Friday, April 13, 2007

Jason Whitlock nails it...

"Don Imus jaywalked and got the death penalty".

Along with "Play the victim and end up on Oprah".

He also felt that Jesse Jackson should apologize to the Duke players...

He was on tv tonight - responding to questions regarding his article written in the Kansas City Star. Some selected parts:

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

Thank you Jason...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The difference is Imus was on broadcast radio and TV.

Traci said...

Uh, Anonymous...Dave Chappelle was on TV too. So are Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, and many other black comedians who get big laughs with the same language that Imus used.

Oh, and let's not forget all the rap artists who get paid millions to rap about the same stuff.

Don't see any of them losing their gigs.

I think Jason Whitlock nailed it, as you said Lisa Renee.

Yes, what Imus said was wrong, it was sexist and racist, but did it warrant him being fired? No.

Anonymous said...

Words are just words. We put the power behind the words. Just about any statement can be portrayed or bent to suit the listener. Do I think what he said was right? No, I find it rather insensitive of him. However, he is what he is and we can't change that. We can't stop the KKK from marching on Washington either. Take it for what it is, one man's rant. No matter how mislead we may think he is. The media circus brought the issue to light and in a way feeds into the racial discrimination propaganda that sells newspapers and hikes television ratings. Shock value sells because we allow it to.

*shock* but children could have heard what he said! Yes many children have inevitably heard the "nappy headed ho's" statement. But ask yourself where did they hear it? My kids didn't hear it from Imus' show, they heard it blasted over the media networks reporting the incident. My job as a parent. "yes sweet heart there are people in this world that don't know tolerance. There are people in this world that say hurtful things. That's ok, everyone has a voice. You have the power to take those words with a grain of salt or take them to heart. We can't control what others think, say or do. Nor should we be able to."

Scott G said...

Jackson won't apologize to the Duke players. Even if they didn't do it, in Jackson's eyes, some white man sometime and somewhere has gotten away with it and it is only fair that these white kids pay.

Cyberseaer said...

The ironic thing of it all is that some black broadcasters (from other backgrounds like Snopp Dog and Steve Harvey) said that there are certain words black people can say and white people can't. Now if a white broadcaster said that, Jackson and Sharpton would demand that person's head on a platter. What the black broadcasters didn't get is that if Imus can be fired over a two second nothing bad joke, then they could be next for anything as well.

To make an extreme comparsion here, this is how the Nazis started. A little bit here and there and over a few short years there was World War II. Now am I saying black "leadership" are evil as the Nazis. Of course not, let's not get silly here. But I am saying that they did used bully tactics like the Nazis for the good of their community.

I teach my children to get along with everyone, no matter what race, regilion, or creed, but to realize that you won't be able to because of difference of opinion and idiotic acts like this issue. When people like Jackson and Sharpton use an non issue like this to get them back in the limelight, there are seperating the races even more to the point that we are back in the 1950s again. When Martin Lurther King, Jr. had his dream, I really believe that this wasn't part of it.

I hope that one day the young women of the Rutgers basketball team look back at this moment one day and be ashamed of thier part in it and apologize for it publicly.

Ona side note here, this is exactly the reason why I don't let my kids watch the news; they don't need crap like this in their lives when it concerns noone. Thank you to all the media reporters that continue to trash a once nobel profession into a ratings grabbing piece of crap.

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Jason did indeed "nail it."

"Don Imus jaywalked and got the death penalty."

Yeah, but Don has been "jaywalking" most of his adult life, he's way overdue for semi to the head. . .