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BlueSeats
Posts: 27272
Alba Posts: 41
Joined: 11/6/2005
Member: #1024
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I'm not a fan of Imus, the sentiments he expressed, or the words he chose, but I must say, to my unlearned ears, the phrase he used sounds like he's parodying "hood talk," for lack of a better term.
This is not to defend him in the least, but such expressions are to be diminished or removed from our culture shouldn't their dissolution begin within the black community immediately - particularly the more media intensive and influential elements of it - like mainstream music, comedy and film?
I can't speak deeply about what goes on in "the hood," or anywhere else in the "black community" outside of the middle-classish and integrated friends that I have, but I can tell you amongst the whites that I know, very few refer to women of ANY race as "hoes" and "b!tches".
So I have to say I feel that some are trying to have it both ways when they say it's a fireable offense for one race to say such things against another, but have little complaint when said routinely by someone of the same race.
For instance, how often do you hear a prominent Jewish lawyer call another a "sneaky shyster"? Very rarely, and when it does happen I suspect the Jewish community would be the first to reprimand him. They keep that shyt buttoned up. But let's imagine that they didn't, and it became commonplace for prominent Jews to call each other racial slurs in the lucrative media (which they often own, like the movie biz) such that it became hip or popular (again, for lack of better terms,) who could not expect other races to hop in to join the fun and be part of the hip crowd? Imagine if people like Ben Stiller, Jerry Steinfeld, David Schwimmer, and other prominent Jewish actors and business people called each other "shyta's" and referred to their women as "sluts". Anyone doubt that talk would propagate and become commonplace.
And this is what happens when "nappy headed hoes" talk is propagated BY BLACKS in the popular media of music, TV comedy and film.
Sure the mistereals, Tavis Smileys, Barack Obamas, etc of the world would never publicly call that basketball team "nappy headed hoes," but can you say the same for Wanda Sykes, Chris Rock, 50cent, and a zillion other folks out there who are setting the tone for what is acceptable in popular culture?
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