So it turns out that Don Imus, to whom I've never been able to listen for more than about 90 seconds and whose appeal has always completely escaped me (he just reminds me too much of the kind-of-creepy, dirty, homeless guy who crutches around Ballston getting angry at everyone for nothing and mumbling a lot to himself), but who is a well-known "media" person, has gotten into a bit of hot water for referring last week to members of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."
That's such a disgusting comment that it's difficult for me to understand how any human being could say such a thing. "Nappy-headed" is intended to let everyone know that these young women are African American, but it's more than that. It's an insult to African American people for being African American, for being born with hair that isn't "good hair," nice, straight, blonde hair like all good Aryans, I mean, Americans are supposed to have. And Imus has rightly gotten into a shitload of trouble for it. WaPo says:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and about 50 people marched Monday outside Chicago's NBC tower to protest Imus' comments. He said MSNBC should abandon Imus and MSNBC should hire more black pundits.
Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP board of directors, said it is "past time his employers took him off the air."
"As long as an audience is attracted to his bigotry and politicians and pundits tolerate his racism and chauvinism to promote themselves, Don Imus will continue to be a serial apologist for prejudice," Bond said.
Imus was mostly contrite in his appearance with Sharpton, although the activist did not change his opinion that Imus should lose his job.
Which is all to the good, but I'm wondering where the outrage is over the second part of Imus' remark: "hos"? Because as sure as "nappy-headed" is used to insult someone for being born African American, "ho" is used to insult someone for being born with a vagina, instead of the "good sexual organ" -- a penis -- that all good Aryans, I mean Americans, are supposed to have. Maybe I just haven't seen it, but why wasn't NOW marching outside of NBC's office and why isn't Imus having to go pretend to apologize to feminist America?
5 comments:
I agree, Hecate. I do think it likely that for Imus the "ho" is aimed at African American women in particular.
But there's a third level of insult beyond those two. Sex workers generally aren't happy to send the news home to Mom and Dad. "Ho" is not something of which to be proud. In another world, perhaps being a courtesan or a temple prostitute would be a valued part of the culture, but not in this one.
So for Imus, the suggestion is that the team is unworthy because of their hair, and thereby implying their race and because they are only paid recepticles for sperm.
OT,
Hecate, in case you hadn't seen it already, there's a lecture available online by E.O. Wilson that you might be interested in - at least based on what I've read of you as a lurker here and at Atrios' joint.
PCs or MACs with Quicktime can view it directly at Norm Jenson's OneGoodMove weblog (just click on the graphic to start it; or on the blank space where the image should be... which happens sometimes on my PC).
For non-Quicktime folk (Windows Media, maybe other apps??), Jenson also offers a link for downloading/saving the .mov file.
Whole thing runs 24:21, but first ~00:45 and last ~2:00 is BMW car advertising.
RglrLrkr
Imus is a stupid-headed fucktard.
We can now all enjoy listening to:
"Anus in The Morning."
Excuse me, but this morning I'm wishing I was one of those Rutgers players. Because if I've ever heard a better defamation of character lawsuit, I can't remember it. Imus accused every member of the Rutgers basketball team of breaking the law. (Yo, it ain't legal to ho, yo.)
I'm crossing my fingers that those young women sue Imus personally and all the networks who carry his "show."
You're the lawyer, Hecate. What do you think? Blog us your opinion!
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