Merged: The Imus threads

Big Chee, that's a lame bum rap, the very LAST person in this business who can be criticized for being afraid to "bite the hand that feeds him" and criticize his fellow media members is Whitlock. Or have you forgotten the reason why he and ESPN parted ways? Indeed, I can't think of anyone else in this business whose recently shown more courage (or stupidity, depending on your view point) in that department. I'm quite confident you've never had the balls to publicly criticize your employer like that.

 

You are so simple minded that I don't even see how it's possible to have an intelligent conversation with you. I mean seriously, how old are you? You don't even seem to be able to think for yourself. Instead of asking black people why it's ok for us to call them "crackers" and "honkeys" while we are offended when they use racial slurs against us, why don't you ask white people? I'm quite sure any white person that is honest will tell you that those words don't have the same history behind them as the word "nigger" does. White people were not being oppressed in this country by black people who classified them as being inferior using the word "cracker" and other racial slurs as reinforcement. Seriously man, you are completely clueless.

 

Courage in the face of who? The MEDIA APPOINTED representation of black leadership? How in the world do you gloss over that and give Whitlock's angst at the black community who have little to NO say on who speaks for our collective issues through the media?

He's far from brave for standing up to appointment of Jesse and Al from the white male dominated media who've programmed their numbers on speed dial whenever an issue of race comes up.

And somehow, he's brave for standing in the face of this mythical approval of Al and Jesse from the black community.

When was the last time you saw anyone under the age of 60 standing behind those two?

I have a running joke with my 15 year old daughter where I say "Hey, did you hear what Al had to say today?"

Shes gives me the : look and we both share the laugh knowing that he is so removed from our issues. Why is my 15 year old daughter smart enough to know this, yet people like yourself aren't?

The media, and their dearth of African American decision makers, continue to promote these two as fighters for our cause when they're actually out of touch.

Trust this, I don't believe the media will ever look themselves in the mirror when it comes to the the failures on their part of who represents the black community. They're the ones that prop up the Jesses and Al of the world in the first place, and then anoint Whitlock as some sort of savior because it.

In friggin credible.

I guess we'll now see the ever eloquent and articulate Charles Barkley, who is in touch with the black community, to speak on our behalf.

 

Knowledge -- the more you post, the more ridiculous you sound. Are you trying to say that because one slur has more history than the other it makes it OK? A slur is a slur and guess what there are some older white people who think the word honkey is very offensive. You are unbelievable in how far you will go to try and rationalize your idiotic arguments.

I mean, are you telling me that if Seinfeld dude would have used the word, Oh I don't no spider or coon or spade instead of nigger it would have been OK? Because a lot of blacks, particularly younger ones wouldn't be offended by those words.

You are truly a jackass, there is no other way to put it. You keep acting as if you are some sort of intellectual giant, yet every time you open your mouth it is basically to switch feet.

Oh and by the way, Did you happen to read Phil Mushnick Sunday (and last Thursday for that matter) -- a guy who has been a harsh and vocal critic of Imus and shock jocks his entire career so you can't make claims that he has some conservative agenda? He took DJ Stuey Scott and others like him to task for having the same kind of double standard and trying to split hairs about who can say what that you have been unsuccessfully spouting here for five days. So I guess he is a self hater and a simple mind, too.

 

Sorry, but the 15 minutes of the Imus issue has expired. Move on.

 

About Michael Richards, if you watched his tirade, clearly it was bigger than simply yelling the n-word. He referenced to stringing people up to a rope and hanging them upside down. His use of the N-word was just the hammer hitting the nail he lined up.

do you honestly believe blacks harken back to the days of the antebellum, such as Richards did, before using the word?

Youre falling for the ol' okey doke. I was more offeneded by Richards referencing to times when lynchings were fashionable than the media focused "n-word" that distracted you.

 

this is bigger than Imus and people have moved on from that and are now looking at the big picture.

Is that somehow wrong?

 

Big Chee, I was only addressing your statement suggesting that Whitlock lacked the courage to "bite the hand that feeds him" and criticize his colleagues. That struck me as an absurdly bum rap in light of his recent history with ESPN and Scoop. I agree with you some of your other points.

However, I'm not sure why you take such a hostile tone toward Whitlock, because it sounds like you agree with his basic point that Al and Jesse should not be the percieved leaders of the African-American community, but simply wish he would've taken a different angle by specifically attacking the national media for maintaining that false perception by constantly sticking their microphones in those two guys' faces. That may be a valid point, but why is it Whitlock's obligation to make it? The fact that there are other points yet to be made on this issue doesn't delegitimize the ones that Whitlock has made. Is Whitlock the only sportswriter permitted to comment on this issue? If you're indeed a writer who feels that's the point that needs to be expressed, why don't you do it?

 

Big Chee -- the whole thing was offensive.

But my point is it just as offensive to many white people I know when black comedians do their routines - and it is a reason they don't want to go to see those guys -- and use words like cracker and honkey and make fun of white people, the way they dance, the fact that they are nerds, etc.

To argue that somehow one is different than the other just because you happen to be on one side and not the other is rather silly.

 

one is different from the other because that's how our society's chosen to define the offensiveness of those terms by its reactions. When white people are called cracker or honky, they usually laugh it off. Even if they are offended, it lasts for a minute and they move on. Our reactions indicate the words aren't that offensive to us and therefore somewhat permissible. However, if white people began reacting by demanding punishment, firings, protesting etc., those terms would become forbidden in a hurry.

Same reason words like "ho", the N-word, etc. are permissible if spoken by one group but not another. Society sets the rules by reacting one way when African-Americans use em and an entirely different way when white people do. Those unwritten rules aren't gonna change anytime soon, so learn em and follow em.

 

I didn't make it his obligation. Whitlock himself chose wear that yoke and is wasting his celebrity on those two rather than the meat and potatoes issues facing the black community he claims to care about so much.

He's just as self serving for repeatedly patting himself on the back for standing in the face of media appointed leadership and representation while blaming the black community for their face time.

Whitlock parades up and down the halls of these news organizations and sees little to no African Americans in his midst. Yet he goes on to lambast the black community for the decisions, from music and media, that comes out of those same halls. That is completely and utterly illogical.

And FYI, I am doing my part. I'm in the midst of writing a piece for prominent black magazine addressing some of our issues which go way beyond Whitlocks surface level finger pointing.