Sharpton v. Imus

“Speaking of nappy, does anybody else have problems with nappy fleece?”

“I don't have too much of an issue with nappy fleece, but the static is what bugs me.”

“I hate those nappy hoes in my fleece. They let the breeze flow through.”

“Timbaland is better known as a producer...”

“http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/13/herron.nappycommentary/index.html

I think this is an excellent piece. Maybe Sharpton will read it and learn something. nah.... probly too much to hope.”

“just saw that imus lost his radio show. jesus. i think a "fvck you, honkey" wouldve been sufficient”

“I think the black community wasted a bullet, an automatic headshot, and alerted the other side to where they were hiding. I would have saved it for a bigger issue.”

“

After Imus' firing, is rap next in the crosshairs?

By MARCUS FRANKLIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

As Don Imus fought in vain to keep his job, the embattled radio host argued that rappers routinely "defame and demean black women" and call them "worse names than I ever did."

That's an argument many people made as the fallout intensified, culminating with Imus' firing on Thursday for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." Now that Imus has been silenced (for the moment), some critics are moving down the radio dial to take on hip-hop, boosting the growing movement against the harmful themes in rap.

"We all know where the real battleground is," wrote Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock. "We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show."

Pointing out that the rapper Mims uses "ho" and worse epithets in his chart-topping song "This Is Why I'm Hot," columnist Michelle Malkin asked: "What kind of relief do we get from this deadening, coarsening, dehumanizing barrage from young, black rappers and their music-industry enablers?"

The Rev. DeForest B. Soaries Jr., who as pastor of the Rutgers coach helped mediate the Imus imbroglio, said Friday that he is organizing a nationwide initiative to address the culture that "has produced language that has denigrated women."

"We have to begin working on a response to the larger problem," he said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, among the loudest critics calling for Imus' termination, indicated that entertainment is the next battleground. "We will not stop until we make it clear that no one should denigrate women," he said after Imus' firing. "We must deal with the fact that ho and the b-word are words that are wrong from anybody's lips.

"It would be wrong if we stopped here and acted like Imus was the only problem. There are others that need to get this same message."

It is a message that was spreading even before Imus' comments.

After "Seinfeld" actor Michael Richards was castigated for a racist on-stage rant, the New York City Council passed a symbolic resolution banning the n-word, and other cities around the country have passed similar measures.

Cultural critic, author and columnist Stanley Crouch, a longtime foe of rap music, suspected the Imus ordeal would galvanize young black women across the country. He said a key moment was when the Rutgers players appeared at a news conference this week — poised, dignified and defying stereotypes seen in rap videos and "dumb" comedies.

"When the public got to see these women, what they were, it was kind of shocking," Crouch said. "It made accepting the denigration not quite as comfortable as it had been for far too long."

Some defenders of rap music and hip-hop culture, such as the pioneering mogul Russell Simmons, deny any connection between Imus and hip-hop. They describe rap lyrics as reflections of the violent, drug-plagued, hopeless environments that many rappers come from. Instead of criticizing rappers, defenders say, critics should improve their reality.

"Comparing Don Imus' language with hip-hop artists' poetic expression is misguided and inaccurate and feeds into a mindset that can be a catalyst for unwarranted, rampant censorship," Simmons said in a statement Friday.

The superstar rapper Snoop Dogg also denied any connection to Imus. "(Rappers) are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports," he told MTV.com. "We're talking about hos that's in the 'hood that ain't doing (expletive) that's trying to get a (expletive) for his money."

Criticism of rap is nothing new — it began soon after the music emerged from New York City's underclass more than 30 years ago.

In 1990, the rapper-turned actor Queen Latifah challenged rap's misogyny in her hit song "U.N.I.T.Y." In 1993, C. Delores Tucker, who was chairwoman of the National Political Congress of Black Women Inc., led an organized movement — which included Congressional hearings — condemning sexist and violent rap.

That same year, the Rev. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem drove a steamroller over a pile of tapes and CDs.

In 2004, students at Spelman College, a black women's college in Atlanta, became upset over rapper Nelly's video for his song "Tip Drill," in which he cavorts with strippers and swipes a credit card between one woman's buttocks. The rapper wanted to hold a campus bone marrow drive for his ailing sister, but students demanded he first participate in a discussion about the video's troubling images. Nellydeclined.

In 2005, Essence magazine launched its "Take Back the Music" campaign. Writers such as Joan Morgan and Kierna Mayo and filmmaker Byron Hurt also have tackled the issue recently.

T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, author of "Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women" and a professor at Vanderbilt University, said many black women resist rap music and hip-hop culture, but their efforts are largely ignored by mainstream media. As an example, the professor pointed to "Rap Sessions," the 10-city tour in which she's participating. She said the tour and its central question — does hip-hop hate women? — have gotten very little mainstream media coverage.

"It's only when we interface with a powerful white media personality like Imus that the issue is raised and the question turns to "Why aren't you as vociferous in your critique of hip-hop?' We have been! You've been listening to the music but you haven't been listening to the protests from us."

Crouch said that change in rap music and entertainment likely won't come fast, because corporations are still profiting from the business — but it's coming.

"I've been on (rappers) for 20 years," Crouch said. "I was in the civil-rights movement. I know it takes a long time when you're standing up against extraordinary money and great power. But we're beginning to see a shift."

http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070414/LIFE13/704140418
last edited: 4/15/07 3:35:42 PM”

“If people don't like a product, don't buy it. If something doesn't sell, people won't make it.”

“bla bla bla, now that Imus has lost his show Sharpton and others will go back to their mansions and forget about this issue until another white guy steps in it.”

“And again, it's gotta be asked; where are all the Dixie Chick supporters who cried about them being black balled for unpopular speech?”

“Do you not understand the difference between political speech and racist speech? Presidents and 19-20 year old college girls?


BTW - I never called for Imus to lose his job (although I would expect to lose mine for saying something similar on the job).”

“Is racist speech illegal? As it pertains to 'free speech' what is the difference?

Would you lose you're job for sitting at your desk all day and talking on the radio? If not, then I don't see the comparison.”

“"Is racist speech illegal? As it pertains to 'free speech' what is the difference?"

I don't suppose racist speech is illegal, though it is reprehensible.

Imus was not fired by "the law", he was fired by a private business.
I reckon they are free to hire and fire for their own reasons.

Imus wasn't blackballed, he was fired.”

“I have no problem with Imus losing his show. That's Capitalism and Private Industry working the way its supposed to work. My problem is the hypocrisy of people screaming that he should be fired for doing the same thing that other American's can do without getting the same inflammatory speech thrown their way.”

“Sexist? Yes. Inappropriate? Highly. Racist? Debatable. It certainly is not as black and white as violin and his politically correct white-male hating crowd would have us believe. It crosses racial lines. I remember the term "nappy hair" from my childhood, and I've been reading much the same from people elsewhere.

Screw Imus. He did something highly stupid on the job and received the logical consequence. And screw race-baiting vigilante-wannabes like violin. The only good thing to come of this is the highlighting of societal double standards.

Edit: my lilly-white afroed aunt remembers the term used on her from her childhood, for example.
last edited: 4/16/07 10:13:00 AM”

“You seem to have a misconception about what free speech means, hyway. We are protected from governmental restrictions on speech, not free to say whatever we want and not get fired for it.”

“I know exactly what free speech means. I am just trying to figure out what it is you see is the difference between racist speech and political speech. They are both legally protected speech. I have no problem with that. Its the free enterprise system that makes a societal distinction between the two that can result in someone being fired for one speech and not the other. And I have no problem with that.

What I have a problem with is someone like Sharpton (and apparently you) who sets a societal acceptance level higher for one group of people than another.”

“The only thing worse than the government trying to control speech is the moral minority doing it. To quote a good friend who I spoke to about it, "Thomas Jefferson would be turning over in his grave.".”

“Jefferson would support the right of someone to speak false facts injurious to the reputation of another?”

“No he would support the freedom of unpopular speech.”

“But the Rutgers Lady Knights are not whores. To say so is slander. As far as I know, Jefferson would oppose legal protection for slander.”

“All the man had to do was to leave nappy headed ho's alone and he wouldnt be in this trouble. I don't feel sorry for him.”

“LOL! Come now V. I think your definition of legal slander is a bit oversensitive if not overly literal. Do you honestly think that Imus calling girls 'hos' he is implying they have sex for money?”

“V is funny to watch when he gets self righteous.”

“No Nigal. It was an offensive racist and sexist insult. Almost everyone saw it that way. That's why the reaction was as great as it was.”

“Violin, no, the reaction wasn't as great as it was because it was an offensive racist and sexist insult, the reaction was as great as it was because it was a white dude that said it and thus easy to confront. Lets see if this great reaction carries over to rap music and black comedians.”

“Of course it was sexist and racist. No one denies that. But have you noticed that the actual girls who were called nappy headed hos are the ones showing the most class? And again, it's only as bad as it is because Imus is a white male. Had Dave Cheppel said it everyone would be laughing their asses off about it.”

“nigga, PLEASE!”

“How many of you heard it first hand? I'll bet none, the news media made it be heard by the whole nation- they should all be fired , including you yap heads.”

“Thank you, ignorance.
Thank you for starting the conversation.
Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutgers team story.
And for making us wonder what other great stories we’ve missed.
Thank you for reminding us to think before we speak.
Thank you for showing us how strong and poised 18 and 20-year-old women can be.
Thank you for reminding us that another basketball tournament goes on in March.
Thank you for showing us that sport includes more than the time spent on the court.
Thank you for unintentionally moving women’s sport forward.
And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have a long way to go.
Next season starts 11.16.07

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=3046660”

“I would wager that I have spent more time with black people than anyone on this forum via my former job and the military. I have heard the phrases "#&%!$" and "ho" so many times I could scream. I once attempted to explain to a young fellow how such derogatory labels for the women of his race was doing harm to all members of his race. I don't think it did any good. I have lost all hope for the black community at large to overcome the massive social problems they have. A birthrate of over 80% with single mothers virtualy guarantees poverty and ignorance. And that goes for the white race also. As to Imus and his flap, I do not like talk radio of any pollitical bent. He showed very poor judgement in his words, but was nothing as course and vulgar as the rappers that spew their poison daily and get payed well for it at that. Well, I have vented now, I should feel better.”

“word up, b!tches”

“[img]http://bp1.blogger.com/_RaRg5_v_Eus/RiLdiOcVevI/AAAAAAAAAaw/frjLk5WA7G4/s1600-h/gmSharptonJackson.jpg[img]


Well that didn't work, did it?
Someone who knows how, please fix this for me. Thanks.
last edited: 4/25/07 3:07:03 PM”

“Hey BS, good to see ya. The addie doesn't have the www in it but even when I put that in it didn't work.”

“One of the young women said that what Imus said had scared her for life. I'm saddened that anyone who has accomplished what she has in her young life would allow anything that jackass said have that kind of effect one her.”

“

I did it!!!! I'm not as inept as I thought. (I put a back-slash in the last img box.)

Hello to you also Nigel. It is good to have time to post every now and then.
last edited: 4/25/07 3:25:35 PM”

““One of the young women said that what Imus said had scared her for life. I'm saddened that anyone who has accomplished what she has in her young life would allow anything that jackass said have that kind of effect one her.”

That's not a sign of strong words but weak esteem.”

“Exactly what I thought, but I passed. She better get ready for a rocky life if that's all she got. Better not post here, lol.”

“i hate myself for saying this, but i agree with NobProbe”

“no, i think she said al sharpton had scared her for life.”

“Hell, that's worse.”

“What she said was that the experience of racism in the public eye scarred her for life, not Imus' remarks themselves. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0704/10/se.01.html”

“wrong quote v”

“So you really meant to type scared, not scarred?



AJAVON: Personally, and, you know, even speaking for, you know, my teammates, you know, I think it kind of scares us, you know? We kind of -- we grew up in a world where, you know, of course, racism exists, and there's nothing we can do to, you know, change that.

I think we've come a long way from where we were, you know, dealing with slavery and things of that sort. But, you know, I think this has scarred me for life, because, you know, I've been -- you know, I've done -- I've dealt with racism before, but you know, for it to be in the public eye like this, you know, it will definitely be something that, you know, I probably will tell my granddaughter or, you know, the next generation, or, you know, even a group of kids from where I came from, you know.

And it's something that needs to be dealt with, and I don't think it's ever going to change. But you know, I'm kind of happy that it even came to this point, where we could address the world, and address athletics, and, you know, address a lot of people that, you know, racism is something serious that we need to, you know, really get across to our nation. ”

“Oops, I made a spelling eror. I guess you finally got something right.”