I'm not sure if the last few days will serve as a watershed
moment for this MTV, middle-finger, screw-you generation.
Probably not, according to my hunch. A short time from now, the
hysteria will turn to vapor, folks will settle back into their
routines, somebody will pump up the volume on the latest poison
produced by hip-hop while Al Sharpton and the other racial
ambulance chasers will find other guilt-ridden white folks to
shake for fame and cash. In five minutes, the entire episode of
Imus and his strange idea of humor will be older than his
hairstyle. Lessons learned will be lessons forgotten.
I wish I were wrong about that last part. But I doubt it, because
any minute now, black people will resume calling themselves
bitches and hos and the N-word and in the ultimate sign of
hypocrisy, neither Rutgers nor anyone else will call a news
conference about that.
Because when we really get to the root of the problem, this isn't
about Imus. This is about a culture we -- meaning black folks --
created and condoned and packaged for white power brokers to
sell and shock jocks like Imus to exploit. Can we talk?
Tell me: Where did an old white guy like Imus learn the word "ho"?
Was that always part of his vocabulary? Or did he borrow it from
Jay-Z and Dave Chappelle and Snoop Dogg?
What really disappointed me about that exhausting Rutgers
news conference, which was slyly used as a recruiting pitch by
Stringer, was the absence of the truth and the lack of backbone
and courage. Black women had the perfect opportunity to lash
out at their most dangerous oppressors -- black men -- and yet
they kept the focus on a white guy.
It was a tremendous letdown for me, personally and
professionally. I wanted Stringer, and especially her players,
many of whom listen to rap and hip-hop, to take Nelly to task. Or
BET. Or MTV. Or the gangsta culture that is suffocating our kids.
They had the ear and eye of the nation trained upon them, and
yet these women didn't get to the point and the root of the
matter. They danced around it, and I guess I should've known
better, because black people still refuse to lash out against those
black people who are doing harm to us all.
Honestly, I wasn't holding my breath for Sharpton or Jesse
Jackson, a pair of phony and self-appointed leaders, because
they have their agendas and financial stakes. I was hoping 10
young women, who have nothing on the line, who are members
of a young culture, would train their attention to within the race,
name names and say enough is enough. But they didn't, and I
was crushed.
You should walk around the playground and the elementary and
high schools today and listen to how young black people speak
to each other, treat each other and tease each other. You'd be
ashamed. Next, sample some of their CDs and look at the video
games they're playing. And while you're at it, blame yourself for
funding this garbage, for allowing your kids to support these
companies and for not taking a stand against it or the so-called
artists making it happen.
Black folks, for whatever reason, can be their own worst enemy.
The last several days, the media had us believe it was Don Imus.
But deep down, we know better.
Re: The I man
Member #: 49374
Registered: 11/8/2006
Posted:
75
Name:
stevie
Company:
sel
Occupation:
sat installer
Location:
south
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