Question: “What does a White man call a Black man who is a millionaire, has never broken the law, has a loving and healthy family, owns a large profitable corporation and who devotes time and money to several charities, behind his back?” Answer: “A N_____!”
There is a saying that truth is often offered up masquerading as jest. That old saw has come to a serious test in recent days with the controversy over remarks by Don Imus in his nationally syndicated CBS and NBC trash talking radio show. He referred to the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team, comprised primarily of talented young Black women who played Tennessee for the NCAA National Championship, a bunch of “rough” and “nappy headed Ho’s.” Imus tried to deflect criticism by saying that Black people [Imus is not Black, FYI] often use such degrading terms about Black women in their culture. He also tried to excuse his behavior as comedy that went too far. After a couple of days of protest from outside groups, the networks decided to suspend Imus for two weeks.
Pundits are leaping to the fore to characterize this as a major issue, and a Boston Globe editorial article claims that how Barack Obama responds is a “first crucial test” of how he handles race in his Presidential bid. This is, of course, utter nonsense. In their sensationalistic short attention span, they have already forgotten the Joe Biden incident. Moreover, the Imus statement is not necessarily the big deal to Black folk as it is portrayed in the media currently. His comments were deplorable, hateful, racist and irresponsible. Yet they are also sadly and simply “more of the same.” While it behooves the Rutgers team to demand an apology, and for some Black leaders to note the depravity and hurtful nature of Imus’ behavior, the task of addressing his behavior and what it represents is not on the shoulders of Black people in this country. It is the job of White America to determine whether the remarks of a powerful commercial voice in the national media is representative of the attitudes of the people who control that media and within the parameters of fair and responsible discourse on publicly owned radio airwaves.
The issue is not really whether Imus is a racist. It is fair to say, however, that what comes out of his mouth is a reflection of his character since he is not working from a script written by others. The real issue is whether the national media believe that the misogynist, racist, sexist and intolerant trash that Imus spews daily, in the guise of “comedy,” is the type of discourse that represents White America’s tastes and that complies with the network’s community responsibility that goes along with their license to broad cast. [It is a legal component of their license, though rarely if ever enforced.]
Congress weighed in on a brief display of Janet Jackson’s nipple during a Super Bowl Half-Time Show and threatened to rescind the network’s license. A hefty fine was imposed. Whether or not that was an overreaction, it does demonstrate the regulators’ ability to police and sanction behavior that they find so offensive as to be banned from public airwaves. Imus’ daily audience is not that of a Super Bowl, but his cumulative audience is probably greater. And his conduct is repetitive and far more outrageous than the brief display of a body part, accidental or not.
When Andy Rooney stated on a “60 Minutes” national broadcast show that Black people are bred or genetically predisposed to be better athletes than Whites, he was removed from the airwaves. Whether he was racist or inept at comedy was irrelevant to the network. His behavior was deemed unacceptable for their concept of responsible programming. Whether the same or similar standard should apply to Imus is not a decision that will be made by people of color. It will be made by White male executives of the media networks. The decision that they make will be driven by dollars that derive from the collective message sent by a predominantly white audience whether the kind of trash broadcast by Imus is indicative of what the American people these days want as part of the public airwaves. Black people have no comparable media outlet. This burden falls on the shoulders of White men. [Sorry ladies, even though the Imus comments were offensive to women as well, you are not represented among the heads of the networks either.] Whether the burden on Black people has changed will depend, to some extent, upon how White America addresses issues of race such as that presented by the Don Imus broadcast remarks.
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