"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
13 April 2007Quote of the week(Note: This week you get the two-for-one special.) The problem with that Imus remark, I've suggested (for instance, here), is that it simply wasn't funny. But at the heart of the matter may be something much worse:
[I]t isn't so much the mindless racist language that Imus used in making his "observation" that bothered me, but the reason that he considers the Rutgers women worthy of verbal denigration. In the minds of some men — men like Imus and not a few rappers — the Rutgers women committed a cardinal "sin": not being physically attractive to that man personally. And, in spite of all the personal accomplishments of such women, this makes them fair game for scorn, whether couched in racist language or not. And, for that alone, Imus deserves the shunning of the magnitude that he is receiving.
Me, I'm checking my eyeballs for planks, just in case. (Thank you, Juliette.) Meanwhile, reporting from outside Victim Central:
If black Americans in 2007 are this delicate and overreact to the slightest insults with this much unrighteous indignation, it's pretty safe to say black people are not made the way they used to be, of stronger stuff, able to withstand truly demeaning and criminal treatment at the hands of true oppressors. It's sad to know that the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of people who faced actual oppression are so much weaker, much less discerning, and much more undignified.
And thank you, La Shawn. Posted at 9:16 AM to QOTWI can't take credit for this one liner - forgot where I read it - but anyhow: Imus is guilty of practicing Ebonics without a license. Posted by: Jeffro at 1:43 PM on 13 April 2007LaShawn has her OWN problems with criticism - she's created a few first-class sh*tstorms, then rather than admit her mistake, attacks her accusers. That aside, Imus was rarely funny. Funny is hard, barbed 'shocking' language is easy (though how shocking can it be if you know it's coming?). Imus' firing had NOTHING to do with the sensibilities of black Americans, or the Rutgers' team in question. His firing had EVERYTHING to do with - power. If Sharpton can position himself as a guy who can get you fired, well, that's power. That sets him a place at many political and media tables, just to deter his wrath. That's all this is about, power. Sharpton, Jackson - the hyenas fell all over themselves to get a piece of this wounded animal. As is so often the case, LaShawn (who herself is quoted more for her ethnicity than the quality of her content - note that you quoted her on a "black issue") missed the real point. Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 6:28 PM on 13 April 2007This is only a "black issue" because Sharpton and his fellow race-baiters decided it was one; originally it was just a lame attempt at trying to elicit a cheap laff. (And I actually read Imus' novel God's Other Son, which is four hundred pages of lame attempts at trying to elicit cheap laffs, so I know the pattern fairly well.) LSB has indeed occasionally done the online pratfall; I think she's figured out that it qualifies as a learning experience. Posted by: CGHill at 6:37 PM on 13 April 2007"This is only a "black issue" because Sharpton and his fellow race-baiters decided it was one; originally it was just a lame attempt at trying to elicit a cheap laff." Agreed on all counts. Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 12:36 PM on 14 April 2007 |