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Double Standard?
By Rob | April 19, 2007
I want to start this out by saying that I don’t condone what Don Imus said about that women’s basketball team. To call them “Nappy-haired ho’s” is inexcusable and deplorable. Don Imus is right there with Rush Limbaugh in Douchebag-land.
But, Bill Maher raised a good point on his show. Was Imus excercising free speech? Did he have a right to say that? By removing his program, are we denying him his constitutional right to say what he wants?
At the same time, much rap music refers to women as “bitches and ho’s.” Why is that allowed if what Imus says isn’t? Where’s Al Sharpton in these situations? Is it because a white man said it? Is the black community allowed to say what it wants about women, but when a white man does it the shit hits the fan?
In my opinion, none of it is right. But where do we draw the line? I know I’m asking a lot of questions here, and not answering them – but I want some feedback. I want to know what people think about these issues.
Bill Maher, in his recent conversation with Reverend Al Sharpton brought up the word “nigger.” Michael Richards said it. It was said on South Park. It’s said in rap music all the time. If this is a word that offends the black community so much, why is it such a big part of rapculture? To an outsider to that culture like mysaelf, it seems the word is complimentary when said from one black man to another, but as soon as a white man says it – everyone is gunning for his head.
I need some answers on this.
Topics: Ethics, Rob | 2 Comments »
April 19th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Were this an isolated incident, I would side with Imus. Free speech is one of the most valuable things that we, as Americans, possess. If every radio talk show host who offended someone, (or even a whole bunch of someones), was fired, we would soon have no more talk radio! Was this particular incident blown out of proportion? Yes. However, this was not an isolated incident. Imus has made many a racial slur towards many a racial group. (Some examples can be found here.) Simply put, the man is an both a racist and tactless individual.
It’s not difficult to figure out why his sponsors left. Without those sponsors, it’s not difficult to understand why he was fired. Do I think that he should have been fired for the comment? No. However, looking at his history of insensitivity and racism, I do think that this backlash against him was pretty much inevitable.
My views on free speech go hand in hand with those of Voltaire. He wrote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Imus had the right to say whatever he damn well wanted to. He still has the right. However, people have a right not to listen to him, and that’s what has happened. People have decided that they’ve heard enough.
April 25th, 2007 at 11:41 am
It was a slow news week when that happened. If there was some shooting that week or something else to cling to it would not have been an issue. News programs and channels try to sell the news. if they are not interesting enough no one will buy it. so on slow weeks you see stories on things blown way out of proportion. a few weeks ago while I was at work Fascist(Fox) news channel was running a story on how seggregated schools are. they were at a school in the buffalo area and they were asking the kids in the lunchroom why they were sitting in the groups they were in (mostly black kids together and mostly white kids together). the kids responded that they were sitting with their friends and that was the deciding factor but when you got back to the reporter it was suddenly the prejudice and racial tension that was driving our society to an end. Thats just the kind of stuff that happens when they don’t have a pop celebrity to cover or someone going on a killing spree.