Imus and the hypocrites

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: I don’t care if Don Imus lost his job. I don’t like Don Imus, nor any of the breed. They have lowered the intelligence of America. While I support their right to speak, I support the right of CBS and MSNBC to pull the plug from the loudspeaker.

Is that clear?

According to one of dozens of stories, this one in the Miami Herald (read it here), Black leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton met with the president of CBS and helped get Don Imus fired for his calling a women's basketball team “nappy headed hos,” with Jackson calling the firing a “victory for public decency,” and Sharpton coming out against “commercialized racism and sexism.”

Now, let’s point out another seemingly glaring bit of the obvious. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are hypocrites. And so is every single commentator, black or white, left or right, who has clamored for the head of Don Imus while at the same time remaining silent about the violence, racism and sexism in popular Black culture.


“Nappy headed hos?” Disgusting. Racist and sexist. But the fact is, you can listen to far worse stopped at any intersection in Portland or Eugene or Salem or Bend as some bass-addled teen next you in a slammed Civic or Evo shakes the tarmac with Rap. The river of violent, denigrating, misogynist profanity coming from Rap is a far worse commercialization of racism and sexism than a two-second comment from Don Imus.

It would be far more potent for the leaders of the Black community, even tired old pols like Sharpton and Jackson, to join Bill Cosby in his disgust over the loss of another generation of young black men and women to stereotypical rage. And the right wing should remember the value of providing education and opportunity to every American, especially the underprivileged.

Here’s praying for the opportunity to vote for Barak Obama.