Merged: The Imus threads

The Imus issue moves along.

 

Trust me, I've tried to explain this exact point to this pea-brain countless times, he's just not smart enought to understand it.

Zagoshe, it's not aout me being some intellectual giant it's about you not being a mental midget. I told you to ask a white person why the double standard exists, and this guy Mmac just saved you the trouble. Like Mmac said, if white people were as hurt and offended by black people calling them "crackers" and "honkeys" as we are when they use the word "nigger" and other real racial slurs, then there would not be a double standard. The reason that there is a double standard is because white people perpetuate the double standard. The next question you need to ask yourself and your white friends is why do they perpetuate the double standard? See American history for the answer.

 

Will Al Sharpton complain that once again the Korean community disrepsects the African American community by not killing any or a disproportionate number of blacks at Virginia Tech

 

Well, that's about as revolting as this place gets.

 

Agreed, heyabbott just took over the cesspool.

 

You know, I'm with you on that. He's a uniter, not a divider!

 

Finally something we can all agree on.

 

knowledge, please stop you become more and more absurd every time you post.

You just unwound your entire argument by admitting there is INDEED A DOUBLE STANDARD, which is what I have been saying this entire time and you have been trying to dispute.

Thanks for proving my point with your own stupidity, again.

And I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain MMAC's post was written with a high degree of sarcasm to illustrate just how silly that double standard is.

White people don't march and protest to try and get black people fired, not because they are not offended but because the worst thing in the world that could happen to a white person these days is to be labeled a racist, which is exactly what would happen.

 

What I don't understand is how someone even semi-educated doesn't realize some words are more offensive than others. A white person using the n-word is more offensive than a black person using the word "cracker" and there are many valid and real reasons for that. It's not really a double standard. Some words hurt more than others. Why is that so hard to understand?

 

We can keep calling each other stupid all day, but the posts speak for themselves. Once again, you are lost and confused. Even after all this time you still don't even know what my argument is. I never denied that there was a double standard as far how society will tolerate black people making fun of whites more than vice versa, I'm just saying that this Imus situation doesn't fit in the double standard. Imus's comments got him fired because he went after a specific group of college girls who hadn't done anything to him or anyone else. If Imus were a black man talking about white women, I still think he would've been fired or at least suspended.

I think we bump are bumping heads because you have a need to defend Imus at all cost, which has caused you to try and cloud the issue. You think he shouldn't have been fired and your are pulling anything out of ya ass to try and support that position. 1st you tried to equate Imus to rappers and black comedians who make fun of white people and use words like "cracker". I tried to explain why Imus making his comments on national live radio is different than some comedian or rapper performing in a nightclub, but you seemed incapable of grasping that concept. You just seem stuck on why our society says it's ok for black people to make fun of white people and not vice versa, even tho that's a totally separate issue from this Imus situation. That's when I tried to explain why that double standard exists. Trust, I'm not cosigning everything Mmac is saying in this thread and maybe he was being sarcastic, but he was still right. Maybe he understands the reasons why words like "cracker" and "honky" don't hurt or offend white people the way a word like "nigger" coming from a white person hurts/offends black people, maybe he doesn't. At least he has a clue as to how society works though, it's obvious you don't have the slightest clue.

Let me explain my position on this Imus situation for you, I think the comments made by Imus and his crew were mean-spirited and racist. I could care less about him losing his job because I understand that the only reason he was fired is because of the bottomline. He wasn't fired because of his comments, he was fired because his comments brought his employers a shitload of negative attention. At the same time I don't feel sorry for him because he has made millions by making comments and "jokes" like these, this time he just got burned.

People like Zagoshe are just a little slower than others, some people just don't have a lot of common sense.

 

No, zagoshe, that wasn't exactly sarcasm. What gets me is the way some people (apparenty including yourself) seem to think these "double standards" are something imposed upon us dictatorially and involuntarily by some sort of liberal ruling class. Bullshit, in essence we as a democratic society have chosen our current unwritten rules of acceptable speech through our collective reactions.

White people may no longer get away with publicly uttering black slurs because the black community (and much of the white community) has now clearly determined that is something they will not tolerate without demanding severe consequences. The same does not apply when black people say the same words because, for whatever reason, we're not as offended and choose not to have a comparable reaction. Likewise, white slurs like cracker/honkey etc. are more permissible simply because, through our muted reaction, we've communicated that we really don't find them to be that terribly offensive. We could change that by reacting stronger and demanding consequences, but don't because frankly most of us aren't that upset about use of those words.

Take, for example, gay slurs like faggot/fag etc., which were once less forbidden and more commonly used until the gay community concluded it wasn't gonna tolerate it anymore and began upping its outrage and demanding consequences whenever someone publicly used those terms. As a result, the rules changed and those words can now kill a career and reputation nearly as easily as the dreaded n-word. By applying similar pressures, the native American community has effectively changed the rules regarding several once-permissible now-forbidden Indian terms and symbols in recent years.

So, Zagoshe, if the cracker/honkey type terms really bug you so much, start expressing outrage, organizing, and demanding consequences against those who use it. Perhaps others will join your movement and you will one day change our society's tolerance level for such terms, but more likely you'll be ignored or laughed at because most of us don't feel any real pain or significant anger from hearing those words--at least not comparable to what most blacks would feel upon hearing one of us throw the n-word at em.