For those with long term memory disorders, they need only think back to last winter when the outrage over Michael "Kramer" Richards dropping all those N bombs quickly switched to a national debate over why Black folks call their homies the "N" word.

This brings us to the Imus "nappy headed ho" fiasco, where the news clips of a deranged looking cowboy who looked like he had one too many shots of Jack Daniels were replaced with clips of Snoop Dogg giving his deep intellectual insight into the various degrees of "ho-ism"

So that brings us up to 4/22/07 and the Cam interview, where the talking heads have just discovered that not only don't rappers, "love dem ho's" they ain't got no love for the Po Po's either. What is odd is that they did not once mention that the genesis of the distrust of the police is not based on a rap lyric but rooted in decades of Jim Crow-isms, COINTELPRO and numerous cases of mistaken identity and driving while Black. Did they once mention that the Sean Bell shooting was maybe just enough to make Black folks believe that the Officer Friendly from their kindergarten coloring books, wasn't so friendly after all?

Although Hip-Hop has been pretty resilient over the years as it has been a consistent cheddar producing cash cow for phat cats from Park Avenue to Rodeo Drive, based on the current political climate as Moe Dee told LL back in tha Day "this be the death blow."

Now, I am far from a Hip-Hop apologist but I know a set-up when I see one. And you can best believe that the "Hip-Hop" question will be the source of endless political debates between now and the next election.

What America will never admit is that ultimately, Hip-Hop is not the problem, racism is. And if you get rid of racism today, the "N" word and all things associated would be gone tomorrow.

To portray all Hip-Hop artists as members of some Third Reich is ludicrous. Although some of the major record label owners may bear some resemblance to the evil master of propaganda, Adolf Hitler, 'da 50 Cent' is not 'der Fuhrer.'"

-Paul Scott

 

Re: A different perspective

Sorry I didnt read the whole post, just wanted to share some thoughts o n the subject. First off, I think Imus shouldnt have lost his job maybe a suspension or something of the sort. Im also sick of seeing Rev AL always trying to get media time. Seems to me that he?s a real attention headed ho(sorry I just had to). The issue with hip-hop is how they are portraying in women in the lyrics and especially in videos. Which is way worse than what Imus said. So now why arent these record excutives getting the same treatment as Imus? For me ve seen hip-hop/rap culture getting worse and worse, and I really dont see it changing for the better. I might seem alittle bleak on the subject but african americans really need to look into the subject. But if Im right this whole thing will just blow over and we?ll be back to seeing half naked booty shaking on BET/MTV once again. SO WHATS THE POINT?

 

Re: A different perspective

One of the many points of both articles is the fact that Don Imus addressed a women's college basketball team with an undeserving and uncalled sexist AND racist remark. He didn't just call them "nappy-headed ho's" (wich, by the way, if you can find any rap lyrics with the words "nappy-headed ho's" please quote it here) but he also said "it's the JIGGABOOS versus the wannabe's". I guess he meant the "wannabe jiggaboos" but it doesn't matter, what does matter is that he apologized and that should have been the end of it, but it wasn't.

I could respect the fact that he apoligized but Don Imus lost what little bit of respect he had when he used Hip-Hop as his scapegoat.

It's like:
"I killed all those people because I play Grand Theft Auto." Come on! All of a sudden the blame gets shifted.Yeah, let's not address the fact that if Hip-Hop didn't exist Don Imus would still be an insensitive shock-jock. If Hip-Hop didn't exist the war of the sexes would still be going on like it has for thousands of years. Let's not address the fact that when the rappers that call certain women "ho's" do so they are usually referring to groupies, gold-diggers, video-ho's, or any woman that just wants to use them or would not talk to them before they made it. Of course, you would already know this if you did some research and got the facts before forming a biased opinion.

No rapper I know of yet has referred to a women's college basketball team as "nappy-headed hoes" and unlike what the media would have you believe, they do not consider every single woman in the world a ho'.

HIP HOP IS NOT ONE-DIMENSIONAL. Just like there's Classic Rock, Country Rock, Metal, Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Alternative Rock, etc. There's Christian Rap, Conscious Rap, Party Rap, Gangsta Rap, Booty Rap, Spoken-Word Rap, B-Boy Rap, etc.
Hip Hop is not ALL gangsta, ALL mysoginist, ALL this or ALL that. The truth is sex and violence sells and any and all lyrics addressing sex (Maddonna) and violence (Slipknot) is going to sell. So conscious rappers like Common, Mos Def, Talib Kwali, Jeru the Damaja, Guru, KRS-One, etc. are not going to sell as good as say 50 cent or that fake, gangsta-wannabe Lil Wayne.

Marilyn Manson sells because he's controversial. Common doesn't sell as well because he raps about love, peace, righteousness and positivity. Let's face it, most people dont want to hear or see positivity over negativity. If The Sopranos was about a law abiding, good-doer named Tony Soprano it wouldn't be as popular as it is.
Lol, sometimes I wonder what if The Sopranos wasn't The Sopranos and it was the The William's. A black, crime-family from New York. I wonder if it would be received as well as an Italian, crime-family from New Jersey.

Just like Rock has bands like Hatebreed and Eye Hate God that express youth's rebellious side, so does Hip Hop have it's non-conformist, non-complacent, non-submissive 'F.T.W.' genre. And for as long as there's rebellious youth, that type of Hip Hop will continue.

 

Re: A different perspective

When Imus said that it was the jigaboos vs. the wanabes, it was in reference, I think, to the early Spike Lee movie "School Daze." In that movie the darker skinned black people join certain frats and the lighter skinned black people join different ones. Then the two sides insult each other. The darker skinned people are called "jigaboos" and the lighter skinned people are called "wanabes." It's pretty messed up.

Imus should have just not commented on the Rutgers players, who did look a little roughter than the Tennesee players (but come on, they are mostly from Jersey. What do you expect, 12 Church Ladies?)

Imus has offended people in the past. He should know to be quiet, especially whenever he has the urge to start talking about various "ethnics." But no, he just couldn't keep his dumb ass, Texan mouth shut. And guess what, black women don't like being called "nappy headed," or "ho's" for that matter. Look at all the time and effort and money black women spend getting their hair to behave like the hair of white women. Imus touched a nerve that his good ol' boy pea brain could scarcely be expected to comprehend. Dumb ass.

Should he be fired? I don't know. Maybe. His job is to talk and if he can't do that without saying really offensive shit then maybe he needs to get a new job.

Imus already had more success (and $ millions)than his meager talent should have afforded him. Ride off into the sunset you old ignorant redneck.

But still, that fat junkie Rush Limbaugh is way worse and says way more racist shit than Imus. He once told a black caller to "Take the bone out of your nose."