MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Re: Don Imus and the Rutgers Basketball Team

• Posted by Beth on April 10th, 2007 filed in Celebrities, General, Journalism, Politics, Stupid, WTF    

This story demands satire. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are demanding his FIRING? Please. Don Imus ought to be fired for broadcasting crap in the first place, but apparently his listeners wouldn’t agree–someone enjoys his annoying crap enough to endure it voluntarily.

But fire him for a stupid insult? “Nappy-headed hos.” Surely that’s not the first time he’s insulted someone, nor is it going to be the last. Nor is it the first–or last–time someone ever insulted another in public. This media hysteria is beyond ridiculous; it’s just plain silly and annoying. I hope the Rutgers women’s basketball team members are women enough to roll their eyes and say “what an ignorant jackass,” and not get their delicate feewings hurt à la the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton. Obviously, they’re not “nappy-headed hos,” so they’re justifiably pissed, but I doubt any of them took it to heart.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in a post at The Moderate Voice, puts it like this (h/t Baldilocks, in an also must-read post):

Setting enmity between people is an old old story, one we have to strive to not be knee-jerked into joining up. Most of us are barely but a generations or two or ten distant from having such opprobrium and injustice unleashed on those we descended from… All the more reason to resist heaping unnecessary harshness on others now… for surely we’re here to build something better with one another.

Thus, the answer to these issues regarding deleterious words used to put down others, is not some school-marmish, ‘You shouldn’t call people names; bad bad.’ Neither is it a laconic, ‘Well, some people make their money by being inhumane.’ It isn’t an issue of, ‘By gosh, anyone has a right to call anyone whatever they want according to the First Amendment.’ Nor is it a matter of political correctness which is far too often really just a version of ‘free speech for me, but not for thee” regardless of who is crying uncle. And the answer to these issues is also not an after-the-fact, “Aw come on, it was just a joke.” By my lights as a long-standing visiting diversity scholar, neither is it an issue of ‘diversity.’

In fact there is no answer at all. Because it’s not an answer that’s needed. It’s a set of questions that’s needed. And the first question is one of humanity: How shall we live with one another? How shall we live with one another with best grace and most hope?… What shall be our code of conduct with one another? How to knit being a humane person deep into the roots of all our cultures? These questions and more, are not modern issues. How to be ser humano, a full human being, is an ancient issue, and one that requires in our time, new level-headed and unruined-heart responses to be imagined and lived out.

We all do it–call people names based on their identities, whatever they may be–including me. Let he without sin cast the first stone. That said, obviously there are some insults more “acceptable” than others because of the different levels of perceived power in society. You can make fun of or insult white men, but not non-whites–and to a lesser extent, not women (although it certainly doesn’t stop anyone–”hos” being used to describe women isn’t exactly new, although it’s certainly offensive and stupid). And that’s fair, in my opinion–if insults must be used. It IS human nature, not that it’s necessarily excusable.

I wonder often about how and why public discourse became so caustic, although not having been around a century (or whatever) ago, I’m not sure if it’s ever really changed. I do think that although the language is rougher (this blog obviously being a perfect example of such–I certainly don’t claim innocence), people have become way, way too thin-skinned, too sensitive, and far too quick to claim victim status and demand reparations of some kind. Not that the Rutgers women have necessarily done so, despite the apparent wishes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Bottom line for me: Don Imus is a silly jackass. (Yes, that’s an insult.) But I thought this before the “nappy-headed hos” remark anyway, so I can’t say I’m shocked or surprised by it. I’d ignore the whole thing, but the demands for Imus to be fired are patently ridiculous. Shall we go on a witch-hunt for anyone who’s ever offended someone? And why isn’t Jackson himself equally ostracized for the offensive things he’s said in the past? Toughen up, people. This isn’t kindergarten, and nobody said life was fair. Consider the source. At the same time, think about the social hierarchy of insults you make. We may not like identity politics, but it exists just as it always has. Imus apologized, but it doesn’t obscure the underlying attitude he has toward “nappy-headed” women.

Finally, I can’t help but giggle about the women of the Rutgers team agreeing to meet with him “privately,” in an “undisclosed location.” Imus vs. a roomful of female college basketball players. He’s toast.
:cheese: