Subject: [SocialistWorker.org] Stupid or racist or both?
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View original article here:
http://socialistworker.org/2008/07/01/stupid-or-racist
Column: Dave Zirin
======== STUPID OR RACIST OR BOTH? ===========================================
Whether Don Imus should be fired has nothing to do with free speech. It's
about whether blatant racism is acceptable in sports and on commercial radio.
July 1, 2008
IS DON Imus irredeemably stupid or just a run-of-the-mill racist? Perhaps the
answer is both.
On June 23, Imus' sports sidekick, Warner Wolf, was going over the incredibly
long arrest history of football star Adam "Pacman" Jones, and Imus just
couldn't help himself, interrupting with the kind of question Rush Limbaugh
would love: "What color is he?" "African-American," said Wolf. "Well, there
you go," harrumphed Imus. "Now we know."
That is the racist part. The stupidity swirls about Imus' subsequent excuse
for the inexcusable. He was apparently--in the proud tradition of the civil
rights movement--standing up for racial justice.
The next day on his show, in a desperate effort to hang onto his job, Imus
claimed, "Obviously, [the police] are picking on him. So I asked Warner what
color he was. Well, obviously, I already knew what color he was. What people
should be outraged about is they arrest Blacks for no reason. There was no
reason to arrest this kid six times. Maybe he did something once, but I mean
everyone does something once." He also said Jones is a "lovely kid."
If you believe that Imus was actually speaking out against racism, you must
also believe the war in Iraq had nothing to do with oil, Bush and Cheney just
joined Amnesty International, and Barack Obama is desperately seeking more
photo ops with Muslim women.
But even if you do believe that Imus has traded in his five-gallon cowboy hat
for a black beret, his own words contradict this. This is the man run out of
CBS radio and MSNBC last year for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team
"nappy-headed hos." This is the man who said that respected African-American
journalist Gwen Ifill looked like "the cleaning lady." This is the man whose
sidekicks routinely indulge in aggressive anti-Arab racism that elicits
chills instead of giggles.
Jones, who despite his arrests and yearlong suspension from the league, has
never actually been convicted of anything, said yesterday, "I'm truly upset
about the comments. Obviously, Mr. Imus has problems with African-Americans.
I'm upset, and I hope the station he works for handles it accordingly. I will
pray for him."
Yet so far, WABC has done nothing. They're seemingly convinced that Imus was
merely making a misunderstood anti-racist statement.
Other defenders have come out of the woodwork, although with allies like
these, Imus won't be gaining any more credibility. For instance, there's Sean
Hannity, who argues, "Do you realize I've heard this guy repeatedly talk
about race relations and the negativity and the negative impact it's had on
people's lives? Don't you think if you heard that these comments would be in
a broader context that you could judge him by before you run out there?"
But even conservative commentators who defended Imus vociferously in the past
have said that this might be a Selma bridge too far. Conservative Michael
Medved, who suggested earlier criticism of Imus to be political correctness
run amok, said on CNN that "it might be time for Imus to go."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IT'S PAST time for Imus to go. It is ridiculous that people like Sean
Hannity--who are all for shredding the Constitution when it comes to the
rights of antiwar protesters or detainees in the "war on terror"--wrap
themselves in the Bill of Rights and champion the First Amendment and "free
speech" when it comes to Imus.
This has nothing to do with free speech. This is about whether blatant racism
is acceptable both in sports and on commercial radio. This is about whether
we embrace the idea that with a microphone comes some measure of
responsibility.
Finally, most critical, this is about whether Imus himself will ever have to
own up to anything. He blamed the Black community and hip-hop for his
comments about the Rutgers women (sure thing, MC Imus). Now he is blaming the
public at large for our own inability to comprehend his supposedly nuanced
and principled brand of anti-racism.
Imus can spare us all the kabuki theater of pretending to show how much he
has learned from the Rutgers incident. Instead, he should actually take some
responsibility by simply apologizing and finding another line of work.
That's not political correctness. It's just a desire to see the kind of real
anti-racism we truly need in this country.
/First published in the/ Nation [1].
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Columnist: Dave Zirin
Dave Zirin is the coauthor, with John Carlos, of /The John Carlos Story/ [2],
and author of /Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love/ [3] and
/A People's History of Sports in the United States/ [4], as well as two
collections of his sports writings, /Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain,
Politics and Promise of Sports/ [5] and /What's My Name, Fool? Sports and
Resistance in the United States/ [6]. He is a columnist for TheNation.com
[7]; his writings are also featured at his Edge of Sports [8] Web site.
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[1] http://www.thenation.com/
[2] http://www.haymarketbooks.org/hc/The-John-Carlos-Story
[3] http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBad-Sports-Owners-Ruining-Games%2Fdp%2F1416554750%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1280122128%26sr%3D8-1&tag=socialistwork-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
[4] http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FPeoples-History-Sports-United-States%2Fdp%2F1595581006%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1216142001%26sr%3D8-1&tag=socialistwork-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
[5] http://www.haymarketbooks.org/product_info.php?products_id=1610
[6] http://www.haymarketbooks.org/product_info.php?products_id=1612
[7] http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/dave_zirin
[8] http://edgeofsports.com
