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On the Black/White hypocrisy and Don Imus: by gare henderson 2007 The nation feels a sense of righteous satisfaction
in the removal of Imus from the national
airwaves. Shock jock Imus and his ilk
have long been known for pushing the envelope of the accepted,
by lampooning our frustrations and ridiculing our pride.
Every resonant voice has gradually taken the obligatory sip of the scared
sacrament of indignation, albeit most with contrite
moderation. Strong voices have called his words racist, sexist,
and insensitive. He has apologized, and his apology accepted by the
team. It all seems so unsatisfying. My problem is
the hypocrisy of Imus and his critics.
Although, the spirit of his comment was offensive, to a hip-hop
fan, his words were not really shocking. Nevertheless, we
all can see that the race of these women was not his target. This is
not just garden variety racism...that's too simple. This is
look-ism! Unfortunately the group actually denigrated by his
comments is still too far in the cosmetic closet of denial and quiet
submission, to even speak up in its own defense, other than by racial
proxy. It was once OK to parody blacks, and Jews, and the
physically challenged, but now the even an average citizen views such
comments as sophomoric humor at best. However, the most
often discriminated population, plain looking women, are apparently still
fair game for a belly laugh. Made worse by a pandering press, the
under-employed civil activists, and a credulous public. My point is that if that group of women
had been classic beauties of any race, the derisive thought would never have
entered the simplistic humor factory which rules talk radio.
Instead the comments would have been sexual innuendo, and equally sophomoric
rude comments. At first hearing, I wondered about the furor, I had
never found Imus to be particularly funny or
interesting. But in these days, blatantly racist comments would be
unusual from someone with his hand so deep in the public pocket.
However, when I saw the team members, it was clear to me that his comments
were code for un-attractive....and everyone knows it. It was no surprise that these girls were well spoken and accomplished, this is
the reality of many girls who are not considered very attractive by
the current cultural ideals. It was the cowardice and dis-honesty of Imus and his
writers, who decided that it would be transparent to attack these strong women, by with their own limited ideals. Do I
do that? The greatest injustice are
the voices of outrage, who knowingly obfuscate the issue by crying
racism. Their response is just as venal, as Imus's pusillanimous
missive. They demagogue the issue with racial activism, and
gleefully dance around the larger problem. The same type of
look-ism pollutes modern rap lyrics, the emphasis of
image over substance is rife in the videos where dancers are
un-apologetically selected for malleable curves over talent. And lyrics
which pedestal personal preference, and treat the less favored as cultural
monsters. It comes home to me in one of the most painful
memories of my childhood. My light skinned grandmother, who was
most likely an un-diagnosed schizophrenic and protective of her genetic
legacy, embarrassed me when she viciously verbally attacked my new beautiful
Afro coiffed dark skinned girlfriend, as ugly and un-worthy...on their
very first and only meeting. However, my point is that we as a species can
recognize, and then resist the urge to celebrate destructive cultural notions
of beauty, and learn to love excellence and competence. Some of the
most common grassroots mythology in the black community is a result of racial
preference on beauty. Most blacks have heard the apparently
apodictic insight "You can't succeed unless you work
hard". Yet, in our world how hard you work is clearly second
to where you start. We all accept the reality that an expert
may fix a problem in a few moments, that the
average person may never solve. We accept this, because we
understand the effort behind expertise. Aren't natural looks
an even more important starting point for all of us... when we first glimpsed
our reflection today? Attractive people, get use to people falling all
over them, in restaurants, in jobs, even in apartment hunting. An
attractive person can walk in to a plumb job, with
ambiguous credentials, while an over-qualified but homely person
will have to endure countless interviews, and still find the job
denied. The list of looks based injustices goes on and on, and for
anyone who rejects my hypothesis, I point to the multi-billion
dollar cosmetics and plastic surgery industries. The point is that the ideas of race and
beauty are so intertwined in our culture, that the pratfall of Imus is actually a sign of progress. And as the
Virginia Tech shootings underline the need for progress...Too many children,
ill-favored by race, have deep emotional scars from adolescent
preferences, its small wonder that we don't have more rampage killings. The Imus controversy
simply revealed the incompetence of Imus and his
crew, when faced by the vanities of race and
beauty. The progress is that beauty less tied to race
as it once was. And that there is hope that forced to face this
reality...one day this base mythology "race is a beauty",
which is one of "the ties that bind us" will wither and break. Gare Henderson for submission to :Letters to the editor: East coast dailies US
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