Posted by Pharzeone:
Posted by GhandiOrr:
Posted by misterearl:
Besides, just to stay on point...
how long did it take ESPN to fire Tim Hardaway?
Tim Hardaway said, "I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. It shouldn't be in the world or the United States."
It's pretty hard for him to make the argument that he was kidding or didn't mean what he said, and his employers made the decision to fire him. Why? Because his continued presence would have hurt their bottom line. And I don't think having pink skin could have saved him.
Maybe if Imus had said: "I hate black people, so I let it be known. I don't like black people and I don't like to be around black people. I am racist. They shouldn't be in the world or the United States."
Then maybe he would have had trouble booking guests, obtaining advertising and he, too, would have been fired.
Unfortunately for African-Americans, the phrase "nappy-headed hoes" apparently falls into a plausibly comic zone within the marketplace of ideas at this time in American history. (although, on the bright side, this incident may have greatly diminished the ability of the phrase to generate laughs anytime in the near future and we may not hear it again anytime soon.) Also, Imus was a man insulting what women look like. That's almost completely acceptable behavior in every cultural sub-group in America. If Hardaway had simply told Billie Jean King or Martina Navratilova jokes, he would still be in show business.
Imus has said that he hated the New York Knicks because they are nothing but chest bumping thuggin pimps. He didn't seem to be joking. Mike Breen asked him can you say that without actually meeting one of them. He said he never wanted to meet them. He acknowledge it was said out of expressed hate and was fine with it. He said that he found the Rutger female players to be nappy headed hos. Then he actually tried to justified his statement during his "sketch" by saying wasn't that in one of Spike Lee movies. He nor his collaborators could actually name the movie. Then he went on to say that the Tenn. players were pretty. Not only was it racist, it was indeed sexist. How bother was Imus about the statements that he said that was what he does on his show and they are there to entertain people.
Yes. It was racist and sexist. I haven't heard his interview with Breen, but that does indeed sound like Imus.
He has one politician after another on his show and seems to have no opinion about what any of them are saying. He makes ignorant statements, never backs them up, and changes the subject to his ranch and all the kids he helps. That's his show. I think he should have been fired along time ago for being a waste of space. But, being a waste of space seems to be his job description. I'm assuming his audience has been mostly white for a long time and now it is sure to be almost completely white.
It's a shame that being a white racist can't get you fired because there are so many white people who enjoy listening to it or who are willing to forgive and forget it. I can imagine that that would completely make African-Americans' skin crawl. (I'm about 20 percent black myself, so maybe some of my skin is actually crawling and I'm not just imagining it.) In 1860 black women worked their asses off for white men who "owned" and raped them and dismissed their humanity by calling them "nappy-headed hoes". Now, it's 2007, black women work their asses off getting an education and competing at the highest level in basketball, and a white man dismisses them as "nappy-headed hoes." That's disgraceful. It's enough to make black people and plenty of other people say, "Hey, can we get an officer over here. Can something be done to stop this?" And the answer seems to come back, "no." That's depressing. But on the bright side: Imus doesn't own them, and he can't really hurt them, and hopefully all the women on those two teams are already like, "F*** that dumb-a**!" And, there are prominent people who can denounce him. But still, WFAN, CBS and MSNBC think that after a two week hiatus, Imus can come back and enough people will tune in and they'll make more money off of Imus than they would a replacement. It's disturbing, but other than public pressure on their wallets, I don't know what else could or should be done. Freedom of Speech does still rock!
My comment before was to say that Hardaway was fired for what he said, not because of his skin color. And he is still free to look for a platform for his anti-gay shock-jock routine because America is great (even if it sorta sucks and is kinda scary).
4/10/2007 4:59 PM
