Can we talk about Imus like adults?

I think in today's society, people see groups/genders as punchlines and fodder for insults. I know in my neighborhood, I hear people being insulted for their land of orgin or religious upbringing. "I don't trust (insert nationality or religion here). Watch where ya going, ya (insert expletive and nationality or religion here)." When did we as a people become more noted for what we are than who we are?

 

Cal Ripken did pull out. Pity, because it would've been a good interview since Cal has taken off his blinders and is ready to talk about steroids. But I appreciate Cal following his moral compass. The NJ senator said he's not going back on the show.

I'm not sure how long the pickets will last. Probably through tomorrow. On Thursday and Friday the station is doing its annual charity drive for various children's cause, including sudden infant death. This is why Imus is allowed to hang around this week; they need his face and the money he'll generate.
I think it would be pretty crass to have picketers chanting while families usher their sick children into the building for interviews.

 

Lenny Bruce said: "It's the suppression of words that gives them the power, the violence, the viciousness."


"Are there any niggers here tonight? Could you turn on the house lights, please, and could the waiters and waitresses just stop serving, just for a second? And turn off this spot. Now what did he say? "Are there any niggers here tonight?" I know there's one nigger, because I see him back there working. Let's see, there's two niggers. And between those two niggers sits a kike. And there's another kike— that's two kikes and three niggers. And there's a spic. Right? Hmm? There's another spic. Ooh, there's a wop; there's a polack; and, oh, a couple of greaseballs. And there's three lace-curtain Irish micks. And there's one, hip, thick, hunky, funky, boogie. Boogie boogie. Mm-hmm. I got three kikes here, do I hear five kikes? I got five kikes, do I hear six spics, I got six spics, do I hear seven niggers? I got seven niggers. Sold American. I pass with seven niggers, six spics, five micks, four kikes, three guineas, and one wop. Well, I was just trying to make a point, and that is that it's the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness. Dig: if President Kennedy would just go on television, and say, "I would like to introduce you to all the niggers in my cabinet," and if he'd just say "nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger" to every nigger he saw, "boogie boogie boogie boogie boogie," "nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger" 'til nigger didn't mean anything anymore, then you could never make some six-year-old black kid cry because somebody called him a nigger at school."

 

Which brings up another interesting aspect of this whoe mess...
The radiothon (which raises a few million a year) also benefits the Imus Ranch and Tomorrow's Children -- another organization to which Imus has donated tons of money.
A lot of people are going to be saying a lot of nice things about Don Imus on WFAN Thursday and Friday...and from a standpoint of his charitable work, rightfully so.
But I wonder if his current mess will hurt their fund-raising effort?

 

That's it in a nutshell.

Of course, if this results in a bit of holy water being thrown on Imus' undead ass and him being taken off the air forever, then that's a long-term positive effect.

 

(Since I can't sleep, and these comments were overwhelmed on the other thread by Boom's lyrics and Boots's bickering, I'm reposting them here.)

Sometimes these things just reach a critical mass of public awareness. After which they become symbolic, with a momentum of their own. No amount of contrite backpedaling can help thereafter.

As I suggested earlier, if the Rutgers coach, and the players, wind up on the Today Show or GMA in the next couple of days, and this then grows into a national referendum on our collective racial failures, you may see Imus announce his retirement.

Any society's corrections to its own behavior are aymmetrical and often spontaneous. Imus may prove to be the lightning rod (or sacrificial lamb or martyr, you choose) for the next level of discussion about race and language in this country. If Imus is eventually fired; or retires; or simply goes back on the air a changed man, maybe what comes of all this is a substantive national conversation about how we speak to one another. Part of that conversation will include the nature and/or double standard of some rap lyrics. And from the whole painful process - random as it is, and shot through with symbolism and imbalance - our little collective will have elevated our treatment of one another by the smallest increment. Broad change across a culture almost always happens this way.

Is there racism in the white community? Certainly. Is there racism in the black community? Certainly. Is there some kind of bigotry everywhere in this country between one tribe and another? Certainly. And it's a long, slow, crooked road to correct it.

(Last add, to which I never received an answer before the lockdown) A good question from the letters thread over at Romenesko:

Is Imus suspended with or without pay?

 

Since everything's all about the money, sponsor reconsiderations will be key.

. . . and it's truly unfortunate that the ZERO-credibility Al Sharpton is the poster boy on the other side of this one . . .

 

this whole imus thing is terribly overblown

 

A little surprised by that response.

 

Likewise Jason.

The looks on the faces of the Rutgers girls ... say what you will, but they appeared to be hurt bad.

I don't see how he survives this.

 

the girls were gassed up by vivian stringer.

don imus has no credibility and no platform in the sports world.

 

For once, I take the side of our esteemed KCian.....


Blown way the hell out of whack.