tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post4158521755949679453..comments2023-12-17T19:35:07.459-08:00Comments on Bouphonia: Cultivating GrievancesPhilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15849261651028725772noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-73904325004534530442007-04-13T17:21:00.000-07:002007-04-13T17:21:00.000-07:00I need a point of comparison to the Don Imus affai...<I>I need a point of comparison to the Don Imus affair. Just for my reference here, I'd like to know how many Black rappers, radio/TV personalities, religious and community leaders, etc. became non-persons to the MSM or were fired from their jobs because they bad-mouthed women or white people.</I><BR/><BR/>First off, the "MSM" didn't cost Imus his job so much as the loss of his advertisers did. In fact, mainstream commenters like Tom Oliphant and Howard Fineman fell all over themselves to defend him, as Eschaton, Media Matters, and other sites have documented verbatim.<BR/><BR/>If the "MSM" - which, as you seem to have forgetten, includes the company for whom Imus has been a longstanding cash cow - had had its way, he'd still be on the air. If you don't understand that, you don't understand anything about the nature of media in this country. <BR/><BR/>Second, the notion of relative power seems to be completely beyond you. Imus had one of the nation's most popular radio shows, and he chose to use it to pick on teenage girls who'd done him no harm whatsoever. Most sane people would find that to be a repellent abuse of power whether or not there were a racial component to it. <BR/><BR/>As for black cultural figures who've been raked over the coals...well, Sister Souljah and Chuck D. spring to mind (neither of whose famously controversial comments I'd go to any lengths to defend). And there's Farrakhan, of course. And there are the reggae artists like Sizzla and Beenie Man - whose virulent antigay lyrics caused a number of venues to cancel their performances, and sparked other types of protests and boycotts. The idea that black bigots are somehow immune from criticism, or worse, is delusional.<BR/><BR/>The larger question is whether there's ever been a black commentator who enjoyed the market coverage and mainstream credibility of Don Imus, while saying the sorts of things he routinely said (and routinely promised to <I>stop</I> saying).<BR/><BR/>I don't think so. And attempts to claim that rappers fit that bill seem disingenuous to me. It's a different world entirely, not least because Imus has had the ongoing, explicit support of the political/media establishment for years.<BR/><BR/><I>Didn't Miles Davis hate whites?</I><BR/><BR/>That's what I hear. But what in Christ's name does that have to do with <I>anything? </I><BR/><BR/>If it'll make you feel any better, I can honestly say that if Miles Davis had been on the air five days a week, from coast to coast, heaping peabrained abuse on whites, women, gays, and Jews while being fawned over by politicians and pundits, I would've wanted him off the air, too.<BR/><BR/>That said, the comparison seems totally incoherent to me. I think it says a lot more about the lengths people will go to avoid thinking seriously about this issue than it does about the "hypocrisy" of people were offended by Imus.Philahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15849261651028725772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-10382826015184561842007-04-13T12:31:00.000-07:002007-04-13T12:31:00.000-07:00Meanwhile, as Imus falls all over himself apologiz...<I>Meanwhile, as Imus falls all over himself apologizing over and over for his insulting words, who will apologize to the Duke Lacrosse players for the far worse trauma they endured than the Rutgers’ basketball players?</I><BR/><BR/>Uh...the people who have something to apologize to them for?<BR/><BR/>It's nothing to do with me, friend.Philahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15849261651028725772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-40325552753012467662007-04-12T22:41:00.000-07:002007-04-12T22:41:00.000-07:00Directly from horsefeathers-Meanwhile, as Imus fal...Directly from horsefeathers-<BR/>Meanwhile, as Imus falls all over himself apologizing over and over for his insulting words, who will apologize to the Duke Lacrosse players for the far worse trauma they endured than the Rutgers’ basketball players? Will Jackson and Sharpton apologize for endorsing the lying accusations of a black woman? Will Selena Roberts, the New York Times sports writer, cum sociologist, apologize for hurling around charges of racism, sexism, and white privilege, while suggesting that actual innocence would not purge the deep sickness of white racism made manifest by the Duke scandal? And how about the courageous Duke administration and faculty, who eagerly leapt—not to the defense of their own customers, the students—but to the defense of a lying accuser who proclaimed her black female victimhood? Will they apologize to the lacrosse coach they eagerly dumped overboard? Will the craven, politically correct President of Duke resign? Don’t hold your breath, because, you see, Liberals are not interested in the lives of actual real individuals—the young student athletes and their families, nor even the real life of the accuser. Instead these politically correct race hustlers and self-flatterers choose to lump individual human beings into pre-formed templates. They employ a “narrative” in place of factual truth, thanks to their ‘education’ as good PoMos. The narrative is about Amerika, a country poisoned by racism, sexism and capitalism. As the evidence against the lacrosse team emerged and collapsed in all its flimsiness, Roberts deplored the temptation to view the athletes as innocent; they were, after all, part of a larger system, college sports, sexist values, white racism, capitalism, etc. so even if the evidence supported the athletes’ story, that mattered less than that they were part of a racist, sexist culture. The accuser was also not seen as an individual, but rather a member of a victim class. That worked for Tawana Brawley and we expect the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson to continue working the strategy even after the case has been dismissed. Watch to see the various Liberal politicians condemn Don Imus while empathizing with the poor black woman who tried to destroy the lives of ‘white men of privilege’. Liberalism means never having to admit you're wrong because you're heart is with the oppressed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-56736551702350849412007-04-12T21:52:00.000-07:002007-04-12T21:52:00.000-07:00I need a point of comparison to the Don Imus affai...I need a point of comparison to the Don Imus affair. Just for my reference here, I'd like to know how many Black rappers, radio/TV personalities, religious and community leaders, etc. became non-persons to the MSM or were fired from their jobs because they bad-mouthed women or white people.<BR/><BR/>Didn't Miles Davis hate whites?Engineer-Poethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06420685176098522332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-8095250163552525792007-04-12T17:08:00.000-07:002007-04-12T17:08:00.000-07:00People like Taranto make me uncomfortable with bei...<I>People like Taranto make me uncomfortable with being white. Where do I turn in my membership? </I><BR/><BR/>Beats me. I'm too busy trying to turn in my masculinity.Philahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15849261651028725772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-20885277826534662902007-04-12T14:05:00.000-07:002007-04-12T14:05:00.000-07:00People like Taranto make me uncomfortable with bei...People like Taranto make me uncomfortable with being white. Where do I turn in my membership? <BR/><BR/>If I have to take some extra pigmentation instead, I will, since I'm damn tired of sunburning indoors at midnight.<BR/><BR/>I've had real <A HREF="http://theinterroblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/heres-how-other-half-lives-mr-arar.html" REL="nofollow">up close and personal</A> experiences with what I call "suburban racists" -- they're my own damn family members. As I mention in that essay, I probably do get privileges for being white (although I don't know if sometimes those privileges get trumped by ablism or not; I'm still trying to figure that out), but I'm trying not to contribute.Interrobanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14073177798747299275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-10497731694328516882007-04-12T07:09:00.000-07:002007-04-12T07:09:00.000-07:00i missed this the first time. all too true. thanks...i missed this the first time. all too true. thanks for repeating it. the wilfull ignorance and cultural stupidity of some of our white brothers and sisters is stunning.rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05910951099847351232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-28532291438185187442007-04-11T15:26:00.000-07:002007-04-11T15:26:00.000-07:00I don't understand why you're repeating this post....<I>I don't understand why you're repeating this post.<BR/><BR/>Or why you don't understand that white men have given up enough. </I><BR/><BR/>I'm searching for relevance in the wake of communism's collapse, natch!<BR/><BR/><I>We get all the grace, and what's amazing is it doesn't cost us a thing. </I><BR/><BR/>You want us to work for it? That's like saying we don't <I>deserve</I> it!Philahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15849261651028725772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695598.post-49479068641505808502007-04-11T14:53:00.000-07:002007-04-11T14:53:00.000-07:00I don't understand why you're repeating this post....I don't understand why you're repeating this post.<BR/><BR/>Or why you don't understand that white men have given up enough. Blacks are clearly favored in our public policy. So how can we be racist?<BR/><BR/>No, I can't keep it up. Some people are almost too dumb to live among civilized human beings. The whole notion of atonement, of repentance, shoot, of even something as straightforward as reconciliation as practiced in South Africa, is that truth come first.<BR/><BR/>To this good day, the truth about race in this country, what Wendell Berry called our "hidden wound," has not been told. We have blamed racism on "them," on "crackers" and "Southerners" and "Rednecks" and "ya-hoos" and even rappers and "hip-hop" artists. But never on us.<BR/><BR/>Please. I grew up in the segregated South. I went to school in race fights over integration. I moved to Austin, Texas in the late 70's, where integration was still being fought. In "liberal" Austin!<BR/><BR/>I even found a plaque in the Texas capitol, on a column in the public area. Inconspicuous, but never removed or covered over, it's still there, and declares (from the 1950's) that the "War of Northern Aggression" (no, it doesn't say that, but it might as well) was fought over "state's rights," not slavery. Just the way they taught it, in Texas schools. It asserts this claim in defiance (mildly, but defiant nonetheless).<BR/><BR/>We love to sing "Amazing Grace." Especially when we know where the words came from. Because it means we can stand with the former slave-trader, without having to admit our sins from the slave trade ourselves. We get all the grace, and what's amazing is it doesn't cost us a thing. Well, why should it? We didn't do anything. And besides, public policy favors blacks today anyway. If it didn't, do you think Colin Powell would have been Sec of State? Or black men would wear diamonds and drink Cristal? And sell music to white kids?<BR/><BR/>Right? Right?<BR/><BR/>Why should we confess, when it's so much easier to complain, and continue to reap the best of both worlds? I'm tellin' ya, it's <I>loneley</I> at the top. Especially when we have to be nice in public to all those black people....Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.com