Can we talk about Imus like adults?

First, grab a stein of STFU on the HTT first couple lines: A criticism of that locking was absolutely justified.

Then please describe what you believe counts as "mature."

I'll let "despite" go without further comment.

 

As usual Whitlock nails it:

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.

 

You are entitled to believe that the first thread being locked was wrong. The shot at new kids with their toys was garbage.
Yeah, I meant to say despise, not despite. My bad.

By mature, I meant none of the frat crap. I heard none of the stupid emails from listeners with false names -- real ones with concerns and solid opinions -- pro or con. A very good discussion with Harry Edwards -- one that should be done on its own at times instead of "When dumb people say dumber things."
I still "despite" Rome, but I liked his show.

 

Careful, Jason.

You will get turned on en masse.

You are very close to that Cosby-esque point on Karl Wallenda's highwire with this dead solid perfect column.

 

Mui bueno, amigo.

 

This is a very good question. My answer is no.

To expand on that: Would Imus be so contrite if he didn't think he'd lose his job -- and, perhaps, see his career end -- over this? Is he sorry because he's really sorry -- or is he sorry because his show is losing advertising, and, potentially, its time slot?

The biggest mistake he's made in the aftermath is to keep insisting that he said something trivial (and stupid), as if too big a deal is being made over this. That's not his call. He sounds incredibly disingenuous to me.

One other thing: What happens to McGuirk? I mean, he had as big a part in this as Imus.

 

The best line of the column, Randy Newman, Jr.

Tremendous use of a passive-aggressive broadsweep insult.

Loopy must be spinning!

 

By Rem Rieder
Rem Rieder (rrieder@ajr.umd.edu) is AJR's editor and senior vice president.

He has, as they say, a history. And while insulting African Americans is nothing new for the I-Man - he once called Gwen Ifill, now host of PBS' "Washington Week," a "cleaning lady" - he's pretty much an equal opportunity jerk.

---------------------


To me, this reveals more racism in the writer than Imus.

The cleaning lady is a black pejorative? Isn't it an lack-of-income/intelligence pejorative?

Cleaning ladies... lunch ladies... bus drivers.... perhaps it skews African-American, but not by THAT much.

 

Important breaking news: Whoopi Goldberg and Spike Lee will be discussing this on Today during the next hour.

 

Outstanding Whitlock column... It's not going to win him any popularity contests, but he's 100 percent right...

 

Agree with Mizzou.

Dead solid perfect column.

 

I agree with Mizzou too!!!!!!!