what to do about racism
I have mixed feelings about the situation surrounding our infamous radio not-friend Don Imus. Groups around the country are calling for him to be fired to prevent him from spreading words laced with racism and prejudice. Fine, fine, we all agree something needs to happen. But part of me feels that firing the guy just isn’t the appropriate punishment.
I suppose I’m trying to determine what would be better for society in the long run, censoring the guy or allowing him to act a fool and be humiliated by the majority of people in this country. There are two things I’m thinking about here.
1) Don’t fire the guy, make an example of him. Sue him for libel or slander or defamation or whatever else. Show people how his remarks are damaging and oppressive. Let the civil rights groups continue to harass him. To fire him simply shuts him down, and we can go back to pretending that racism doesn’t really exist. Part of me thinks that people want him fired so they don’t have to face up to the fact that there are people just like him all over the place, who share his views and make generalizations like this. Studies have shown that these prejudices are ingrained in our unconscious, in people of all races and cultures. For almost everyone, they exist before we can even think about it, and the answer to changing that is promoting awareness of these ideas. Removing them from mainstream society just sweeps them under the rug. It doesn’t solve anything.
2) Or maybe it does. Maybe our generation is not salvageable and we need to focus on the young ‘uns. Maybe if we remove prejudice from popular culture and the mainstream, those who are born now will not develop these inherent biases and they will grow up truly believing and enforcing equality, pop culture won’t reinforce stereotypes, and there will be rainbows over our country every day.
But if you’re going to do that, then for the love of God someone needs to censor people like Howard Stern, who demeans women on a daily basis; most stand-up comedians, who thrive on sweeping generalizations; AM radio talk shows, which seem to reinforce gender stereotypes; the list goes on and on.
There is a small piece of me with empathizes with Imus. I have been known to do and say very stupid and offensive things to try to get a laugh. Most of the time I don’t believe them and I say them to be so over the top that I assume people will understand the utter ridiculousness of the statement and simply laugh at how offensive it is. But everyone’s looking for a fight and they will gladly jump on me to call me a racist and a bigot and a Nazi rather than realize that it was said in the name of humor.
I don’t know Imus, I don’t know how he operates in the real world when he isn’t trying to be funny and appealing. Maybe he’s a KKK loving asshole who burns crosses. Maybe he’s a regular white guy who has prejudices but his actions are the same as any other regular white guy who isn’t attacked by minority groups. I really don’t know. But my question is: Is firing this man going to solve anything in the long run?
It’s all rather confusing to me and has made my head spin.
Back to the Ugg boots and tramp stamps for me.
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Imus’ comment in my opinion was meant to be degrading to an extremely accomplished group of (mostly) black women athletes. As the undoubtedly well paid host of a radio show that appeals to a demographic that escapes me, he is in a privileged position that he has abused. He is free to say what he wants, but his employer and sponsors are free to disassociate themselves from him. Do we all do and say dumb things? Yes, but there are repercussions for doing so. It is not ok to say what he said, and this goes beyond being PC. Tolerating these kind of debasing comments only gives other idiots the freedom to follow suit. Fire his ass is what I say.
Diane - April 11th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I’m not an Imus fan, so it’s not like I’m going to weep in support of him but if we’re going to impose a call for his head on a platter, then we need to standardize it. To have Imus on Sharpton’s show pleading his apology is beyond a joke. Sharpton has never apologized for the Tawana Brawley circus, he never apologized for the “diamond merchant” comment, and the countless other statements this man has made that are blatantly racist (oh he was there twirling on the Duke case!). I agree that Imus should be called to task - what he said was a horrible mis-step to be irreverently “funny” and he should be slapped for being just downright stupid, but what Sharpton says has nothing to do with misguided and ignorant humor, it’s said to hurt and divide in an effort to incite. That to me is more offensive.
tequilaanddonuts - April 11th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
There’s no doubt that his comment was racist and debasing. I’m just wondering what is the best punishment, what will have the greatest impact on society in the long run. MSNBC just booted him from their simulcast. Fine. Is that a step toward solving the problem, or just an attempt to cover their asses?
When will someone punish Al Sharpton for the crap that spews out of his mouth? What about all of those “racist” comedians: Mind of Mencia or Dave Chapelle? How is their “comedy” any different (other than it’s funnier)?
malingering - April 11th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I think the difference here is that Imus is a racist, sexist bigot both on the air and off the air. I wish the news media would have focused on his past actions (both on air and off air) though I’m guessing they didn’t because it would have involved a lot of circumstantial comments.
Also, the main point is that he made a racial/gender slur towards a group of good, young, upstanding, and hardworking group of people. This is kind of where the argument that the same attention should be placed on mainstream hip hop loses a lot of ground. Those shitty rappers are talking about real hos…not outstanding citizens/athletes/students.
Alex - April 12th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
A lot of athletes I knew in college were not good or upstanding at all. Just the fact that they are college students doesn’t make people good citizens.
malingering - April 12th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I think female basketball players in major programs (along with their male counterparts) are upstanding and certainly upstanding enough to not warrant such comments from idiot disc jockeys.
Again, I really wish the news media would have focused on Imus’ history of racial and gender slurs off the air to employees and associates.
Sure, firing him for this incident was not a wise thing to do, but you have to understand that this was the last straw for him. He’s like the Bobby Knight of the disc jockey world. This isn’t new territory for him.
I’m glad that the news media has not likened Imus to Howard Stern because that would just be an idiotic comparison (though not a stretch for, say, FoxNews).
Alex - April 13th, 2007 at 5:07 am