Friday, April 13, 2007

Final Thoughts about the Don Imus Saga

Earlier this week I gave my views about the Don Imus Saga....throughout the week as we talked about this incident at the ‘water cooler" (even though we don’t actually have a water cooler) at work, I continued to state that Imus is not the sole problem here.....I talked to my African-American co-workers and they agreed with me....

What Imus said was wrong....but there is a bigger problem with racism in society than calling someone a "nappy headed ho".....this isn't about the Rutgers basketball team....who gives two hoots about Rutgers basketball....there is bigger problem....

Finally a national journalist stood up and basically stated the same thoughts that I have....Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock, who is African-American, has a different view about this situation....Whitlock wrote that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are basically grandstanding and fighting the battle of racism the old fashion way where someone has to lose their job....

I give Whitlock credit for standing his ground and stating his opinion even if it is not considered popular.....too many of these liberal media wonks have fallen in line like Soviet soldiers in blasting Imus instead of having the "grapefruits" to get to the real problem.....it is easy to sitback and blast Imus....but it takes courage to tackle the real problem of racism....

Sharpton, Jackson, Rutgers basketball coach Vivian Stringer and others missed the opportunity to address the real problem – the lack of respect that talk-show hosts, rappers, and other individuals who have the people's ear nationally have for each other....

Instead of addressing this problem head-on and talking about the crap that rappers "rap", people like Whoppi Goldberg sidestepped the issue.....she said the language that is used in rap songs is in a different context than what Imus stated.....

No it isn’t!!!!!.....

Rappers like Eminem, 50 Cent, Lil Boosie, and other knuckleheads are using their medium (music) to instill hateful and hurtful comments to people.....our youth listen to these lyrics and think it's "cool" to call a woman a ho, slut, tramp, slit, etc., etc....

Instead of Jackson and Sharpton calling for Imus’ head, these two clowns should have put all these rappers, both white and African-American, to task also....why doesn’t Sharpton chastise these thug rappers on his radio show?.....for people like Sharpton and Jackson, it’s a double standard.....and both idiots have never met a camera they didn't like....

I ask this question to the African-American community in this country, "when will the African-American community finally get fed up with the bullshit of knuckleheads like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and look to a new African-American leader who will try to make intelligent headway with racism instead of mugging in front of the television cameras".....When???.....I will tell you this, until Jackson and Sharpton get pushed aside, racism will still be a big problem in this country....

Here is the link to read Whitlock’s column.....

  • Whitlock
  • 1 comment:

    Signal to Noise said...

    Stiles - Jackson and Sharpton have regularly spoken out about the violence and content of hip-hop, and still do -- Sharpton has even said he's trying to buy stock in record companies and complain as a shareholder when they put the stuff out. So, that part isn't necessarily valid. The attention-grabbing ego stuff: yeah.

    Frankly, we should be able to discuss the problem of racism on a larger scale regardless of whether Sharpton or Jackson are on the scene or not. It seems like kind of a dodge that those two have to be off the scene before we can talk about it.