I have been quite amazed at the changes that have occurred in Texas and in America since I was growing up in the 40's and 50's. It actually came as a surprise to me to realize that the High School I graduated from was still segregated in 1961. I mean I was aware that Negros had their own school, and I wondered why the city fathers hadn't implemented the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education, but like most High Schoolers, I had my own problems. I remember the racist jokes, but I couldn't get a laugh when I tried to tell jokes of any kind, so I didn't tell them. A few years later the School District closed my High School down and opened a new one in the far west end (mostly White) of town. Since I never returned to my hometown after 1961 except to visit my parents, it didn't occur to me until years later that the closing of my high school and the opening of another miles to the West was intended to avoid integration.
When I started work for Social Security in 1971 I was assigned to New Orleans where I worked downtown. At that time nearly half the Black population of New Orleans was functionally illiterate. After a lot of foot dragging, the public schools were integrated sometime in the 60's. So the Whites put their children in the catholic schools. Then whenever the public schools needed higher taxes or a bond issue, the White voters would vote it down. I got transferred out of New Orleans because of the lack of a decent public school system of any kind. Many of the stories of the schools in New Orleans after Katrina have emphasized what a disaster the New Orleans public school system remained even the day Katrina hit. The reason this is true is Racism. Active, applied racism that too many White people refuse to admit they practice. It wasn't pure racism, though. There was also a major element of classism involved. Poor people of any race were not appreciated except as servants or waiters.
There is an excellent diary at dKos in which Pericles analyzed how American racism has changed in the last sixty years. He really hits it on the head, much better than I have been able to do. If you are an American White then you are racist and in denial. Go read the diary to see how that is true.
So what? Nothing new. We can continue to ignore it because we aren't racist. It's those other people. Only they don't think they are racist either. As Don Imus said, he is an entertainer. What he said was wrong, but he is really a good person. He's not racist.
Yes he is. And so are most American Whites. Including me. It's just that racism has changed from the days when listened to (or told) blatantly racist jokes and laughed at them without any idea that they were not funny. The older a person is, the more racist he or she is. Not because we are getting worse, but because I think the kids are getting better than we are. But it still 'bites' us, coming seemingly out of nowhere as Don Imus has just found out. and it will remain as long as our towns and cities have largely Black and largely White sections.
America has, I think, made amazing progress on the problems of racism. But the problem is not gone, and the effort cannot be called finished. It is just in a new and more subtle stage.
Let's hope that the next generation gets it really right. Racism is too corrosive in this nation for us to wait for two, three or more generations to stamp it out - and it will have to be stamped out. It will not disappear on its own.
Showing posts with label Imus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imus. Show all posts
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Imus is down. Now let's clean up the rest of the media
Media Matters offers a listing of many of the vulgar and insulting comments made over that last few years by members of the media. It's time to get them all the clean up their acts! It's not fair that Imus gets fired and these people just go on down the road fat, dumb and happy.
Let's hang these vulgarities around the necks of the speakers and demand that the speakers aoplogize and promise not to continue such behavior.
Let's hang these vulgarities around the necks of the speakers and demand that the speakers aoplogize and promise not to continue such behavior.
Olberman, Seder on the future for Don Imus
Sam Seder went on the Keith Olbrman show, and the two discuss what Don Imus is likely to do next, as well as how the firing of Don Imus will effect the talk radio industry.
In my opinion this will be a really good thing for America, especially if it brings advertisers to back off their support for similar vulgar adn insulting language in Rap and Hip hop, as well as with right-wing talk radio such as Limbaugh. If the criteria for a career-ending statement has been increased, then it is only a matter of time for Limbaugh because he can't help himself. He has demonstrated that on TV twice.
In my opinion this will be a really good thing for America, especially if it brings advertisers to back off their support for similar vulgar adn insulting language in Rap and Hip hop, as well as with right-wing talk radio such as Limbaugh. If the criteria for a career-ending statement has been increased, then it is only a matter of time for Limbaugh because he can't help himself. He has demonstrated that on TV twice.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Don Imus has been fired by CBS.
Imus no longer has his show "Imus in the Morning" because of his racist comments against the woman's basketball team of Rutgers last Friday.
Good. He should have been. There is no room for someone who specifically aims such racist comments at the women of a very successful basketball team as he did. and for those who don't think it was racist, listen to the kind words he spoke about the "good-looking white girls" on the Tennessee team. The only people who will object to CBS firing Imus will be the other racists who feel threatened by such social opprobrium and real penalties for despicable behavior they don't want to give up.
The red herring that Rap artists use the same terms all the time without penalty is ridiculous. Sure it is disgusting when Rap artists "use those words," but they are using them generally. That is a lot less than what Imus did. The rap "artists" are not calling real live very talented people in front of everyone those names. Which is not to defend the Rap artists' use of the terms. They also deserve to be taken down for such incivilities. But they don't point to specific women right in fron of them and call her a "ho" to her face on national radio and TV just to entertain an audience!
That is what Imus did to those fine young women when they fought on a team that came literally out of nowhere (in basketball terms) and amazingly made it to the final championship.
Then there is the fact that, very stupidly, Imus said what he did on national TV. He has done this several times before, but (as far as I can find) never on TV. In this case, it was picked up by UTube, and I was able to watch it that afternoon. Always before it was on radio, and he was able to simply apologize and continue as before. Most of his fans liked it, and the rest of us never saw it. Rush Limbaugh has said the same kinds of things, but when he has tried it on TV his shows failed.
Addendum 1:36 PM CDT
Editor & Publisher brings back a column from 1995 in which the late columnist for New York's 'Daily News," Lars-Erik Nelson discusses the disgusting vulgarity of the Don Imus show, and the even worse sanctimony of politicians who go on the show to reach their age 18 to 36 male voters, then stand up in the Senate and complain about how bad TV and Hollywood have become. Specifically named is the unctuous Senator Joe Lieberman.
I thought that Phil Gramm and John Cornyn of Texas were rotten Senators and not worth much as people. I didn't know of Joe then.
Addendum 2 5:44 CDT
Apparently slate has picked up my argument here, so let me make it stronger. The vulgarity of music, radio, TV and the blogosphere is to be deplored. But what Don Imus said is far beyond that. It was a combination of racism and bullying of specific individuals who had no reason to expect it, for no purpose other than to titillate his audience.
A conservative blogger made a comment that if the members of the Rutgers basketball team can't handle the insult, they should look to themselves and toughen up. In the long run that may be true, but those women have pulled off an amazing feat by going all the way from Basketball nowhere to competition for the national title. They did that by being focused on what they were doing and ignoring unimportant side issues, one of which is how to deal with *ssh*le bullies who want to look good in front of an approving crowd that is not emotionally any better than he is.
Imus seems to think he is a "good person." OK. From what I hear, he actually does some good things. That does not immunize him from blame for the fact that his comments were plain, low-level bullying of people who had no reason to expect to have to deal with him. Unlike rappers, the victims of this bullying can be identified in this case.
I am an older white guy who graduated from a segregated all-white high school. I didn't ask that it be segregated, and for many years I did not understand what it meant that it was; certainly not in the personal terms for the Black students who went to the other high school. Obviously I still do not understand how it feels to be told that I am inferior even as I achieve one of the greatest feats of athletics in years as these women have. But I don't have to bully some of the finest Black women athletes in the nation just to make myself feel better than them or to make a similarly retrograde audience feel good about themselves, either. That is what Imus did.
We do not need people who earn a living by bullying others to titillate an audience. If it were his first time, Don Imus might sufficiently abase himself and apologize to save his job. As Clarence Page has pointed out, this is not Don's first time - or his second or his third. Always before he has apologized and skated.
This time our society has grown enough so that being paid to be a racist bully costs the advertisers too damned much money, so they are bailing on him. Imus is a dinosaur whose schtick has passed and become unacceptable. America has done away with slavery, then with segregation, and now it is eliminating racism and making bullying into something socially unacceptable. A society defines itself by who it rejects. Rejecting Don Imus tells us that our society is getting better.
Anyone who doesn't recognize this needs to look into themselves to see why they approve of racism and bullying. It is Imus, his audience and those who support him that are wrong in this case. The rest of us don't need them.
Good. He should have been. There is no room for someone who specifically aims such racist comments at the women of a very successful basketball team as he did. and for those who don't think it was racist, listen to the kind words he spoke about the "good-looking white girls" on the Tennessee team. The only people who will object to CBS firing Imus will be the other racists who feel threatened by such social opprobrium and real penalties for despicable behavior they don't want to give up.
The red herring that Rap artists use the same terms all the time without penalty is ridiculous. Sure it is disgusting when Rap artists "use those words," but they are using them generally. That is a lot less than what Imus did. The rap "artists" are not calling real live very talented people in front of everyone those names. Which is not to defend the Rap artists' use of the terms. They also deserve to be taken down for such incivilities. But they don't point to specific women right in fron of them and call her a "ho" to her face on national radio and TV just to entertain an audience!
That is what Imus did to those fine young women when they fought on a team that came literally out of nowhere (in basketball terms) and amazingly made it to the final championship.
Then there is the fact that, very stupidly, Imus said what he did on national TV. He has done this several times before, but (as far as I can find) never on TV. In this case, it was picked up by UTube, and I was able to watch it that afternoon. Always before it was on radio, and he was able to simply apologize and continue as before. Most of his fans liked it, and the rest of us never saw it. Rush Limbaugh has said the same kinds of things, but when he has tried it on TV his shows failed.
Addendum 1:36 PM CDT
Editor & Publisher brings back a column from 1995 in which the late columnist for New York's 'Daily News," Lars-Erik Nelson discusses the disgusting vulgarity of the Don Imus show, and the even worse sanctimony of politicians who go on the show to reach their age 18 to 36 male voters, then stand up in the Senate and complain about how bad TV and Hollywood have become. Specifically named is the unctuous Senator Joe Lieberman.
I thought that Phil Gramm and John Cornyn of Texas were rotten Senators and not worth much as people. I didn't know of Joe then.
Addendum 2 5:44 CDT
Apparently slate has picked up my argument here, so let me make it stronger. The vulgarity of music, radio, TV and the blogosphere is to be deplored. But what Don Imus said is far beyond that. It was a combination of racism and bullying of specific individuals who had no reason to expect it, for no purpose other than to titillate his audience.
A conservative blogger made a comment that if the members of the Rutgers basketball team can't handle the insult, they should look to themselves and toughen up. In the long run that may be true, but those women have pulled off an amazing feat by going all the way from Basketball nowhere to competition for the national title. They did that by being focused on what they were doing and ignoring unimportant side issues, one of which is how to deal with *ssh*le bullies who want to look good in front of an approving crowd that is not emotionally any better than he is.
Imus seems to think he is a "good person." OK. From what I hear, he actually does some good things. That does not immunize him from blame for the fact that his comments were plain, low-level bullying of people who had no reason to expect to have to deal with him. Unlike rappers, the victims of this bullying can be identified in this case.
I am an older white guy who graduated from a segregated all-white high school. I didn't ask that it be segregated, and for many years I did not understand what it meant that it was; certainly not in the personal terms for the Black students who went to the other high school. Obviously I still do not understand how it feels to be told that I am inferior even as I achieve one of the greatest feats of athletics in years as these women have. But I don't have to bully some of the finest Black women athletes in the nation just to make myself feel better than them or to make a similarly retrograde audience feel good about themselves, either. That is what Imus did.
We do not need people who earn a living by bullying others to titillate an audience. If it were his first time, Don Imus might sufficiently abase himself and apologize to save his job. As Clarence Page has pointed out, this is not Don's first time - or his second or his third. Always before he has apologized and skated.
This time our society has grown enough so that being paid to be a racist bully costs the advertisers too damned much money, so they are bailing on him. Imus is a dinosaur whose schtick has passed and become unacceptable. America has done away with slavery, then with segregation, and now it is eliminating racism and making bullying into something socially unacceptable. A society defines itself by who it rejects. Rejecting Don Imus tells us that our society is getting better.
Anyone who doesn't recognize this needs to look into themselves to see why they approve of racism and bullying. It is Imus, his audience and those who support him that are wrong in this case. The rest of us don't need them.
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