I can't say he didn't deserve it. I think the networks should have been out in front of the fireworks before sponsers decided to pull their ads. It's sad to think he may have been fired because the networks were afraid to lose money.
Don Imus Fired!
by minimus 217 Replies latest jw friends
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sammielee24
A few questions came to mind when I heard of Imus being fired. First off - who made it an issue and why? Why now? Next I ask, does the punishment fit the crime? Not in my mind. Imus should have been publically warned and suspended because although I found his remarks offensive, I've also found Chris Rock's comments offensive; I've found a lot of hip/hop artists offensive; I've found a lot of talk show radio hosts commentary offensive and I've found some of Sharpton and Jacksons own comments over the years offensive. I believe that Sharpton and Jackson are Reverends? Why are they not promoting forgiveness then and using that as way of getting the message across - why all that seething hate that seemed to seethe out? Is charity and acceptance not a Christian thing? If we are so apalled at Imus comments and choose to scream now then where has everyone been over the past 10 years with the surge of hip hop artists using sex, guns, violence and drugs? Seems like a double standard to me.
The argument of hip hop or certain language being a cultural thing doesn't wash. A production company is in the business of making money. They care nothing about who they sell their music too and are desirous of their product becoming mainstream - it keeps the cash coming. This has been accomplished with equal numbers of white/hispanic/asian/black youths listening to the music, therefore, it is no longer a cultural lockdown - it is mainstream and thus will infiltrate the thoughts and speech of those youth, often without a thought as to what it really means.
By the way - as far as I know, Sharpton never has paid the man he slandered the $345,000 he owes and never has he ever apologized. I'm not even sure if he has apologized for the Duke rape case either and his willingness and help in boosting racial tensions there - those kids were subjected to death threats. sammieswife.
Posted by Bobby Eberle
April 11, 2007 at 6:01 amAmerica’s racial “crusaders,” Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, are at it again. If there’s a racial injustice to right, they are on the scene to save the day. But… who is doing the saving, and who is doing the self-promoting? If Jackson and Sharpton really cared about ridding America of words and actions which are degrading to women, they would realize that Don Imus’s idiotic comments are small potatoes.
The other day on his radio program, talk show host Don Imus referred to the women of Rutgers University’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” The comments set off a fire storm of reaction, which led Jackson and Sharpton to enter the scene.
The fact of the matter is that Imus’s comments are wrong and have no place on the airwaves. Racial slurs are not a “joke,” and Imus’s crude remarks should be rebuked. That’s why Jackson and Sharpton are stepping forward… to be the champions of racial and gender justice, right? Not so fast…
The good “reverend” Al Sharpton has a history of using racial attacks to further his cause. As noted in the 2003 column by Jeff Jacoby, in 1987 Sharpton spread a hoax that a 15-year-old black girl was “abducted, raped, and smeared with feces by a group of white men.” Sharpton singled out one particular white man, saying, “If we’re lying, sue us, so we can . . . prove you did it.” The man does sue and wins $345,000.
Jacoby also notes other incidents in his column, including:
1991: A Hasidic Jewish driver in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights section accidentally kills Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black child, and antisemitic riots erupt. Sharpton races to pour gasoline on the fire. At Gavin’s funeral he rails against the “diamond merchants” — code for Jews — with “the blood of innocent babies” on their hands. He mobilizes hundreds of demonstrators to march through the Jewish neighborhood, chanting, “No justice, no peace.” A rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum, is surrounded by a mob shouting “Kill the Jews!” and stabbed to death.
1995: When the United House of Prayer, a large black landlord in Harlem, raises the rent on Freddy’s Fashion Mart, Freddy’s white Jewish owner is forced to raise the rent on his subtenant, a black-owned music store. A landlord-tenant dispute ensues; Sharpton uses it to incite racial hatred. “We will not stand by,” he warns malignantly, “and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.” Sharpton’s National Action Network sets up picket lines; customers going into Freddy’s are spat on and cursed as “traitors” and “Uncle Toms.” Some protesters shout, “Burn down the Jew store!” and simulate striking a match. “We’re going to see that this cracker suffers,” says Sharpton’s colleague Morris Powell. On Dec. 8, one of the protesters bursts into Freddy’s, shoots four employees point-blank, then sets the store on fire. Seven employees die in the inferno.
Jesse Jackson, the other “reverend,” has an equally infamous past when it comes to racial attacks, particularly against Jews. As noted in a Larry Sabato column, Jackson has had a tenuous relationship with America’s Jewish community dating back to his “Hymietown” comment:
Rev. Jesse Jackson referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown” in January 1984 during a conversation with a black Washington Post reporter, Milton Coleman. Jackson had assumed the references would not be printed because of his racial bond with Coleman, but several weeks later Coleman permitted the slurs to be included far down in an article by another Post reporter on Jackson’s rocky relations with American Jews.
And these two are now purporting to be the spokesmen for injustice against black women? If they truly cared about getting degrading words against women pulled off the airwaves, as they appear to want in going after Imus, they would shift their focus to the rap music industry.
As covered in Michelle Malkin’s latest column, the current rap songs at the top of the charts are littered with racial and gender slurs at least equal to Imus’s. These “songs” are played over and over and over again. They sink into the minds of young listeners everyday. What kind of culture does Sharpton and Jackson think it promotes? Treating women fairly? Treating women as equals? No… and yet Jackson and Sharpton will spend countless hours attacking a white man and ignore an entire industry that is doing so much damage to young blacks.
The media need to stop turning to the likes of Sharpton and Jackson as if they were the racial police. Stop giving them a platform, and maybe they will just go away. Their words have no meaning, and their credibility is less than ze
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MsMcDucket
If we are so apalled at Imus comments and choose to scream now then where has everyone been over the past 10 years with the surge of hip hop artists using sex, guns, violence and drugs? Seems like a double standard to me.
I thought that started with the cowboys and indian movies. Everyone's going to have to start watching rated "G" politically correct movies, videos, and TV, and listening to rated "G" music. It could happen. Everyone would be Jehovah's Witnesses!
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BizzyBee
I asked my black ex pimp friend last night about the expression "house". He said blacks use the term derisively to put down other lighter skinned blacks. Usually, it's used when darker blacks look down on lighter ones because of their mix.
No. Just for the record: In plantation slave days, there were those slaves working outdoors, planting and picking crops, etc., and there were those working inside, cooking, cleaning, etc. There was a cultural divide - "house ni&&ers" had better clothes, food, accomodations, manners, and interacted with their white owners as individuals. (Think "Uncle Tom.") "Field ni&&ers," on the other hand, lived in poorer accomodations, dressed as field hands do, and their owners often treated them brutishly. A subtle or not-so-subtle hierarchy developed between the two classes of slaves. Thus, the 'house' kind is a derogatory term indicating a black person who aligns himself with mainstream culture. Unfortunately, that can include education, job advancement, assimilation, speech improvement, etc.
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UnConfused
Thus, the 'house' kind is a derogatory term indicating a black person who aligns himself with mainstream culture. Unfortunately, that can include education, job advancement, assimilation, speech improvement, etc.
And that is how it was used in this case by MrsMcD toward Rethinking - because Rethinking didn't expouse the viewpoint of MrsMcD. The slur was intended to identify Rethinking as an "Uncle Tom" and further reinforced when MrsMcD chided me by saying "he's on your side" Then people are criticized if they look at blacks with sterotypical views. Well if there is only room for one "approved" view........??? Isn't there a better person to call out Imus than Sharpton? (perhaps topic for another thread) -
Sunspot
I have seen and heard Oprah refer to little kids in a photograph as "nappy -headed" (more than once) and never saw any reaction by the media or the network when SHE said it. This is a tempest in a teapot and being blown WAY out of proportion IMHO.
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BR25
The really sad part of this whole story is everytime these sorta things happen it takes over the news for 5 days. Usually in 5 days on CNN, MSNBC, or whatever there are a train wreck, 10 suicide bombings, 3 giant fires, and so forth and all people worry about is a comment about Imus and all these more important things take a back seat.
As for the Chapelle show. Im white and yes I admit I laugh, but switch the show around and have a white guy doing that and there would be no laughing at all. Al Shaperton would be protesting it like it was a world wide tragedy.
I dont know what balcks think about shaperton, but I always hear people calling in sticking up for him on the radio stations. What people need to realize, blacks and whites both is just because one of the people you look up to or follow is the same color as you doesnt mean they go about things the right way, or there always right.
I have listened to martin luther king jrs son on a few programs before, and I have alot of respect for him. If anyone should be bitter about anything it should be him not someone like Shaperton. Jr. holds himself with alot of class and dignity and never takes shots at white people for every little thing. He is smart enough to know that is not the way the way you go about doing things. I watched him on espn once and he was talking about some of his foundations that he has set up. He included alot white people in his thanks for their participation and support. He is a classy man.
If we ever expect anything to change this is what kind of civil rights activists we need. We dont need people who everytime something supposedly is racist, no matter how big or small it is made out to be 3 times as worse than it really is like Sharperton does . He can make a friendly argument seem like it was a deadly gun battle.
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BizzyBee
If we ever expect anything to change this is what kind of civil rights activists we need. [Martin Luther King, Jr.] We dont need people who everytime something supposedly is racist, no matter how big or small it is made out to be 3 times as worse than it really is like Sharperton does .
I agree. The fundamental problem is that there is no real black leadership. There are those who are capable, but do not want the job (Bill Cosby, Shelby Steel, Cornell West, etc.) That leaves blacks with a couple of hackneyed, self-serving ambulance chasers - Jackson and Sharpton. Can someone tell me how these two became the point people for all things black? They are very effective at whining, stirring things up and getting face-time, but they are not effective at addressing real issues: gangs, drugs, out-of-wedlock children, absentee fathers and reverse discrimination and intimidation ("house kind," indeed!) These are what are slowing black advancement across economic lines. Make no mistake - this is about economics, not race. Why do you think Imus got fired? Because the networks lost major advertisers, not because what Imus said was 'morally wrong.' His bosses were content to suspend him for two weeks until the advertisers started bailing out. It's always about the $$$$$$.
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SWALKER
We dont need people who everytime something supposedly is racist, no matter how big or small it is made out to be 3 times as worse than it really is like Sharperton does . He can make a friendly argument seem like it was a deadly gun battle.
Good point!!! I don't use racial slurs and don't like it when others do, but it's pretty mainstream these days. I don't think anyone on this board approved or thought Imus' remarks were funny. What we are saying is have the penalty fit the crime. It seems that some think he should be hung from a tree for saying what he did. He didn't kill anyone!!! (A hefty fine in the wallet and a suspension would have been appropriate!)
If Oprah can say someone has nappy hair, why can't Imus?????????? Imus has nappy hair. I take more offense with the 'ho term being said against women. It seems that no one points out that there were WHITE girls on the team as well....
IMHO if you listen to, support, purchase rap music, you don't have any reason to complain about this.
Where is Sharpton's outrage on the Duke case????????? I'd like to see him go nuts over what that women did!
Swalker
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UnConfused
BizzyBee - your point is absolutely correct in my view. One of the needs this country has is real black leadership. Rather than sponser racism - as Shapton and Jackson do - someone to lead this country through and past it.