I apologize for misquoting you. However, to me, the difference is six of one, half-dozen of the other. "A little" approximates "might have been," especially in context. And if the flagrant use of "nigger" counts only as "a little over the top" for you, I can see why you don't see the Imus controversy as important.
It is "a little" over the top. I'm sorry, but it's just a word. It has as much power over you as you let it. If you, personally, have been brought up to think it's the worst possible insult, that it has centuries of hatred behind it, that nothing could possibly be worse, then to you that's what it is. But that's YOU assigning weight to it. To me it's just a word. If he'd called you a fucking bitch I'd have also said it's "a little" over the top. It doesn't sound like he went into a ten-minute cursing diatribe.
I was taught when I was growing up that saying "shut up" was almost unforgivable, that saying "crap" was absolutely horrid... but they're not; they're just words. When I grew up I discovered that. If someone tells me to shut up, or for that matter calls me a fucking asshole or goddamned cattle-worshipping hinduspawn, I'll be offended. But it probably won't stay with me past a couple of hours later. The power of the word nigger is being kept alive solely by black culture, and to no purpose. It's rude, it's insulting, but it's not something worth agonizing about for months. It doesn't make you suddenly into a slave. It doesn't put you into a position as a lesser person except insomuch as you let it. I keep hearing from black people that the word nigger is so terrible, that it's far worse than any other racial epithet, but it's not. There are epithets for every single race, including white, and they're all equivalent. You can say, "You don't know, you aren't black, you haven't had our experience." Well, the experience that made nigger such a terrible word was slavery, and NOBODY LIVING has had that experience.
There is a big difference between examining race and participating in racism.
Sometimes. Sometimes the two come very close. I finally heard Imus's original comments on The Daily Show tonight, and it doesn't sound like he was trying to be funny. It sounds like he was trying to get a reaction. He's a shock-jock, and that's what he does. It's not like his audience is unaware of what he does. Does that make it OK? Probably not, but it does mean that picking his comments as an example of inflammatory speech is a little silly. It's like going after Howard Stern for making derogatory comments about someone's boobs; that's just what his show was about and people paid for it.
And please don't make me into the strawman of allowing Black people to use the word nigger and others not. ... I don't listen to hardcore rap/hiphop with liberal uses of "nigger" or "bitches" or "hos." ... What is at issue is racist speech going out over radio waves and television.
Voting with your wallet is a lot different than posting diatribes online about how hateful something is. When black rappers use phrases you don't like, you simply don't listen, but when an old white guy uses them you go ape. You personally, not the general you. I don't imagine you listen to the Don Imus show on a daily basis, so probably didn't hear his comments live, but you make a point to find out about things like that and post about them. You don't listen to gangsta rap songs with similar word usage, or watch the videos, but you know they're out there and DON'T make a point to post about them. That says something to me. It says that while you don't LIKE the language even used by black people, you accept its existence and dissemination. You're not a strawman for this double standard, you're an exemplar of it. You make a much bigger deal out of something said by one racial group than the same thing said by another. That IS racist. To quote a movie, "You girls have GOT to stop calling one another bitches and whores. It just makes it easier for guys to do it." The same thing applies here. You want to stop hate-speech? Stop it for everyone. Stop picking and choosing those you speak out against by their race.
no subject
It is "a little" over the top. I'm sorry, but it's just a word. It has as much power over you as you let it. If you, personally, have been brought up to think it's the worst possible insult, that it has centuries of hatred behind it, that nothing could possibly be worse, then to you that's what it is. But that's YOU assigning weight to it. To me it's just a word. If he'd called you a fucking bitch I'd have also said it's "a little" over the top. It doesn't sound like he went into a ten-minute cursing diatribe.
I was taught when I was growing up that saying "shut up" was almost unforgivable, that saying "crap" was absolutely horrid... but they're not; they're just words. When I grew up I discovered that. If someone tells me to shut up, or for that matter calls me a fucking asshole or goddamned cattle-worshipping hinduspawn, I'll be offended. But it probably won't stay with me past a couple of hours later. The power of the word nigger is being kept alive solely by black culture, and to no purpose. It's rude, it's insulting, but it's not something worth agonizing about for months. It doesn't make you suddenly into a slave. It doesn't put you into a position as a lesser person except insomuch as you let it. I keep hearing from black people that the word nigger is so terrible, that it's far worse than any other racial epithet, but it's not. There are epithets for every single race, including white, and they're all equivalent. You can say, "You don't know, you aren't black, you haven't had our experience." Well, the experience that made nigger such a terrible word was slavery, and NOBODY LIVING has had that experience.
There is a big difference between examining race and participating in racism.
Sometimes. Sometimes the two come very close. I finally heard Imus's original comments on The Daily Show tonight, and it doesn't sound like he was trying to be funny. It sounds like he was trying to get a reaction. He's a shock-jock, and that's what he does. It's not like his audience is unaware of what he does. Does that make it OK? Probably not, but it does mean that picking his comments as an example of inflammatory speech is a little silly. It's like going after Howard Stern for making derogatory comments about someone's boobs; that's just what his show was about and people paid for it.
And please don't make me into the strawman of allowing Black people to use the word nigger and others not. ... I don't listen to hardcore rap/hiphop with liberal uses of "nigger" or "bitches" or "hos." ... What is at issue is racist speech going out over radio waves and television.
Voting with your wallet is a lot different than posting diatribes online about how hateful something is. When black rappers use phrases you don't like, you simply don't listen, but when an old white guy uses them you go ape. You personally, not the general you. I don't imagine you listen to the Don Imus show on a daily basis, so probably didn't hear his comments live, but you make a point to find out about things like that and post about them. You don't listen to gangsta rap songs with similar word usage, or watch the videos, but you know they're out there and DON'T make a point to post about them. That says something to me. It says that while you don't LIKE the language even used by black people, you accept its existence and dissemination. You're not a strawman for this double standard, you're an exemplar of it. You make a much bigger deal out of something said by one racial group than the same thing said by another. That IS racist. To quote a movie, "You girls have GOT to stop calling one another bitches and whores. It just makes it easier for guys to do it." The same thing applies here. You want to stop hate-speech? Stop it for everyone. Stop picking and choosing those you speak out against by their race.