Posted by
flagwaver on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 7:46:31 PM
In all of the discussion about Don Imus and his comments about the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, much has been made about the involvement of Jessie jackson and Al Sharpton calling for Imus's dismissal. All of the misdeeds of the two men in the past have been dredged up in order to provide cover for those wishing to ignore their vioces in this particular matter.
While I have no love for Sharpton or Jackson, I understand exactly how they feel on this one. Many people are too willing to say that what Don Imus said was just a stupid comment and should be forgiven; besides, Jackson once called New York "Hymietown" while running for President. And Sharpton was infamously involved with the Tawanna Brawley hoax back in the 1980s, so he is certainly not clean in the eye of the public. All of that notwithstanding, I find myself sharing in the outrage, hurt, and anger that Sharpton and Jackson have expressed in the past few days.
I have been called n*gger, coon, and watermelon by people in my lifetime. I have been told to get out of the town that I lived in by a group of unseen, drunken rednecks as my two brothers, Craig and Patrick, a cousin and I walked home from playing basketball at a church in our hometown. So I can understand the feeling of the women of Rutgers as they were called "rough ho's", "nappy headed ho's", and "jigaboo's" for no reason at all. And for once I cheered Al Sharpton as he held Don Imus's feet to the fire and would not let him get away with saying that his comments were just "stupid". And his past history had nothing to do with his standing up against Don Imus and calling his words what they were...racist.
However, some have taken the instance of Don Imus calling the Scarlet Knights "jigaboo" and "ho" to launch into a tirade about the language in rap music. While we can all agree that the language,imagery, and message of much of the rap music out there is reprehensible, let's keep it in the proper perspective.
Rap music is first, last, and always entertainment. It serves the same purpose as television and movies; that is to entertain those that choose to partake of it. As bad as much of this music is, as much as they are calling women b*tches and hoes, it is simply an entertainment medium. Rappers play a role on their records just like actors do on stage or on film. Some of the very names that get bandied about when the conversation turns to the evils of rap music are some of the most straight laced guys in the world. Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eminem, and Ludacris aren't real gangters...they just play one on T.V. When the tour is over, when the record is finished Dr. Dre becomes Andre Young and goes out to his posh neighborhood in L.A. to his wife and kids. Snoop Dogg turns into Calvin Broadus and goes home to help raise his kids; Ludacris becomes Chris Bridges and goes to his suburban Atlanta mansion, Eminem becomes Marshall Mathers, a guy who dotes on his daughter, and Ice Cube becomes O'Shea Jackson and rolls into his L.A. suburb to be a husband and father. These men are not what they say on their records; they are real people with real lives away from the job of being rappers.
That is not to say that much of what passes for hip hop music nowadays has any value, because most of it doesn't. And it is not to say that calling people n*gga, b*tch, or hoe is the way to go, because it isn't. What I am saying is that comparing what any rapper says on a record and what Don Imus said is trying to compare apples to oranges: both are fruits that grow on trees, and that's where the similarities end. As bad as much of the language is on rap records, it is not comparable to what Imus said. At least what is said in rap songs is said in some sort of context; Don Imus simply launched a racist, sexist broadside at a group of women that had done nothing to deserve it. That is the difference between the two.
Don't waste time shedding any tears for Don Imus, or try pretending that his rights have somehow been abridged because they haven't. He exercised his free speech rights, and now he has to live with the consequences of his words. May he choke on his own bile and venom, the mean spirited little coward.
And don't try to turn this into a discussion about what is said on a rap song, because that is just a convenient way to avoid the issue here and compare apples and oranges.