First They Came For The Jews
In defending Don Imus’s “nappy-headed ho’s” racist statements the other day that have landed him in hot water one of our favorite upper-right-quadrant WingNuts (good ‘ole Glenn Beck) has hauled the “First they came for the Jews” line out and revamped it a bit.
– as you can probably imagine his version ends with, and when they came for the talk radio hosts………
Imus was clearly an idiot in this matter. That being said, I thought the morality lectures from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were a bit rich. Talk about glass houses.
I’m kind of amazed and don’t condone such remarks by Imus but I’ve listened to some rap music by black artist that have made remarks far worse in my humble opinion about women in general. Yet I’ve heard no rebuke from those who jumped into this fray, is there a double standard at work here. Or is the fame of who’s saying it bringing more media spot light on those who would jump on the bandwagon against him bubbling them to the surface.
No double standard, I could easily call one of my friends honky, or white meat, or any number of other phrases that would be considered racist if a black man used them referring to exactly the same people.
Whooee! Maybe no double standard wrt racism but Imus’ remark was also sexist and the sexist aspect has been overshadowed by the racist aspect. Black male rap singers may get a “free pass” in the racism department — not in the sexism department. I figger the “ho” epithet is more rife in rap lyrics and hip-hop culture than in the right-wing talk-radio world.
Imus oughta get canned, I reckon. But if he does, he can resurface easy enough an’ he probbly can draw plenty o’ listeners to some internet radio podcast audio boogin’ bigotry.
I’d love to know what MLK’s reaction would be to the new “urban vocabulary.”
JB