WASHINGTON - A popular morning radio host is at the center of a controversy after making some racially insensitive comments about the women's basketball team from Rutgers University, which played in the NCAA championship Tuesday night. Don Imus hosts a syndicated talk show that is broadcast on MSNBC, which is owned by WRC's parent company, NBC Universal. He was talking to three guests when he said about Rutgers, "That's some nappy-headed hos there," after his executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, called the team "hardcore hos."
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As most in this country, I have been glued to the news and keeping up with a sensitive topic of the week which has been the Don Imus remarks about the Women's basketball team at Rutgers University. As an African American woman it is indeed painful to listen to and read his racist, sexist and degrading comments about African American women. No, I am not on the Rutgers University women's basketball team but his comments stung like a bee nonetheless.
But, the reason why I am blogging in the first place about this topic is because for years now, we as African Americans have been living with a "convenient" double standard amongst ourselves in this country. I am just as hurt by Don Imus's insensitive comments as any black woman would be, but truthfully we really need to take a good hard look at what the real problem is in this country and perhaps worldwide. I can honestly say that I am no more hurt by Imus's comments than I am about turning on the radio (FCC regulated) and hearing "bitches" and "hos" in rap music (the only genre of music that seems to get a thumbs up and a green light to degrade and verbally abuse women). Or turning my T.V. channel to BET (Black Entertainment Television) and seeing our black women half dressed and placed in all sorts of compromising positions in rap videos. BET was the black network that I once looked towards to give us positive images on television. That is certainly not the case now, and hasn't been for many years. BET is one of the biggest facilitators of negative images, music and thought patterns in modern music history. BET lacks balance, credibility, and accountability to black viewership. And VH1 and MTV are just as guilty as BET for perpetuating black stereotypes on television. And you know which VH1 and MTV shows I am referring to. Execs from these networks are running to the bank and laughing while the black community is left behind picking our faces up off of the ground from embarrassment, defeat, and sterotypes that may take lifetimes to overcome.
So, my question is...
Is Don Imus really the problem here? Or is he being used as a scapegoat because we haven't been able to control those same airwaves, television networks or retail outlets that have been making billions since day one from marketing, selling and distributing derogatory music and images. Correct me if I'm wrong but it's the same FCC that controls Don Imus's show as well as your local Hip-Hop/R&B radio stations that continuously allows harmful music on the airwaves at inappropriate times.
I am not saying Don Imus was right or justified with his stupid comment. As a matter of fact let me just say for the record his comment was a disgrace and there was no excuse for it, but are we as black people playing both sides of the fence when it's convenient for us to play it. We play a game of a double standards. Yes, I said it. DOUBLE STANDARDS. As in the use of the "N" word. How is it ok for us to call each other Nigga, Niggas and Niggaz but not ok for someone of another race to call us Niggers? How can we in the black community be angry about someone making hurtful comments when we hurt eachother continuously and pass it off as simply entertainment, art or a term of endearment? How is it ok for Snoop Dogg to call women hos and parade around with his pimp cape and blinged out pimp cup as though he were a pimp himself and thus creating a pimp entourage with many in that entourage making their living as pimps and commercially glorifying that lifestyle. Or how about 50 Cent calling himself a P.I.M.P. on his 2003 Get Rich or Die Tryin' (Interscope) CD. Or how about Lil Wayne's "Hoes" from his 2004 Tha Carter (Cash Money) CD (which happen to get a 4.5 out of 5 rating from an Amazon reviewer). And it doesn't just begin and end with rap music, go back to Jaheim's 2003 release Still Ghetto (WEA) CD and you'll find a track called "Me And My Bitch."
Our community issues go deeper than a Don Imus comment. Yes, his comment was insensitive and thus placed him in the hot seat in the African American community. But you know as well as I do, it didn't start with Don Imus and it won't end with Don Imus. You can fire him, suspend him or whatever, but until we clean up our acts we are just a guilty as a Don Imus or any other insensitive radio talk show host. Now is the African American community and the entertainment community willing step up and accept responsibility and be held accountable for their part in perpetuating negative sterotypes and images. Until we change our own behavior, commercial images and the way we treat eachother and refer to eachother we will forever be pointing the finger in the wrong direction and looking for excuses to vent our own self-inflicted frustrations. We need to police our own airwaves and television networks before we point fingers.
Please feel free to comment. I welcome all dialogue and opinions so that we can all gain a better understanding from eachother about our current pop culture and the effects of that culture on our communities.
Peace In The Middle East
Until We Meet Again
Tracy@OTV