America’s true sickness isn’t racism; it’s the evil therapism society tries to interpose upon our relations with others.
In Chicago, one must pity the atheists. Imagine how difficult it is to argue that Heaven and Hell are a fairy tale when one of the Devil’s chief operatives makes daily broadcasts from a fashionable address in the West Loop. Of course, the operative I refer to is none other than the phenomenally successful multi-billionaire, and supposedly oppressed person, Oprah Winfrey.
Last week, the talk show host applied her fantastically ignorant mind to the question of Don Imus. The episode was called, “Oprah’s Town Hall: Now What?” The "now what" must be truly perplexing because she dedicated another show to the subject as well. Her angle is not difficult to discern as it provides her with yet another fabricated opportunity to cast shame upon men and Caucasians in general.
As most readers already know, Don Imus is a person and not merely a question. The sixtyish shock jock recently got fired by both CBS and MSNBC for calling the Rutgers female basketball players, “nappy-headed hos.” To the normal person, his statement was strange and inexplicable.
When the actual telecast is viewed its context becomes clearer. Imus attempted to make light of the toughness of the player’s physical appearance. He thought they looked like a bunch of tattoo-scarred thugs. Imus (unwisely) compared them to gangstas in the language of the street. Everyone then assumed that his intent was racist, but that’s far from certain — even though perpetual PC dupes like ESPN have no doubts. “Nappy headed ho” by itself, while admittedly dumb and in poor taste, does not only refer to black women because many white youths of both sexes Africanize their hair. Making one’s straight hair kinky appears to be in style at the moment. As far as humor goes, his attempt missed the mark by many miles, but I see no hatred in his words.
If anything, what he said seemed to be more of a class comment as the Tennessee team to which he compared the Rutgers girls is unquestionably racially integrated. Their team picture depicts seven black players and four white players who share a feminine appearance and are devoid of brands or tattoos. This could have been easily clarified by Imus but he was too busy apologizing and making-out with the feet of race shysters to find the time to do so.
Reaction to his faux pas was not immediate. Just as with all politically correct crusades, momentum built slowly before reaching a level of hysteria. The story only reached Chandra Levy proportions after the usual band of jackasses was recruited to harass Imus’s employers and assault the American psyche. With Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Oprah Winfrey, and the mainstream media, any life or career can become forfeit in just a few hours time.
This was all unfortunately brought to my attention last week as I sat in the doctor’s office at 9 am. The TV was set to The Oprah Winfrey Show and the program was stocked with all manner of luminaries from various parts of the left side of the political spectrum. One of the most offensive was a psychologist named Robin Smith who talked about Imus embodying the sickening racism and systematic oppression that is so rife in other parts of the world but suspiciously absent from the United States. Well, actually, that wasn’t her position. Her version of reality, issued as she sat upon a perch of privilege, focused only on America and purposely avoided any mention of the greater world.
Oprah placed on her website the supposed theme of the show. She asked viewers whether there is “a double standard in this country?” I’m glad she did because there are a myriad of double standards in this country. The most obvious one on display here is that only a white American can get fired for making what someone somewhere construes to be a racial comment about somebody else. Nothing like that ever happens to blacks or Hispanics because they are the chosen mascots of political correctness. A case in point comes from only a few traffic lights away from where I now type, in the person of Ozzie Guillen. He still manages the White Sox despite his calling a sports columnist a “fag.” Pariah status is reserved for white males offenders alone in our anti-intellectual PC society.
Another double standard is that most words of hatred are only words of hatred when they are spoken by Caucasians. A shock jock of a different color could have gotten away with what Imus said and there would have been no drama at all. Had his ancestors hailed from Kenya or Mozambique, Imus could have even said the N-word. White people have numerous words they are not allowed to say and many of them we don’t even know about until after we say them (recall the infamous “niggardly” incident).
Everyday it seems as if there are more and more words that result in our being condemned by some kind of ism. For the last twenty years, I always thought that the “N-word” was the only one truly off limits. Last month, I discovered that "faggot" has also been added to the list, while last week Oprah informed her audience that “bitch” and “ho” are words of devastation as well. Here we see yet another reason why PC is so pernicious. In the case of all these words, arbitrary distinctions have been made in an attempt to control our actions and dominate our speech. In my opinion, there should be no words whose utterance automatically equates with an individual having some sort of psychological condition — particularly not ones as mundane and overused as “bitch” and “ho” (rather delicious it is that “ho” stands for “whore” but is now referred to as the h-word).
Here, yet again, is another double standard because there are all sorts of words which men are not allowed to call women, such as the c-word, the h-word, and the b-word, but there are none that women are not allowed to call men. A woman can say anything she wants to about a man and get away with it. The reason for this is that women are yet another privileged class in America today. Our society is loath to hold them responsible for anything that they might say or do. They are the most comical of PC mascots, as their heartiness and extended lifespan make a mockery out of their supposed sensitivity and vulnerability.
Here we come to another double standard within a double standard, as there’s absolutely no equality in Oprah’s treatment of women on show. They allegedly are the superiors of men yet their beings can be torn asunder after being called a few banal, uncreative names. Its absurd to pretend that women are more loving, empathic, efficient, complete, wise, and intelligent than men when so many believe they should go ballistic after hearing a colorful word or two. No superhero in history ever shattered like porcelain after being called a name. As a society, all of our citizens must learn to deal with criticism or being insulted without having to conduct witch hunts, town hall meetings, and therapy sessions. Instead, defending oneself or refusing to associate with those who demean you is best practice.
It’s a good habit to get into even if you don’t happen to be a member of a PC mascot class. Let’s consider for a moment what would happen if your narrator was placed in the position of those Rutgers girls and a guy like Tavis Smiley called me a “bald-headed cracker” on his program. Obviously, no one would be too bothered by this — although there really isn’t much of a parallel here as Imus used no terms of racial derision — but my way of dealing with it would be first to admit that I was bald-headed and to inquire if the person had any idea where the next International Brotherhood of the Crackerazzi Convention was going to be held.i Please note that I suspiciously left out of my response: “I’m going to call you an ism.”
Whenever I argue something like this in print someone usually claims that it isn’t an accurate comparison because “white people are bothered by stuff like that,” but the fact is that nobody is really bothered by much of anything unless society tells them that they should be. Being called a name is not a “nuclear weapon” of interpersonal interaction and it doesn’t “dehumanize” anyone. It’s just a name, and, unless one has a criminally inflated sense of self-esteem, it doesn’t mean much. America’s true sickness isn’t racism; it’s the evil therapism society tries to interpose upon our relations with others. If self-righteous social engineers just stayed out of our way and left us alone we’d probably all get along.
The major mission of political correctness is to subjugate our thoughts, feelings, and souls within a dungeon of sterility wherein the definition of being human is morphed into “never saying anything wrong or offensive about anyone.” Human beings simply aren’t like that. We frequently get mad or angry and say things we don’t really mean. That’s what happens when blood rather than oil courses through our capillaries. Every time somebody says something that we don’t like it doesn’t equate with their being abnormal and some kind of “ism.” I wish the American population would save their resentment for the self-glorifying buffoons demanding our eternal repentance rather than pouring it on a self-glorifying buffoon trying to entertain us.
Endnotes
i. Actually, given how silly things have gotten in society, I would probably fake “getting verklempt” over their words: “When I began losing my hair in 1994 my whole world caved in — no more combs, no more brushes, no more shampoo, no more gel, no more expensive trips to the barber — hey, wait a minute . . .”
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Read more articles by Bernard Chapin
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Chapin. Part of the reason conservatives can no longer have a reasoned discourse with liberals is because liberals think name-calling is a reasoned defense for explaining their stances.
Howsomever, I remember Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon losing speaking deals for their comments. I remember the Dixie Chicks "choosing" (read being forced to move) to leave country music and becomeing "alternative rock", or somethinf like that. We need to be careful about how much criticism we dole out about Don Imus's punishment, because we, as conservatives, use that same punishment on our side of the fence.
Part of having freedom of speech is realizing our words have consequences: they can inflame or inspire. If we enter the Arena of Free Ideas, we need to accept the backlash some of our comments will generate.
Comment by daverock | April 23, 2007
"The major mission of political correctness is to subjugate our thoughts, feelings, and souls…"
"Political Correctness: Authoritarian liberalism." — Robert Bork
Comment by sedonaman | April 23, 2007
Did you see the article on Imus? http://www.michaelellenbogen.com/Frames/tips.html
Who does this person think he is? Talking about us like that. I hope someone puts this on U Tube and MySpace. The book looks good…..
Comment by marc9999 | April 23, 2007
To the supporters of Imus:
The sad thing about this Imus situation is the fact that if the girls on the team and Imus had met and moved on as they both wanted to do, I think the show would have changed because Imus was as upset about what he said as anyone. I never heard one call for Imus being fired from the the girls on the team. They forgave him….Maybe they are real Christians who are decent people and forgive instead of making this a racial/political event. No one condones with what Don Imus said that morning. A 2 week suspension was reasonable. However, I heard on the news last week about a certain board member of msnbc and two political /racial activists meeting after hours with msnbc management and pressuring them into firing Imus. If this is true, to me this is a crime. If not literally a crime, this was certainly a conspiracy to advance racial/political positions to the detriment of Imus and to the detriment of what is right. If anything like this story is true Imus should be reinstated and he should be apologized to……I am calling on the long time advertisers, friends, musicians, authors and politicians to stand up for the man that sold their books and records and helped get them elected. Stand up and put Imus back on the air. In closing, last week John Kerry showed me a part of himself that I did not know,,,,,loyalty,,,,,I never supported Kerry before but I would now…..A real man stands up for his friends when they need it,,,,,where are all of you– maybe a little scared of short of character? People will respect you if you do the right thing!!!! I am ashamed of what has happened here, but most ashamed that everyone who watched and called in every day has not shown the courage to speak out…. where are you? I have a list that I will put in my next writing of the fair weather friends I am talking about. If this turns out to be the raciest/political pressure I understood it to be from last weeks news, some people should lose their positions and jobs..this will come out if true I am sure. Thank you. Glenn Brandon
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Ex-NAACP head now on CBS board hopes company will fire Don Imus
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 04/11/2007 10:48:51 AM MDT
Posted: 10:37 AM- NEW YORK - Bruce Gordon, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp., said today the broadcasting company needs a "zero tolerance policy" on racism and hopes talk-show host Don Imus is fired for his demeaning remarks about the mostly black Rutgers women's basketball team.
"He's crossed the line, he's violated our community," Gordon said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "He needs to face the consequence of that violation."
Gordon, a longtime telecommunications executive, stepped down in March after 19 months as head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the foremost U.S. civil rights organizations.
He said he had spoken with CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves and hoped the company, after reviewing the situation, would "make the smart decision" by firing Imus rather than letting him return to the air at the end of a two-week suspension beginning next Monday.
"We should have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to what I see as irresponsible, racist behavior," Gordon said. "The Imus comments go beyond humor. Maybe he thought it was funny, but that's not what occurred. There has to be a consequence for that behavior."
Imus triggered the uproar on his April 4 show, when he referred to the Rutgers players as "nappy-headed hos." His comments have been widely
U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) says Don Imus shouldn’t have been fired, adding he would be willing to appear on a future Imus show as long as it wasn’t "the same-old, same-old."
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See what's free at AOL.com.
Comment by glennebrandonjr | April 24, 2007
Let’s try some “reasoned discussion.” First, please help me, What exactly is PC anyway? I never did understand what was meant by it. Is it some invention (like “partial birth abortion) intended to insert emotionalism into the debate?
But more to the point, why are we trying to defend the use of “colorful words” that are “admittedly dumb and in poor taste” when they hurt other peoples’ feeling? Who’s being “anti-intellectual” now, if not those who are incapable of finding more appropriate references to our fellow human beings? And, if used deliberately, to hurt, to insult, to disparage, what kind of person would that be? Someone we should admire? Is it the kind of behavior we should encourage, the kind of behavior we wish our children to emulate? Is calling someone names like “one of the Devil’s chief operatives” or “jackass” or “fag” or “ho” the way we wish others to treat us? (You know, the “doing onto others” thing). Does using words of personal insult lend itself to “reasoned discussion” or to emotional “unreason?” Quite frankly, I’m not finding very much that I would consider “Intellectual” on this website.
Comment by tom cook | April 27, 2007
Political Correctness seeks to curb certain speech or attitudes of certain types of people. If it is an "invention" it was a liberal one, since conservatives may point it out, but liberals are the ones who employ it.
PC seems to be most abundant in public life. Protected groups are, but not limited to): women, black people, and gay people. This protection does not apply in the case that the person is a conservative, regardless of gender, race or anything else.
For example: It is not PC to call Jesse Jackson a race hustler, or any other negative, because he is black and he has the right attitudes (he is liberal). However, Justice Clarence Thomas is fair game. While he is a black man, he has conservative views, therefore, he can be called an Uncle Tom, or a race traitor or whatever else you wish.
Justice Thomas was accused of sexual harassment during his time of confirmation. He was guilty, of course, because a female brought the charges. What was even more damning was that she was a black female. If you doubted her story, you were not merely sexist, you were racist too.
The best recent case regarding PC was, of course, the Duke rape case. A black woman claimed that some men from the Duke lacrosse team raped and assaulted her. A poor black female accusing rich white men (They must be rich. They went to Duke and they were white) of a crime against her? For the PC media and a good chunk of Duke's professors and administrators along with the black population of the area, it was a done deal. They were guilty and the accuser was truthful. No evidence had been shown that there was a crime, much less that those males did it. Yet they were considered guilty. She was black, they were white. What's to think about? The really sad thing is that even after the innocence of the 3 was declared, you still have those true, hardcore PCers who STILL think they were guilty. They're white kids, so they must have done something wrong.
Please note that those howling for the heads of the Duke students are never called racist. You cannot call a black person a racist. Come to think of it, you can't call a woman a sexist, either. That would not be PC. Only white males are racist and/or sexist. Notice also that nothing negative is said about the accuser in MSM PC-land. She wasn't a liar or a bad person. She was "troubled". Her color and her gender gave her a pass.
This is basic PC. There's lots of other rules and examples, but I'll keep this brief.
I don't understand how "PC" could possibly insert emotionalism on a debate, but different strokes for different folks I guess.
Comment by Ron S. | April 28, 2007
Oh, almost forgot…about the "colorful words" business. Please notice that if whiteboy Don Imus hadn't said that stupid stuff, people in rap music would still be saying the same things (and worse) about women, and all these people now worried about "colorful words" probably wouldn't be saying jack sh*t about it.
When black males sing about it, it's all of a sudden a matter of freedom of speech or artistic expression or "a reflection of life in the 'hood". If a white guy says it, it's just racist. Is the value of black women less when a black male is speaking about her?
Are those words like 'ho and b*tch and the n-word and other nasty epithets good? Absolutely not. Not for ANYone. What gets many people mad is that the whole thing is a double standard. "They" can say whatever nasty thing they want, but I sure can't. If you have to swear and call people names, you haven't got anything worthwhile to say anyway.
It only became an uproar because a white guy said it. Please see my PC explanation above.
As a side note: No one in this country has a right not to get their feelings hurt.
Comment by Ron S. | April 28, 2007
I must respond to the imus stories on the net posted from the start of this case up to today .I want give this real thought and reason,both of which no one used when this story broke and the days after,this is not about hip-hop music,Don Imus listened to and as guest on his show everything but hip hop.I recall many black and white reformers some country,rock old young we all never would have listened to the show if he played and talked like those black and white thrash foul mouth people Imus is being conspired to.No its not the music just a slip of the tongue,we have all done it.But what happened next is the story.ONE person involved with MSNBC conspired with TWO other political/preachers black men and decided this was a race issue.From there my guess is ,GM and the other advertisers were pressured to pull adds from the show.This brought others into the mix to further the race based agenda.The reason for all of this was to use 3 words that should not have been said. but the were.Don Imus took the high road and met with the team and said he was sorry.But for the 3 men intent on bringing a powerful white man down this would have all been over.The Raciest are the black men that pushed this to a level of almost blackmail to MSNBC if not more. Of course NBC has a duty to its shareholders to protect the interest of the company and not to advance a a board member and a few employees personal political/raciest cause to the determent of the company.We have missed the real story here.Don Imus was paid to shock and to say and do outlandish things.MSNBC knew what was on the show every day.Why did the network on the day he said what he did not come out and make a formal statement on the matter,have Imus would say he did not mean what he said and to forgive him .another agenda was in play by this time sharpton jackson and the board member were making the plan to use force,blackmail,extortion or what ever you want to call it to make Don Imus an example of what can happen to you if you say anything that even has the slightest bit of race overtone.Well I think this has backfired,just as it did to the DA in the Duke rape,well I guess we need to call it the Duke slander/defamation case because there was no rape.Dear Mr DA, Jesse Jackson and the Rev Sharp ton helped you on that case,how's that working out for you? Another situation where good people have been hurt because the media follows these two and from there all hell breaks loose!If either of the cases were mine I WOULD SUE THEM ALL. I also would try for a personal judgment because in the Imus case it sounds like MSNBS AND ITS BOARD MEMBER were acting on their personal political/racial interest and not acting within the scope of their employment which was to protect shareholder value .Don imus is a good person and deserves much more than this.If he wants to go back on the air I am sure he could get a group of fans to finance it. its late,thank you Glenn Brandon
Comment by glennebrandonjr | April 28, 2007
tom cook:
The best definition of political correctness I’ve ever seen was that given by Robert Bork: “Authoritarian liberalism.” The Imus case is a perfect example; white racism (even the mere hint of it) is always bad, but minority racism can be good, neutral, or bad depending on whether the targeted individual or group is one favored by liberals. Thus, blacks can call whites “crackers”, “honkies”, or whatever and not suffer, but whites can’t even refer to a black cultural trait without being chastised by the bigot whip. Another note: liberals say they are all for free speech and that it means you will hear things that offend you, but not, as it turns out, for the type of speech that offends them; and they will crucify even one of their own.
What I detect in your post is a desire to return to manners and civility that were a lot more common 50 years ago before the ‘60s generation tried to re-make society in its own image. Good luck.
Comment by sedonaman | April 29, 2007
FIRST OF ALL I AM WHITE MALE,I WENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA,AND COULD HAVE BEEN CALLED A REDNECK AT SOME TIME IN MY LIFE!!! [so there i can say this], What if a BLACK POWERFUL SHOCK JOCK ON A radio program called the white players on the Alabama football team a bunch of slick haired red necks?That loved HOs!!!! Would Billy Graham come out and get involved, meet with the radio stations managment and push for the radio station to fire the jock that said it? I do not think so!! Why do other races have groups such as the NAACP. If a white guy tried to start this for white people he would be, God only knows. I think to end racism, we should have no division and no groups that exclude. America would be a stronger country if we were united.I am ready!!Most of us dont think of race anymore,that thinking is 30to40 years old,if not more.THANK YOU Glenn Brandon Birmingham alabama
Comment by glennebrandonjr | May 1, 2007
FIRST OF ALL I AM WHITE MALE,I WENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA,AND COULD HAVE BEEN CALLED A REDNECK AT SOME TIME IN MY LIFE!!! [so there i can say this], What if a BLACK POWERFUL SHOCK JOCK ON A radio program called the white players on the Alabama football team a bunch of slick haired red necks?That loved HOs!!!! Would Billy Graham come out and get involved, meet with the radio stations managment and push for the radio station to fire the jock that said it? I do not think so!! Why do other races have groups such as the NAACP. If a white guy tried to start this for white people he would be, God only knows. I think to end racism, we should have no division and no groups that exclude. America would be a stronger country if we were united.I am ready!!Most of us dont think of race anymore,that thinking is 30to40 years old,if not more.THANK YOU Glenn Brandon Birmingham alabama
Comment by glennebrandonjr | May 1, 2007
Has Jesse Jackson ever been questioned about his remark,when he renamed Brooklyn,
Hiymee Town?
Comment by bleuer | May 1, 2007
bleuer:
"Has Jesse Jackson ever been questioned about his remark,when he renamed Brooklyn,
Hiymee Town?"
Yes, but the media gave the controversy a very short half-life, like about a day.
Comment by sedonaman | May 2, 2007
based on what i am hearing i bet some large company is about to offer don imus a multi million deal to go on the air it happens your heard it here first.glenn e brandon jr birmingham alabama [the numbers do work i might add]plus he will get a settlement from all of the people that did him the way they did.if
Comment by glennebrandonjr | May 16, 2007
based on what i am hearing i bet some large company is about to offer don imus a multi million deal to go on the air it happens your heard it here first.glenn e brandon jr birmingham alabama [the numbers do work i might add]plus he will get a settlement from all of the people that did him the way they did.if
Comment by glennebrandonjr | May 16, 2007
DON IMUS WILL BE BACK SOON AND THIS WHOLE THING WILL BE JUST A THING OF THE PAST IMUS WILL BE $120,000,000.00 RICHER CBS WILL FIRE ALL OF ITS UPPER MANAGMENT AS A SACRIFICIAL LAMB.THE HANDWRITING IS ON THE WAS.I have been upset over how the Imus situation has been handled I feel most of us in mainstream America regardless of race or political background can find common ground and settle our disputes. I by no means am a racist, nor do I support racism on either side. Yes, I will admit I was on a bit of a rant on this story because I feel strongly about this Additionally, I am confident that of all people Don Imus is not a racist. It might be better if alot of us would agree to disagree and focus our efforts on getting words like ho, bitch and other language away from our children's ears. Rap music and bad language is not a racial issue. I don't remember hearing any of this language in Sam Cooke or Ray Charles or even hard core blues men like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson or Sonhouse. This language problem exists because someone moved the bar. We need to put it back. Thank you . Glenn Brandon
Comment by glennebrandonjr | May 24, 2007