The racist is fired! Long live the (other) racists

Just my $0.02

tis a sad day when two of the biggest racists in the United States can get together and get another racist fired.

tis a sad day when two of the biggest racists in the United States can get together and get another racist fired.

Almost exactly MM, almost exactly.

The sad thing is that, even though Imus (and his cast of characters, side-kicks, etc.) have done a lot of abusive things, some racist, some sexist, some bigotted and biased in many other ways,  he has also done some good along the way too.

Please let me be clear here and say that his using the "I'm a good person that said a bad thing" was bogus, and him using any of the "but I've done great things to help several charities" to help blunt the criticism was weak and wrong too.

But... if someone really examines the man's accomplishments a bit, then yes, they really do have to acknowledge that he's done great things for some charities over time.  He helped raise a good bit of money for research into SIDS -- Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.   He has also worked on "his ranch" for kids suffering from tragic diseases.   Noble causes to be sure.

None of which excuses the bad behavior, but definitely underscored by the irony in the timing of his firing.

His suspension was originally delayed because of his yearly radiothon to raise money for these charities.  He's now gone.  The radiothon may continue, and money may be raised for these causes, but who knows for sure how the fundraising will have been impacted?!

I say "almost exactly" above only because I'd have to slow down and say that it wasn't just Al and Jesse that got Imus fired, and actually wasn't really them at all.  No one got Imus fired except Imus and perhaps his friend and side-kick McGuirk.  They have no one but themselves to blame for making the comments that they did.  Imus has no one but himself to blame for not manning up and apologizing immediately.  It became a huge mess because of lame attempts to dig out of the hole.

And finally, it wasn't really Al and Jesse because there were a lot of other individuals involved that fanned the flames and stoked the fires that got Imus fired.  A lot more mainstream names, rather than just Al and Jesse.  Imus made himself toxic, and a lot of people looked at how toxic he had become, how toxic he had been, and they decided to speak up.

That includes the behind the scenes people at MSNBC, and I'm sure a lot of behind the scenes people at CBS that demanded these results.  People that demanded these results *regardless of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson*

Sharpton and Jackson may thump their chests a bit and try to take credit for the results, but they most certainly are not the reason that things wound up as they did.  They were just there trying to take advantage of a situation that might get them more publicity.

Yep, we should all do the happy dance over the victory of the PC Police and the death of freedom of expression in this nation.

At one time people had the freedom to express themselves even if what they had to say was unpopular or offensive. Thankfully the PC Police have finally put an end to this shameful freedom and have brought us closer to that perfect society where nothing will ever be discussed again due to the fear of hurting someone's feelings.

Long live Political Correctness!

Yep, we should all do the happy dance over the victory of the PC Police and the death of freedom of expression in this nation. At one time people had the freedom to express themselves even if what they had to say was unpopular or offensive. Thankfully the PC Police have finally put an end to this shameful freedom and have brought us closer to that perfect society where nothing will ever be discussed again due to the fear of hurting someone's feelings. Long live Political Correctness!

I'm no fan of political correctness or of the white-washing and censoring of things from our history.  A good example of why (for me) is the thought that companies like Walt Disney will never again release or make available a film that I remember seeing in my youth: Song of the South.  Why?  Because there is a belief that it demeans Blacks.

Disney has locked that movie away in their vaults and kept it there because they don't want to take the heat for a portrayal of a time in our country's history when Blacks were normally kept off in other areas of the plantation, rather than in the main house.  Ironically though in what I remember of Song of the South the smartest person in the movie was Uncle Remus, who was able to tell tales with great morals and teach life lessons through the use of those tales.

Song of the South also featured the use of the tar baby, a term that is seen as derogatory.  If seen in context of S.o.t.S., then Tar Baby has a completely different and much more reasonable meaning.

Anyway, there are certainly efforts to censor at least one side of the conversation while the other side creates new meanings for some words, creates new words, and comes up with a lot of ways of hurling insults that are many times worse when used by people that aren't of the same race.  That severely irritates me and makes me think of just how ignorant some people really are.

On the issue of freedom of speech though, I'm not sure that we've seen that much loss here.  Imus was able to say what he wanted, but he had to face the potential repurcussions of his words.  Those repurcussions included advertisers dropping their sponsorships which put pressure on the syndicators and owners of the radio network and TV network that carried the show.

Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee anyone the biggest platform in the area to use to make their speeches from.  Imus still has his freedom to say whatever he wants, he just won't have the audience that he had in the past and won't have the same avenues of communication open that he had.  At least not without finding a new radio or TV job, or not without being a guest on someone else's program.

And that my friend is the real problem. That a person who works in the broadcasting industry has to work in fear for their job because of a potential slip of the tongue that is in no way in violation of FCC regulations.

Do you honestly believe, with his 40 year history in broadcasting, that the sponsors somehow weren't aware of what kind of show he does or what kind of goofball personality he portrays?

This is shameful in every possible way. People who work in broadcasting should be free to say whatever they want to say, within the FCC regs, and within the laws regarding calls to violence, etc. If people don't want to listen they can change the station. Words can not and do not harm anyone, especially a bad joke.

The sponsors and employers didn't give in to any big public outcry, nor should they. They caved in to a very small but very noisy group of gadflies who will latch onto anything possible that allows them to propel themselves back into the spotlight in order to promote themselves.

Those people lack any credibility at all. Where are their cries out against the rap music industry? Where are the protests and boycotts of the music labels that produce the rap artists? Where are the cries to boycott B.E.T and comedy clubs that allow black comedians to get onto a stage and use the very same "degrading and harmful" language? Where is their apology to the Duke Lacrosse players? I sure haven't heard or read one. They're just a bunch of nappy-headed hoes trying to suck up as much media attention as they can get at any opportunity.

It's all a bunch of hyped up phony outrage and I find it shameful that these people caved in to it instead of standing on principle.

First off, charity doesn't make you less toxic. I know you said that, but a lot of good things have come from charities that Jesse has supported. Doesn't make him any less racist.

Secondly, PC police? Imus is still free to say whatever he wants. He just can't get paid by CBS or MSNBC for it anymore. If he could, I doubt there would be much of an apology or at least he would be back at again before too long. At the end of the day, it's the money that talks.

Also, I liked Song of the South as well but come on, it really does degrade Blacks. It was on par for our culture at the time, but things like are sometimes just left in the past.

Finally, black people have been calling for change and boycotting BET for years. Here is just one letter http://www.emergingminds.org/beaboutit.html

What would be the principle to stand up on? That's it's okay to totally degrade hard working black women who did nothing to provoke attack? Again, Imus is free to say what he likes, we are also free to respond.

Also, I liked Song of the South as well but come on, it really does degrade Blacks. It was on par for our culture at the time, but things like are sometimes just left in the past.

Left in the past and never learned from at all?  Not learned from as a means of discussing how Blacks were treated during the early part of our countries history?  Left in that past.

That's part of the problem with locking away all of these things and never discussing them or leaving them for only one side to be able to talk about.   If we don't learn from them, and don't acknowledge that they ever happened have we really progressed or are we just fooling ourselves into thinking that we are better because we are able to police this content so much better than before?

Vilifying Imus is like doing the happy dance when you no longer have open Herpes lessions.  It does nothing for the fact you are still infected.  Thanks to racists like Jackson and Sharpton, the infection is still there - and very potent.

Vilifying Imus is like doing the happy dance when you no longer have open Herpes lessions. It does nothing for the fact you are still infected.

Excellent analogy Dr Guy and pretty much sums up what I've been thinking and trying to say in the above article.  The disease is definitely still there, but people seemed to have accepted that Jackson and Sharpton are scabs that will occassionally show up on open sores.

For all you said about, I will use South Park's quote: "You don't get it. The point is all about the fact that you don't get it."

It's easy to preach the cessation of the anti-racist witch-hunt commited by the blacks when you are a white, and for all the good reasons. But the blacks still are among the poorest and worst-treated peoples in USA. It's easy to say that it's their hip hop culture that encourage them to commit crime, since it calls for it, but it's probably the other way around - life of crime is the only thing this country usually let them aspire to, so they glorify it.

Since we are white people, it's easy to denigrate these people. Just as it is easy for a man to denigrate the feminist movement when they act on pseudo-sexist act. But they still have a fight to win, since they still aren't treated as equal to men on most payrolls, and there isn't a lot of them in high positions in most industries.

We may want a true equality, and the comments you said may be rights, but it doesn't matter: you are on the winning side of the fence, and as long as the situation doesn't change, all these people can do to actually fight the injustice is having a witch-hunt.

Or I could say you missed my point totally. I offered no observation on the black condition - that is another blog all unto itself. But blaming others for your own actions is what I was talking about. Sharpton and Jackson are a couple of the biggest race baiters in existance, and they only strive to keep the race war flaming. Bill Cosby (among others now) have condemned the self degradation within the black community itself. And I dont see any white slave masters forcing the gansta rappers to make the garbage they do.

And I dont recall Lionel Richie, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, James Brown, or Roberta Flack (among many) using the degradation of their race in promoting their careers. All of which, IMHO, are far superior to today's so-called artists.