Open mouth, insert foot.....

[poltr1]

Last week, NYC radio personality Don Imus really put his foot in it. While discussing the Rutgers womens' basketball team with his producer, Bernard McGuirk, Imus referred to its members as "nappy-headed hos". (McGuirk had called them "hard-core hos", to which Imus responded with his remark.) (Story here, along with an excerpt from the show.)

Imus has since apologized for his remark, and -- this just in -- has now been dropped by MSNBC. WCBS has suspended him for two weeks without pay.

Although the intention of the banter may have been humorous (or so was claimed), it was insensitive, hurtful, and put womens' college basketball in a bad light. These women worked hard to achieve what they did -- the NCAA championship game, only to lose to Tennessee.

But what gets me is that gangsta rappers can get away with saying what Imus said, and not feel any repercussions or get any flak. There's a double standard out there. Black-on-black dissing is OK; white-on-black dissing is not. The great Stevie Wonder can sing about himself being a nappy-headed boy, but I can't even say those words and not be thought of as a racist.

I'll admit that there are some things I don't get because I'm not part of the subculture. This is one of them.

Comments

It's about ownership

[athenawindsong.livejournal.com]

According to some of the blacks I've spoken to on this topic, it's about ownership of the same racial epitaphs that they have been subjected to by other races and in particular, whites. They use it because they CAN. Also, it's a bit of a tongue-in-cheek joke used in the context of comeraderie. For any other race to use it in reference to them is the epitome of bad taste - and should get punished. Yes, it is a double standard.

I do the same thing with my Jewish best friend. But if anyone were to turn around and say the same things to either of us about our heritage (mine to a lesser degree than hers, of course), we wouldn't hesitate to blow the whistle. Women do that with other women but if men were to make some off color remark - even if it's the SAME remark - the reaction would be considerably different.

I think every subculture has this to a certain degree within their own context. It's how these groups deal with the stereotypes they have no choice but to live with - IMO.

Re: It's about ownership

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Small nitpick: "epithets", not "epitaphs". But you knew that :-)

And yes, the rule of thumb I (and many of my friends use) is that ethnic (and equivalent) jokes and nicknames are fine when used about a group the speaker belongs to, not otherwise.

Re: It's about ownership

[athenawindsong.livejournal.com]

Small nitpick: "epithets", not "epitaphs".

Thank you. May the gods bless the detail-oriented. :o)

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Not WCBS. He's actually on WFAN-AM (which used to be WNBC-AM back in the day, 660 in NYC).

And, as athenawindsong notes, it's acceptable (if not, I think, a good idea) to rag on one's own ethnicity/race/gender, but not others. (Which means that it's NOT cool for black men to rag on black women, qua women.) Be careful about the rappers thing, though; that's the right-wing propaganda whine -- "oh, why're they all picking on poor Donnie, he's such a NICE boy!"

It's nice that he got what's coming to him. Now for Ann Coulter, and Rush, and O'Reilly, and all the other hatemongers out there.

[poltr1]

Now for Ann Coulter, and Rush, and O'Reilly, and all the other hatemongers out there.

Aye.

We have someone in the office who listens to the right-wing stuff. Needless to say, I avoid talking politics with him.

One more thing...

[athenawindsong.livejournal.com]

"But what gets me is that gangsta rappers can get away with saying what Imus said, and not feel any repercussions or get any flak."

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Rap tends to swing between racial slurs and gender slams to more socially conscious issues and back again. The problem is that the rap industry shot itself in the foot with creating a multitude of one-hit wonders, thus trends come and go in the blink of an eye. Ice Cube had alot to say about this. Notice Snoop Dogg is less about the ho/pimp cup and more about the cameo appearance and car commercial because he isn't generating as many record sales as he once did (and he needs to support his recreational drug habit).

Back to the point. There are just as many in-culture protests about the misogynistic comments regarding black women as there are up and coming rappers who use it as a cultural reference and a way to shock their way onto the radio, I would suspect. But what the hey - if it weren't for the gansta rappers, we wouldn't get such linguistic gems as "badonkadonk." ;o) Eh, we're all subject to the whim of the industry's money-making schemes anyway.

[zorya-thinks.livejournal.com]

I was listening to an interview with Al Sharpton on the Today show this morning and apparently this whole thing with Imus is creating a dialog about racism and sexism in rap music - particularly the misogynist aspect of rapping about violence toward women.

Keith Olbermann had a interview with Jesse Jackson on "Countdown" last night and asked him about the same topic, as well as the tolerance of the same sort of bad behavior by talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Neil Boortz and Michael Savage.

I think that the uproar, while a bit distracting from other issues such as funding for the Iraq war and the failure of the whole "war on terror" was a good thing overall in that it highlighted some cultural and social issues that have been papered over of late.