Part of my problem with this whole thing is that I can't even FIND what Imus said. Amidst all this controversy about how bad a guy he is I can't even find his original statement! He said something about the team being "nappy-headed hos", but without the context I can't even tell if it was a slur or satire or sarcasm. And that, precisely, highlights my point: even if the context makes that statement as vile as everyone's saying it was, the fussing about it makes the issue bigger than the initial wrong ever was.
EDIT: OK, I finally found it. Those same lines would've been completely ignored if they were spouted by a rapper, or even anyone else who happened to be black, and in addition are pretty much this guy's standard schtick if I read things right. Was it racist? Yeah. But I still say it's not on the same level as the Gibson/Richards lines. This guy's like Howard Stern; controversy ==> ratings, so he says shocking things ON PURPOSE. So do rap artists, and they're paid huge money and nobody looks twice. Why are they not taken to task for every record, or even every song? You can't have that kind of double-standard. You can't. That, in itself, is at least as racist.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-04-10 08:25 pm (UTC)EDIT: OK, I finally found it. Those same lines would've been completely ignored if they were spouted by a rapper, or even anyone else who happened to be black, and in addition are pretty much this guy's standard schtick if I read things right. Was it racist? Yeah. But I still say it's not on the same level as the Gibson/Richards lines. This guy's like Howard Stern; controversy ==> ratings, so he says shocking things ON PURPOSE. So do rap artists, and they're paid huge money and nobody looks twice. Why are they not taken to task for every record, or even every song? You can't have that kind of double-standard. You can't. That, in itself, is at least as racist.