Innermost Thought

You can't really own a television or an internet connection without knowing at least a little bit about the Don Imus remarks about the Rutger's women's basketball team. What I find really interesting about this whole incident is how innocuous these particular comments are relative to other comments uttered during Imus' long tenure on the radio and television. Thanks to the good folks at Slate.com I've been able to find other nuggets of Imus wisdom. This is the man who said:

"Knuckle-dragging moron." (Description of basketball player Patrick Ewing.)

"Isn't the Times wonderful. It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House." (referring to journalist Gwen Iffl)

"Chest-thumping pimps." (Description of the New York Knicks.)

"Boner-nosed … beanie-wearing Jewboy." (Description of Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, a frequent guest.)

While "nappy headed hos" may be incendiary, inappropriate, and in poor taste, it's certainly no worse than any of a number of Imus' earlier attempts at making the racist, caveman-mentality version of Bartlett's Quotations. 'Why all the fuss now?' is a question that I've tried to answer many times in the last few days since this controversy has escalated.

Could it be Al Sharpton found a meaty bone? It seems that whenever Al Sharpton gets involved any issue becomes a sort of "where there is smoke there is fire" phenomenon. Once Al Sharpton gets a whiff, an issue or controversy becomes less about solving a problem or finding a resolution and more about beating somebody...anybody down....as long as they aren't black, that is. You would think that Mr. Sharpton would have learned his lesson during the Tawana Brawley debacle. In that particular media circus, Mr. Sharpton went so far as to publicly accuse a government official and was later ordered to pay damages to the official after Tawana Brawley's accusations of rape and abduction were determined to be fabricated. In fact, Mr. Sharpton defended Tawana Brawley's perplexing refusal to cooperate with the New York Attorney General in bringing her abductors to justice by saying something that is arguably more incendiary, inappropriate and hateful than even the ill-fated Imus' remarks.

Mr. Sharpton's response to working with the Attorney General was:

That would be like "asking someone who watched someone killed in the gas chamber to sit down with Mr. Hitler."

In many ways I get it. When I was a teenager my family did some pet-sitting for an albino pit bull named Betty. Her owner was off to Japan for the summer for one reason or another. It never occurred to me or my brother and sister that this dog might be bad or dangerous. A day of petsitting with Betty included serious roughhousing, blowing in her ears because she would get the shivers and shake her head, running, jumping and general carrousing that often found us collapsing and falling over each other in fits of giggles and playful growls. Betty would have let us do just about anything. She loved us and took care of us as much as we took care of her. There's no way that Betty would have ever hurt us. But pit bulls get a bad rap for being dangerous and aggressive and nasty. "You can't own one" is the conventional wisdom. "They are too violent and unstable for a family environment." In the case of a pit bull I say to you, it's not the innate nature of the dog but rather the way it was raised. It's nurture vs nature and the nurture will win. At least it has in every pit bull that I've ever known personally. Bad pit bulls are usually brought up to be bad. They are abused and neglected and groomed for violence. Whatever predisposition they may posess is exploited to such a degree that the animal has no choice but live in a world of mistrust and destruction.

Al Sharpton is a pit bull gone bad. Only instead of just living his lifetime of abuse, he's inherited centuries of abuse, disrespect, disenfranchisement, and hate. African-Americans have been beat down so roundly over so much of our American history is it any wonder that one or a number of them will beat down anything that isn't them any time they get a chance? I'm not so sure I would behave any differently if I were in the same position. But that doesn't make it the right position.

Out of all of this, the one bright hope for everybody, not just black Americans are the Scarlet Women of Rutgers. That these glorious women are hurt and honestly devastated that their great accomplishment of making it to the finals of the NCAA is grossly overshadowed but an ignorant idiot's remarks is obvious and a given. But throughout the media circus they have never devolved to the level of Imus or Sharpton. They deserved better to be sure. It would be pretty understandable if they chose to rant and rage and make incendiary speeches and call for Imus' blood now that its sweet-sickly stench is in the air. Instead, these Scarlet Women have chosen to take the high road. To be honest about their feelings, rational about their reasoning and leave the door open to using this gross indencency as an opportunity for our growth as a culture and a nation. These Scarlet Women are people of which we can and should be proud. I would proudly wear the scarlet letter. I would hold my head high to be associated with such strength, intelligence and grace..."nappy-headed" or not.

The truth is there really is no place for terms like "nappy headed hos" in our dialogue. There is the argument that the language of "hos and bitches" has thrived largely because of black cultural icons and not in spite of it. There is a double standard if the language of popular music segregates us and that can only mean trouble for us a community. It also means trouble for black Americans. Now instead of white people beating down the blacks, the blacks seem to be doing it to themselves. As much as I will fight for people's freedom of speech, that doesn't mean that what they are saying is good. As much as I like Snoop Dog and Usher, they are doing more to keep black women down than anybody.

Imus is his own kind of pit bull gone bad. What's more, many of the journalists of our day are also conditioned towards unrespectable ends. They aren't the Betty's of this world - pit bulls who protect you. They are the ones that have been groomed for chaos. Whether you let them in your house is entirely up to you.