A couple of items in the news have caused me to ponder our irrational phobia about racism in America. The scandal du jour, which has kept the talk show engines humming, is the firing of Don Imus, who quipped on his national radio and television show that the black, tattooed Rutgers womens basketball team that played for the NCAA championship looked like a bunch of "nappy-headed hos." He was trying to be funny. He was completely in character, eschewing the PC perspective for shock-jock candor. And of course, as everyone realizes (and none more so than Imus himself), he went way over the line.
Like clockwork Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson came out, as unofficial spokespeople for all African-Americans, to jostle for media time and credibility. (As an aside, I bet those two hate each other.) Fearing that they might be accused of insensitivity, or even the support of racism, advertisers started pulling out in droves. And under broadscale attack from prominent blacks nationwide, the networks grudgingly let the axe fall on Mr. Imus' head.
Now here is the thing: No one really thinks Don Imus is a racist. I have heard the tape of the ill-fated show, and I think he was just trying to be funny, before a live national audience, and his brain fell a couple of steps behind his mouth. First, one must be more circumspect when the target of one's humor is female college students, not to mention minorities. These girls are not quite public figures, and are still entitled to that modicum of decency that we all too quickly disregard for celebrities of Hollywood or athletic fame. One certainly does not refer to youthful amateur athletes as "hos," even in jest.
Second, one could pounce upon the term "nappy-headed," which has come to describe kinky and unkempt hair, generally on African-Americans. I heard one black woman on television describe this term as blatantly racially offensive, and I think most of us that are sensitive and exposed to this type of social etymology would avoid using the term to describe blacks. Although, we should admit that this sensitivity is not universally shared. A second woman on the same talk show thought the whole "nappy" hub-bub was related to the slang British term for a diaper, a point of ignorance which I doubt that she will ever in her life live down. And of course, such terms are always subject to a double standard, depending on who is saying them, meaning that rapper Playa Fly can without impunity record the song Nappy Hair and Gold Teeth ("If you growing nappy rolls you and playa super down ...") and turn a profit, presumably selling mostly to blacks.
But most damning in the Imus statement is the subtle link of superficialities common to the African-American culture with moral degradation. Black basketball players have broadly taken to tattoos, which in my personal taste are generally applied in excess. It's only natural that at least some black female basketball players, copying the moves and style of the men, would likely want a few tats of their own. Suggesting that this makes them look like whores is a dangerously implicit generalization about a race and a culture, the kind we are all vulnerable to and must guard against, but particularly those that speak in public forums, like Mr. Imus.
Having gone on too long about this, I have no objection to Imus being fired. But I am intrigued by the double-standard from those that are protesting most loudly. Rap music has taken the debasement of women, particularly black women, and turned it into an art form--and "nappy-headed hos" might be considered a term of endearment compared to some of the lyrics, which have explicitly and graphically advocated violence and sexual abuse to women. Where are the advertisers throwing themselves dramatically in front of the wheels of commerce to "do the right thing"? Where are Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson, expressing outrage and calling for boycotts? Where are the Hollywood liberals, condemning the state of today's rap music as base and perverse? Possibly all waiting for an invitation to one of those legendary parties hosted by top-tier rappers.
Frankly, Don Imus is an easier target. He's one guy. He's getting old, and all claims to cool have passed him by. And, of course, he's white.
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