http://salaamsblog.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/nappy-headed-hos/
I hate to say I told you so, but just a little over a month ago, I did a post about Mr. Don Imus the last time he put his foot in his mouth. Then, the commentary was about Sen. Barack Obama, calling his name a “Jew hating name” among other things. Well, it looks like Imus couldn’t help himself because on April 4th on his “Imus in the Morning” Show, he made more “colorful” comments, that this time, may be his last, though I doubt it… I know many of you have already heard about the comments he called the Rutgers women’s basketball team. I don’t know for sure where the “nappy headed ho’s” comments came from in his mind, but I have my ideas.
Then, the usual players showed up, we know them as the Rev’s Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who are both calling for Imus’s firing. Sharpton had Imus on his radio show today and of course Imus apologized, and Jackson is planning/planned protests outside of NBC. Now for more details, there are a myriad of blogs and sites out there that will fill in the blanks.
What I want to talk about is the obvious foolishness that people (at least major media outlets) aren’t talking about. Granted, this isn’t the first time Imus put his foot in his mouth about blacks and it probably won’t be his last. We can do all the psycho analysis as to why Imus felt the way he did, whether or not it was a joke that went bad, etc. etc. etc.
But what I want to talk about is why is it that calling black women ho’s in general can even be considered a joke. Unlike many blacks, I don’t fault Imus that much. Yes, he was an idiot and possibly a bigot, who knows? What’s making me sick to my stomach though, is the two Rev’s, whom I actually have a great deal of respect for. True to form, they jumped on this Imus situation like white on rice, maybe it’s warranted, maybe it’s not. However, what I’m waiting to see is black people getting up in arms about black women and women in general being called ho’s in music, on TV, etc.
I don’t know, but it seems to me that these black leaders find it easier to protest against white people who say these things but not black people. I mean, why stop at Imus and people like Limbaugh, Newt, etc. (yes, I threw them into this)? Why stop there? Why not protest these hip-hop artists? But more specifically, the industry that promotes and helps create the music that does more damage to black women and women in general, than anything Don Imus could say.
Everyday, on TV women are displayed as pieces of meat, half naked and more, with gyrating, etc. They are actually being called Bitches and Ho’s on cable TV, on the radio, etc. While the two Rev’s have addressed this many times and are taking on the N-word, I have yet to see as much zeal on getting the heads of the Music industries fired. I haven’t heard of any protests against MTV, “BET”, etc. What about the cable companies that broadcasts the stations in their lineup?
Oh this thing is way bigger than Don Imus. In order for Imus to even think that joking about black women as nappy headed ho’s as opposed to I guess their straight haired white teammates, exposes the larger issue at hand: If we as black people don’t have a problem denigrating our women, why should we expect others to do something different? You can judge a people by how they treat their women, is what I was taught in my days in the NOI, so what does that say about black people in America? I mean since we don’t have no problem having our women naked in public shaking their behinds, since we don’t have any problem calling our women ho’s, since we don’t have any problem treating our women as nothing more than objects of lust, who are we to get mad when a non-black uses the same language in a “joke” to refer to our women, that we do in all seriousness?
Should Imus be fired? Maybe, I’m not sure. Either way, I would much rather have Rev’s Sharpton and Jackson use the media and their names better than to make headlines with this. I’m waiting for Jackson to threaten to protest outside of BET, MTV, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Def Jam, etc. etc. I would much rather have us black people use our zeal to get whitey yet again and turn it inward just once. Let’s go after these clowns that promote genocide in the urban areas as “gangsta”, selling poison, prostituting our women, and killing our youth, let’s go after the circus that employs and encourages these clowns, and lastly let’s go after ourselves because change begins not with “we” but with “me”.
I hate to say I told you so, but just a little over a month ago, I did a post about Mr. Don Imus the last time he put his foot in his mouth. Then, the commentary was about Sen. Barack Obama, calling his name a “Jew hating name” among other things. Well, it looks like Imus couldn’t help himself because on April 4th on his “Imus in the Morning” Show, he made more “colorful” comments, that this time, may be his last, though I doubt it… I know many of you have already heard about the comments he called the Rutgers women’s basketball team. I don’t know for sure where the “nappy headed ho’s” comments came from in his mind, but I have my ideas.
Then, the usual players showed up, we know them as the Rev’s Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who are both calling for Imus’s firing. Sharpton had Imus on his radio show today and of course Imus apologized, and Jackson is planning/planned protests outside of NBC. Now for more details, there are a myriad of blogs and sites out there that will fill in the blanks.
What I want to talk about is the obvious foolishness that people (at least major media outlets) aren’t talking about. Granted, this isn’t the first time Imus put his foot in his mouth about blacks and it probably won’t be his last. We can do all the psycho analysis as to why Imus felt the way he did, whether or not it was a joke that went bad, etc. etc. etc.
But what I want to talk about is why is it that calling black women ho’s in general can even be considered a joke. Unlike many blacks, I don’t fault Imus that much. Yes, he was an idiot and possibly a bigot, who knows? What’s making me sick to my stomach though, is the two Rev’s, whom I actually have a great deal of respect for. True to form, they jumped on this Imus situation like white on rice, maybe it’s warranted, maybe it’s not. However, what I’m waiting to see is black people getting up in arms about black women and women in general being called ho’s in music, on TV, etc.
I don’t know, but it seems to me that these black leaders find it easier to protest against white people who say these things but not black people. I mean, why stop at Imus and people like Limbaugh, Newt, etc. (yes, I threw them into this)? Why stop there? Why not protest these hip-hop artists? But more specifically, the industry that promotes and helps create the music that does more damage to black women and women in general, than anything Don Imus could say.
Everyday, on TV women are displayed as pieces of meat, half naked and more, with gyrating, etc. They are actually being called Bitches and Ho’s on cable TV, on the radio, etc. While the two Rev’s have addressed this many times and are taking on the N-word, I have yet to see as much zeal on getting the heads of the Music industries fired. I haven’t heard of any protests against MTV, “BET”, etc. What about the cable companies that broadcasts the stations in their lineup?
Oh this thing is way bigger than Don Imus. In order for Imus to even think that joking about black women as nappy headed ho’s as opposed to I guess their straight haired white teammates, exposes the larger issue at hand: If we as black people don’t have a problem denigrating our women, why should we expect others to do something different? You can judge a people by how they treat their women, is what I was taught in my days in the NOI, so what does that say about black people in America? I mean since we don’t have no problem having our women naked in public shaking their behinds, since we don’t have any problem calling our women ho’s, since we don’t have any problem treating our women as nothing more than objects of lust, who are we to get mad when a non-black uses the same language in a “joke” to refer to our women, that we do in all seriousness?
Should Imus be fired? Maybe, I’m not sure. Either way, I would much rather have Rev’s Sharpton and Jackson use the media and their names better than to make headlines with this. I’m waiting for Jackson to threaten to protest outside of BET, MTV, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Def Jam, etc. etc. I would much rather have us black people use our zeal to get whitey yet again and turn it inward just once. Let’s go after these clowns that promote genocide in the urban areas as “gangsta”, selling poison, prostituting our women, and killing our youth, let’s go after the circus that employs and encourages these clowns, and lastly let’s go after ourselves because change begins not with “we” but with “me”.
