The Don Imus/Rutgers University Blog Round Up: Part Two
Published April 17, 2007
This is part two of the Don Imus/Rutgers University Blog Round Up. These are selected blogs (or articles) that have come under my radar about the comments Don Imus made several days ago. He has since been fired by CBS Radio.
I was originally not going to do a part two because the issue has pretty much died out in the media, but somewhere, someone at 5 in the morning, like me, is still working up a frenzy. Someone is still claiming that it's the fault of the horrible "left-wing" and that the "right-wing" needs to take over. Somewhere, some blogger is criticizing the Rutgers University team for "looking rough."
We start this time with the gossip site Bossip, which declares the real reason the team was sore and upset was that their team "lost." The site even goes on to say that Essence Carson looks like a "broke low-rent Dwyane Wade." As we all know, the Internet is the dark corner of the universe where we can do good and evil at the same time. I pray this individual doesn't ever see daylight. He might actually scare children.
Next up is Republican blogger Diogenes Lamp, who claims this kind of radio is "tasteless, low-brow and offensive," but that it's quite "entertaining." Really? Stand out on a street corner and speak those same three words Imus used. You would be beaten so bad you wouldn't know your home telephone number afterwards.
Ed Strong makes a good point in his entry on the matter by stating that we have a problem with racism in America. Once again, though, the bullet is aimed at Snoop Dogg for doing songs like “Can You Control Yo Hoe and Break a Bitch Til I Die.” You really can't blame Snoop; he's too high all the time to care.
Mr. Strong also believes Snoop Dogg is a bigot. How?
He's no more a bigot than he is a genius. He's just a lucky man from the streets who used his street education to make him money in the rap game. So far, he has won and there hasn't been this big an outcry from people to get rid of him. It's possible the reason people haven’t made a big deal out of it on his end is because he is being marketed for two sets of people: suburban white-kids who will act, but never see the ghetto, and black kids/adults who live in the ghetto.
Since the former group is bored by seeing too many tacky houses and the latter feel like their voice isn't heard, they will buy the music that supports their mood. In this case, mostly rap music.
Another bigot decides to chime in on the situation with Imus - Musician Kinky Friedman. Kinky (I'm sorry the word projects laughter) states that if we lose the will "to laugh at each other" and "laugh together" that the political Correctness society will kill us all. Of course he's a friend to Imus himself. Someone call Garth Brooks, quick!
That's all for Part two of the Don Imus/Rutgers University Blog Round Up. Three, anyone?
- The Don Imus/Rutgers University Blog Round Up: Part Two
- Published: April 17, 2007
- Type: News
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Blogging, Culture: Society, Culture: Media
- Writer: Matthew Milam
- Matthew Milam's BC Writer page
- Matthew Milam's personal site
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I don't have a low opinion of anyone. I am black my damn self. I am stating the fact the way Snoop Dogg is marketed, he is targeted for those two groups. How in the hell does that state I hate black people?
Secondly, I'll see if the editor will allow the full sentence.
Third, if you are a liberal and listening to him in "small doses", you are no better than the right-wingers who sell him as god.
Alright, I've sent in the changes -- let's see what happens.
I don't think that your being black is relevant, but it's good to hear that you don't have a low opinion of anyone, even though your saying "...you are no better than the right-wingers who sell him as god" seems to strongly suggest that you have a low opinion of said right-wingers.
"Third, if you are a liberal and listening to him in "small doses"...
Who do you mean by "him"? I live in Melbourne, Australia. We have our own radio shows and don't have to import American rubbish. I have never listened to Don Imus in my life.
Nevertheless, I stick with the point that you think is so important. When I am in Sydney or Brisbane on holiday, in the short time while I am having a shower and getting dressed it is entertaining to turn on the radio to whoever the local lunatic is, arguing with callers and expectorating bile in all directions.
This link is worth a read.
I would like to summarise my actually important points, so readers here are not bogged down with the notion that I find Don Imus - to whom I have never listened - entertaining.
1) It was cowardly and hypocritical of CBS and the show's sponsors to sack Imus when confronted with power-hungry, race-baiting bullies like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
2) The dream of Martin Luther King has been trashed and corrupted by people like Sharpton, who inevitably judges people by the colour of their skin rather than the content of their character, by latter-day segregationists like the New Black Panthers, and by the mind-numbing and morally corrupting influence of rap music.
A new Martin Luther King is badly needed to give the best kind of moral and intellectual leadership to young blacks.
Demanding, no-nonsense teachers, like the teacher that Thomas Sowell had at his school in Harlem in the 1940s, would also be of great help in giving black children the basis for success in life. The education system is letting blacks down abominably, but not in the way that the American teachers' unions think.
Imus is a public figure making racist comments on air. And unlike rappers or comedians, his racism is directed toward a group of young women in particular who did not choose a lifestyle in which they would expect to be called hos. They are not on television for dancing provacatively or being half-naked. They are not on television because they embody the stereotype of loud ghetto girls. These are young ladies in college, whose parents and guardians who pay for their education are proud. And they should be. Not only do they have to maintain a certain GPA to be on the team, but they took the team far this season. And the way they have handled themselves, espcially during this "scandal" has been admirable. They warrant more respect than to be called nappy headed hos. I think that a distinction should be made with people. A man strung out behind the garbage in an alley might expect to be called a junkie or a druggie. The women who show up to the auditions of hip hop videos know what they will be referred to as in the music they dance half naked to. They are the ones who have to answer to those who call them hos. But not the young ladies of the Rutgers Basketball team.
Very Funny Imus parody on You Tube
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With regard to your comment about Diogenes' Lamp I'm afraid you are being rather naughty and quoting me out of context. I wrote:
"So this kind of radio may be tasteless, low-brow and offensive, but IN SMALL DOSES it can be very entertaining."
The amount of confrontational radio I would listen to would be approximately one hour a year, always while I am in another city where I am not familiar with the radio personalities.
I am not a Republican - in fact I am not even an American. I am Australian, and a Liberal Party voter.
With regard to your last - totally irrelevant - comment, I'm sorry that you have such a low opinion of blacks. I have been to New York a few times and found the blacks to be a good deal more peaceable and helpful than the whites.