ReportFromTheFront's Blog

            One would have to be a hermit or living on a research station somewhere in Antarctica to not even be remotely aware of the torrents of outrage pouring out of the black community over remarks made by radio host Don Imus on his broadcast last Wednesday wherein he referred to the members of the Rutgers Women’s basketball team as “nappy headed ho’s”.

            On one hand, I understand the discomfort and mortification African Americans must feel at this moment and the animus they hold for Don Imus as yet more proof that racism isn’t quite ready to give up the ghost just yet……..Maybe in a couple more generations perhaps, but not now. This is something that cuts to the core of people – black people in particular – who are alive today  that still remember segregation, discrimination and the wholesale denigration that comes with being a second class citizen in a country that promised equality for all but for most of its existence failed to deliver as promised.

            Regardless of his intentions or the venue in which he thought he was working, Imus’ comments have no place in the public airwaves and should not have been part of the program. People feel and think what they feel and think, and unfortunately there’s not much of anything you or I can do about it. In my opinion however, if you harbor ill will or have negative opinions about any particular segment of the melting pot that is our population and feel the need to express yourself, you should wait until you arrive at the safety of your own home and say them to the dog, if at all.

            But on the other hand………

            On the other hand, I don’t understand all of the over-the-top furor this has caused – not because I condone what Imus said, because I clearly don’t – but because I don’t see how the black community can feel justified in its furor and self rightousness when one considers the double standard it employs and steadfastly clings to.

            Why, for example are the notoriously anti-white and virulent anti-semitic rantings of Louis Farrakhan tolerated? Why is it permissible for Al Sharpton – now one of Imus’ most ardent detractors - to unapologetically make anti-semitic remarks and loudly proclaim every crime perpetrated by a white individual upon a black individual as a racially motivated hate crime? As wrong as it was for Imus to say what he did, the things Farrakhan and Sharpton have said are much worse in substance and intent.

            If African Americans would shut these men (and others like them) down, shut them up and proclaim their public utterances and remarks of this kind as unacceptable, I might be more sympathetic. But they don’t and they won’t so as a result, I can’t. It’s that double standard I mentioned just a moment ago.

            In his column in today’s Washington Post, (“Mysogeny in the Morning”), Editor Gene Robinson asked “why would Imus think to use the word ‘ho’ to describe those young women from Rutgers?”

            The answer, Mr. Robinson is because you, the black community, said it’s okay.

            Just watch any rap or hip-hop video and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

            The so called lyrical content of many of these ‘songs’ is worse that anything Imus, the Greaseman or Mel Gibson of recent memory ever said. Some – such as Ice-T’s ‘Cop Killer’ urge the wholesale shooting of police officers. Many more advocate forcible rape against women of any race and violence against white people. Still more extol the virtues of the so called 'thug' lifestyle and repeatedly refer to all women – young black women in particular – as ho’s, bitches and worse. Sadly, language such as this has now become a part of the American lexicon.

            Maybe it’s just me, but I am not aware of anyone in the highly outraged African American community trying to put a stop to that. Or maybe – like those T-shirts say – it’s a a black thing and I just won’t understand. Somehow, I doubt it.

            Don’t believe me? Just stand on a street corner in any urban area and listen to how young black people – boys and men in particular – talk to each other and about each other, to say nothing of the wholesale use of the dreaded ‘n’ word. Considering the present goings-on surrounding Don Imus, the words double standard should quickly come to mind.

             Is life imitating art or the other way ‘round? I don’t know but whatever the case, this sort of thing is just plain wrong.

            So if you want to know who gave Don Imus the okey-dokie to say what he said, Mr. Robinson, the answer is you did.

             If the black community at large wants to be credible in their outrage the next time something like this happens (and make no mistake about it, this won’t be the last racial remark to make it on the air), they’re going to have to take a good, hard look in the mirror  and be honest about the reflection staring them right in the face.

            In Stephen Lawhead’s “Arthur”, Lancelot is trying to counsel King Arthur concerning the High King’s desire to go to battle in response to a wrong done to him. “Bear”, Lancelot said, “A thing is either right or it is not”. In this regard, African America would do well to listen to Lancelot.