Posted by BlueSeats:


Code, good post, I see your issues more clearly now and they a very challenging. But how to end racism is a topic quite a bit over my head.

But how much of the brouhaha over Imus really about him being a racist vs what he said? We're certainly not advocating firing everyone from whatever their job for the thoughts in their heads, are we? How would we judge them? So no, we focus on what they say.

The brouhaha, atleast to me, is over the possibility that what he said accurately reflects his racist beliefs. These issues rarely arise when the language is explicitly rhetorical or couched in an comedic, ironic context that dispels racism. They also don't arise in a case of subclinical racism, if you will, because there is no way of getting directly caught. The red flag only raises when the behavior strongly suggests racism; in other words, we are concerned not so much with either the impotent forms of racism or the immature use of offensive language alone, but rather in uncovering a symptomatic, though veiled, racism. That combination of racist thought with outward manifestations is, of course, the most dangerous and very predictive of future behaivior. So no, we don't focus on what they say as an entity apart from them just because we can't directly access their motivations. While we acknowledge that language is influenced by the mainstream media, we also assign some input from conscious/subconscious thought. And, thereby, allow for accountability. The evaluation of each incident comes down to the type of media, the behavioral history, as well as the content and context of the comment.

Thats my final 2 cents on the subject. I agree with you Blue about the frustration in these threads. And, like you, I will think long and hard about participating in them in the future.

What he was only suspended????

Posted by misterearl:

EnySpree - Imus got suspended for two weeks

does that mean can Tim Hardaway get his ESPN gig back?

not that I ever had much love for Tiny Timmy. He played for the Heat.

What does Tim hardaway have to do with it?

2 week suspension is definately unexceptable. Still all the protesting in the world won't do much in this day and age. The powers that be just do what they please even if enough of the people express how they feel.

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but I've been reading this post periodically throughout the day and have to add my 2 cents.

Unfortunately, most European-Americans, will never understand what it's like to be discriminated against becuase of the color of their skin. I say unfortunate because if you've never expereinced it, it's quite difficult to understand. This is much bigger than just the terminoloy that Imus chose to use in his commentary. The utter disgust and dispresect that I feel (and I am speaking for myself as an African American) is so embedded in my experience that it is impossible not to be offended. Until you've been passed up for a promotion that you are more than qualified for, for no other reason but the color of your skin, or as a black man are continously being pulled over becuase you drive an expensive car and may or maynot be driving through a non-black neighborhood and asked what are you doing around here, all because of the color of your skin, you won't fully understand.

Now, that doesn't mean that a person can't be emplathic or sympathetic, but the old saying of you won't understand my plight, until you've walked in my shoes, applies.
I won't go on and on, I could debate this subject all day. The most important view that I'd like share is that, it absolutely unfair, ignorant (unkowledgable) and small minded to sterotype or make generalzations about a group of people based on the perceptions and opionons of a view. To say that I as a black woman should not be offended by a person calling a women a nappy headed hoe is ridiculous. Why because 50 cents, who I don't listen to and do not subsribe to his brand of music, calls women hoe's and uses the N word in his music, somehow I as an individual, should be okay with Imus calling women hoes? Absolutely not. I don't see how any intelligent person, regardless of race, could not see how offesive his statments were.

Let me make this clear to people who don't not understand, the antics and behavoirs of a a few black people do not represent our entire community. Do I believe that all white people are white trash based on the buffonery of Anna Nicole (she a white women called herself white trash by the way) or the show jackass? Is it okay for me to call a white person white trash if they act like Anna Nicole. Or maybe I sould refer to white women as ****s as I here so many young white men do? Should I assume that all white people behave the same way? That all white people abuse drugs and don't know who their baby's daddy's are like Anna Nicole? Absoletly not. It's ridiculous. But some of you would like to group all black people in one pot because of the actions of individuals. Don't be ridiculous. I don't use the n word and don't agree with anyone who does, regardless of race.
Also, I don't agree with the discrimination of any group of people based on their race, but it is unfair to compare what happened to African Americans in this country (and around the world honeslty - the slave ship stopped more places than just America) and what happened to other groups of people. No other group of people (besides the Native Americans who were almost completely annilated) have faced and continue to face the discrimination, humilation, retalaliation, etc., etc., like African Americans. People bring up Mexicans, Jewish people, etc. All of those groups of people (in a whole) came here on their own free will. We did not. The effects of slavery are still felt in this country today. Their are people still living who were not allowed to dine in certain resturants becuase of the color of their skin. The 60's are not that long ago. But somehow we should just forget and get over it right?

That's enough for me. I could go on and on but I will end on this note, hopefully one day, we will all be viewed as individuals and not based on our skin color, religion or sexual orientation. Maybe at the point, we can all laugh at someone like Imus and brush of his comments as bad humor.

Posted by lovespree:

The most important view that I'd like share is that, it absolutely unfair, ignorant (unkowledgable) and small minded to sterotype or make generalzations about a group of people based on the perceptions and opionons of a view. To say that I as a black woman should not be offended by a person calling a women a nappy headed hoe is ridiculous. Why because 50 cents, who I don't listen to and do not subsribe to his brand of music, calls women hoe's and uses the N word in his music, somehow I as an individual, should be okay with Imus calling women hoes? Absolutely not. I don't see how any intelligent person, regardless of race, could not see how offesive his statments were.

Let me make this clear to people who don't not understand, the antics and behavoirs of a a few black people do not represent our entire community.

I thought I was out of this thread, but this brought me back in. Can I ask which posts this is written in response to?

Posted by lovespree:

It's not specifically written to any post in particular. I wrote it based on everything that I've read in this thread.

I find it insulting.

Posted by bitty41:

Quick question Blue do you think I should be allowed to be upset if some random guy grabs my butt or should I not make a big deal about it since so many women all over the media trivialize their self-respect?

for the last time, i told you i was just wiping off some dirt...

bitty, no reason to put our business out on front street...

>>White knick fans are not prejudice as we root for the team regardless of the color of the skin, its the uniform.

Nalod - unfortunately, prejudice does NOT stop at the turnstile when one enters an arena. Even in Madison Square Garden. The perceptions and descriptions of players and management are shaped by the exact same bias described in the Imus remarks.

We may all root for the Knicks to win a basketball game on the surface, but you only need to carefully read the derrogatory remarks directed at certain players. Read the descriptions of Eddy Curry as "lazy" or "stupid" or Marbury as "stupid" or that he should STFU to peel back the not-so-veiled negative agenda of such comments.

Imus simply expressed, and reinforced, something he understood as part of his priviledged position. The insult was nothing more than another post in a historic thread of insults created to justify treating a race of people as cattle.

"They are simply inferior and must be converted to our way..."


>>Black African Americans have a more agricultural base and have yet to build an economic base rooted in the middle class in mass. But it is happening over time.

What agricultural "base" are you speaking of?

Slavery?

I've never heard the term "Black African Americans". Deep.

Lets not move on.


[Edited by - misterearl on 04-10-2007 11:49 AM]