In the US -- as well as elsewhere in the African Diaspora -- Blacks have internalized the White racist notions of worthiness that have been part and parcel of this society since at least the 17th century.
Over time, we've learned that the closer you came to the White measure of normality and beauty, the more worthy you were for acceptance into some parts of mainstream society -- whether as field slave or house slave, mistress or butler or even leader of the Black race. Good hair. High yellow skin color. Proper manners. In elementary school I had big fights with girls who seemed to get a pass because they were the teachers' pets based on such characteristics while, I, an unmistakably nappy-haired brown-skinned girl had to work for everything I sometimes begrudgingly earned from some of those teachers.
When Imus thought he was being funny by characterizing a dignified group of college students as "nappy-headed ho's", he had no idea into what he was tapping. Nor did his core audience, I'm sure. Even this weekend, some of the elites who appeared on his show to talk about politics or their new books, say they never tuned in to the program long enough to know what he was all about. But he obviously counted on his core audience to know what he was about and to yuk it up with him. He miscalulated this time -- and, maybe, as a nation we will be the better for that.
"I did a bad thing, but I'm a good person," Imus keeps telling himself -- and all of US. Maybe he inadvertently did a good thing.
Now White people know that while Black people like me who long ago rejected the perm and are happy to be nappy, there are many others who are struggling with their identity within a US culture that uses terms like "all American" or "girl next door" when the images are of blonde White women -- most of whom are skinny to boot! Whether it is a reflection of liberation or denial, some Black women are now sporting blonde do's. And while ads are more cosmetically subtle than those in the 1950s that pushed bleaching creams for Blacks who wanted to lighten their skin, there is a market for such products even today.
The pain and complexity involved in "nappiness" may have been foreign to many in Imus's audience. BUT, it was the reference to these All-American young women, disciplined scholar-athletes who came close to winning a national championshp after exceeding all pre-season expectations that made it possible for ALL Americans, especially Whites in corporate America, to understand that Imus's version of humor is really cruelty that perpetuates stereotypes and demeans their own daughters. So many television executives and advertisers noted that they were the fathers of daughters!
Now they need to use that heightened sensitivity to take a next step: Pull out of the corporate support for the worst of rap music and rap videos that depict females as sex objects, liberally using the B-word and the H-word while showing young women shaking their booties. Corporate America -- including some entities that yanked their support for Imus In The Morning -- is making huge money from this.
I'll take it as a sign that the US is finally getting it, when corporate America -- led by all those fathers with daughters -- pulls its money from where its sensitivity now dictates and when mainstream media like NBC and Fox and CNN devote as much attention to those who among Black folks have been crusading against the hip-hop filth for at least two decades as they have devoted to asking if Imus is the victim of a double standard.
Showing posts with label Imus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imus. Show all posts
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Imus Mess
I
IMUS was never a must for me
Imus is going down – at least on MSNBC on television and CBS on radio and with major advertisers and with politicians and journalists and other celebrities who’ve lent credibility to his show so many years.
I’ve never listened to or watched Imus or any other shock jock. Just as I refused to watch a sitcom that famously billed itself as a show about nothing (Seinfeld), I’ve refused to participate in the shock jock cult. There’s too much to be shocked about in the real world to support repugnant, outrageous, insulting commentary as entertainment, often at the expense of the underdog.
Why Imus and his producer felt the need to denigrate 10 young women who had overcome great odds to reach the final game in the NCAA basketball championship is beyond understanding. These young women, ages 18 to 20, were not “nappy headed” (Most seem to have perms, for god’s sake!). And there is absolutely nothing to indicate that these very disciplined, very academically sound young women are “whores”. (Definitions: “a prostitute; a person considered sexually promiscuous; a person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain”)
Hmmm. That last definition sounds more like Imus than the Rutgers team.
II
Where are White women?
Imus did not just insult Blacks, but also women. Quickly this became an Imus versus “the Black community” conflict. The sexism in his no-infamous line has pretty much been ignored except by a handful of Black women. And so I ask again: Where are White women?
III
There is power in protest
If anything, this fallout from Imus’s on-air idiocy has demonstrated the power of speaking out and of making economic demands that can influence social policy. It was one thing for the Rev. Al Sharpton to use his various bully pulpits to speak out; this went to a whole new level when major advertisers listened and decided to withdraw their support for Imus’s show.
Vote with your hands. Change the dial. Don’t listen to the Imuses of the airwaves. But if the other Imuses out there say something as despicable as he did, don’t fear to use the power of the purse. Encourage advertisers to withdraw their support.
I’m encouraged by this mobilization of this particular coalition of the willing. Now it needs to carry on to assault those aspects of hip-hop culture that have usurped that culture and turned it into something that makes an Imus comfortable with referring to Black women as whores. There are big corporate bucks out there behind this aspect of hip-hop. Let’s go after them.
IV
Post-embarrassment “therapy”
Imus didn’t rush into therapy for alcoholism or temporary mental illness or whatever the way other celebrities have done after getting caught with their inner-hatred unleashed and facing the loss of income.
But that 2 ½ hours at the New Jersey Governor’s Mansion with the Rutgers team and its coaches must have been more intense than anything Isaiah Washington or Mel Gibson experienced during their rush-to-therapy after expressions of homophobia (Washington of television’s Grey’s Anatomy) and anti-Semitism (Gibson, the actor, director and producer) or racism (Michael Richards, the comic most famous as a character on Seinfeld).
V
Once again Sen. McCain called it wrong
As various Imus regulars – politicians, journalists, etcetera – announced their intent to boycott Imus’s show, McCain said he accepted Imus’s apologies and would gladly return to Imus In the Morning.
He can’t get it right. Just a few days ago, after visiting a market in Baghdad surrounded by about 100 heavily-armed soldiers and with military helicopters hovering overhead and sharpshooters positioned on rooftops, he came back espousing the Bush administration party line: The streets are much safer in Baghdad these days; the war is being won.
And then he had to admit, after public humiliation by not just US bloggers but also by Iraqi civilians who know otherwise, that he’d been wearing rose-colored glasses and had “misspoke.”
Is this man ready for his closeup as a viable presidential candidate?
IMUS was never a must for me
Imus is going down – at least on MSNBC on television and CBS on radio and with major advertisers and with politicians and journalists and other celebrities who’ve lent credibility to his show so many years.
I’ve never listened to or watched Imus or any other shock jock. Just as I refused to watch a sitcom that famously billed itself as a show about nothing (Seinfeld), I’ve refused to participate in the shock jock cult. There’s too much to be shocked about in the real world to support repugnant, outrageous, insulting commentary as entertainment, often at the expense of the underdog.
Why Imus and his producer felt the need to denigrate 10 young women who had overcome great odds to reach the final game in the NCAA basketball championship is beyond understanding. These young women, ages 18 to 20, were not “nappy headed” (Most seem to have perms, for god’s sake!). And there is absolutely nothing to indicate that these very disciplined, very academically sound young women are “whores”. (Definitions: “a prostitute; a person considered sexually promiscuous; a person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain”)
Hmmm. That last definition sounds more like Imus than the Rutgers team.
II
Where are White women?
Imus did not just insult Blacks, but also women. Quickly this became an Imus versus “the Black community” conflict. The sexism in his no-infamous line has pretty much been ignored except by a handful of Black women. And so I ask again: Where are White women?
III
There is power in protest
If anything, this fallout from Imus’s on-air idiocy has demonstrated the power of speaking out and of making economic demands that can influence social policy. It was one thing for the Rev. Al Sharpton to use his various bully pulpits to speak out; this went to a whole new level when major advertisers listened and decided to withdraw their support for Imus’s show.
Vote with your hands. Change the dial. Don’t listen to the Imuses of the airwaves. But if the other Imuses out there say something as despicable as he did, don’t fear to use the power of the purse. Encourage advertisers to withdraw their support.
I’m encouraged by this mobilization of this particular coalition of the willing. Now it needs to carry on to assault those aspects of hip-hop culture that have usurped that culture and turned it into something that makes an Imus comfortable with referring to Black women as whores. There are big corporate bucks out there behind this aspect of hip-hop. Let’s go after them.
IV
Post-embarrassment “therapy”
Imus didn’t rush into therapy for alcoholism or temporary mental illness or whatever the way other celebrities have done after getting caught with their inner-hatred unleashed and facing the loss of income.
But that 2 ½ hours at the New Jersey Governor’s Mansion with the Rutgers team and its coaches must have been more intense than anything Isaiah Washington or Mel Gibson experienced during their rush-to-therapy after expressions of homophobia (Washington of television’s Grey’s Anatomy) and anti-Semitism (Gibson, the actor, director and producer) or racism (Michael Richards, the comic most famous as a character on Seinfeld).
V
Once again Sen. McCain called it wrong
As various Imus regulars – politicians, journalists, etcetera – announced their intent to boycott Imus’s show, McCain said he accepted Imus’s apologies and would gladly return to Imus In the Morning.
He can’t get it right. Just a few days ago, after visiting a market in Baghdad surrounded by about 100 heavily-armed soldiers and with military helicopters hovering overhead and sharpshooters positioned on rooftops, he came back espousing the Bush administration party line: The streets are much safer in Baghdad these days; the war is being won.
And then he had to admit, after public humiliation by not just US bloggers but also by Iraqi civilians who know otherwise, that he’d been wearing rose-colored glasses and had “misspoke.”
Is this man ready for his closeup as a viable presidential candidate?
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