Imus show suspended due to racial comments

[foodstampchamp 3]

But it seems that the suggestion of merely learning something new is highly offensive to some, unfortunately.

I

I'm curious......who was offended by your suggestion to learn something new? I missed that.

And that does sound like a great documentary.

[daniethegirl 0]

Sunta, I totally agree with you. I am a doctoral student in clinical psychology, and I've taken plenty of diversity classes. What I don't know how to do is explain the concepts to people who are so closed to exploring their own position in society (people don't want to admit that they're part of the problem). Sunta, are you an educator?

[foodstampchamp 3]

Just an FYI everyone. I ammended the list to include a giant list of male privileges as well.

I hope your list of male priveleges included peeing standing up. I mean, why do they get to have all the conveniences??? AM I RIGHT LADIES????

[babylovestoys 1]

I believe that the hip hop music culture itself promotes racist and biggoted attitudes in general. And since it does not go out to one individual but many young people in our society it pervasively influences

core values and belief systems. It really bugs me to hear a black man

refer to a woman as a "ho" but if they don't begin to respect women &

women of color, how can we expect cultural views to change?

[Sunta 5]

I'm curious......who was offended by your suggestion to learn something new? I missed that.

Well.... when I suggested that the list of white privilege would start you on the path to being educated about race and society, you said I was assuming you were "uneducated", leading me to believe you were offended by my suggestion to learn something new. It really seemed that perhaps you hadn't had a chance to familiarize yourself with issues such as invisible white privilege and race in American culture such as you could in a class on the subject.

Sorry if I was mistaken.

[foodstampchamp 3]

People open their mouths, spew out garbage, and then when they get called on it, they claim the prerogative of humor. Like an insult doesn't count, as long as someone, somewhere, finds it humorous.

Imus' remark wasn't funny. Anne Colter wasn't funny when she called John Edwards a fag.

You know what? I actually thought both these remarks were HYSTERICAL. Isn't humor a matter of opinion? I 'm an avid listener of a shock jock show called the Opie and Anthony show on XM Radio. They have a producer that had weight loss surgery. They constantly tease this producer about it calling him "old change purse belly" and "garbanzo bean belly". They will say he's grouchy because he ate two spoonfulls of yogurt instead of one spoonful. IT'S SO FUNNY. I guess some people wouldn't find that funny which is okay too. I think humor is like any other feeling like being sad or happy. You cannot control your feelings and I beleive you cannot control what you think is funny. But who am I to say what is funny and what isn't? who are you to say? I think that is the same as you telling me what constitutes a happy feeling for myself.

[Persistance 0]

Baby:

What really surprise me is that some women do not feel offended by this!!!!

C'mon if a guy comes and calls me Ho to my face...he is going to walk a long way to be able to find his teeth.

Many guys act the way they do because ,if they insulted a girl once and nothing happened ..why not do it again?

We somehow "educate" or "condition" the people around us to respect us or not depending on our own actions (and re-actions).

I'm sure that FOODSTAMP comands respect around 80 guys just by respecting herself!!!!

[foodstampchamp 3]

I'm curious......who was offended by your suggestion to learn something new? I missed that.

Well.... when I suggested that the list of white privilege would start you on the path to being educated about race and society, you said I was assuming you were "uneducated", leading me to believe you were offended by my suggestion to learn something new. It really seemed that perhaps you hadn't had a chance to familiarize yourself with issues such as invisible white privilege and race in American culture such as you could in a class on the subject.

Sorry if I was mistaken.

Yes you were mistaken. I was not really offended at all, but if I was it would have been because of your assuming that I'm not educated. Definately not because you suggested I expand my horizons in any way. In fact I couldn't agree more with that suggestion. I am currently in college part time earning my business degree. Uneducated or not though, I still have an opinion.

[Persistance 0]

baby: this in reference to hip-hop

[Persistance 0]

How do you quote somebody " I'm computer challenged!!!!!

[sheilamj1fan 2]

He should not have said it. However, I don't like that one or two people are the voice of the blacks and DEMAND his resignation. If we all had our conversations taped we would at some point say something we would regret. Two people should not have the power to call for boycotts, etc. Imus has done good in this world. His work with sick children should be applauded. Accept his apology, learn from it, and move on.

Oh well! There are MORE than two black people that wanted him FIRED!! He should not have said it point blank it does not matter how much "good" he has done! So long sucker!:heh:

[Sunta 5]

Sunta, are you an educator?

No, but I vividly remember Temple University and my classes on race and also women's studies, and I remember I had this "Ah ha!" moment during one class, and it was (crazy as this sounds) the point about band-aids. Band aids are called "flesh colored" but actually they are caucasian flesh colored. And something as petty-seeming as that, it really, really made me think about white privilege and to start questioning "what is the Black experience like in the United States"? And in talking to Black friends, I was amazed to learn (of course I was much younger then) that they do deal extensively with issues like being followed in a store, being pulled over by cops for no reason, hostility from neighbors, and many of the other things listed on the list I posted, because of their race. I really delved into my studies and the thing I found most fascinating was that the majority of white people never think about any of these things. It's taken for granted that band-aids will be our skin color and so many other things on that list. Little privileges like that add up into something big. An underlying societal feeling of belonging, acceptance, and community of the majority group just goes without saying for white people. It's interesting to think about what kind of impact that fact has on white people's psychology and development.

So, with regard to the basketball team, I do get kind of mad when whites (men especially) say things like "they should just get over it" without even being willing to open themselves up to the possiblity that they can never understand the depth of the women's hurt. Just by virtue of being white, they can never understand those girls' experience. And then to shoot down any suggestion of "white privilege" as rediculous really proves a vast lack of education on the issue.

If you have any further resources for learning about this, please do post them.

[green 6]

South Park is a cartoon. I don't believe that cartoon characters are due the same degree of respect as real people.

And I agree that Don Imus is probably not a hate-monger or a racist. That does not make him any less responsible for what comes out of his mouth, however. You simply can't excuse that kind of thing by saying it doesn't count unless it comes from a racist, or an anti-feminist. I am none of those things, either. And I'm pretty funny sometimes, too. Does that mean it's okay for me to post pithy one-liners on LBT, incorporating the "N word" into my remarks? Of course not. And I'm betting I'd get banned in pretty short order, don't you think?

Neither LBT nor a doctor's office is an appropriate venue for any of the following: a shock jock's schtick, a rapper's terminology, or a South Park approach to the issues which we discuss here. We come from a wide range of backgrounds and we hold a wide range of values dear to ourselves: we come here for serious discussion and the employment of such language in this context is obviously entirely inappropriate.

But again I will go back to this issue of provenance/context. Black people have decided to own or take back the 'N' word; this doesn't permit White people to make use of it, too. Certainly some taboo words are more no-go than others and I guess that the N-word is the most powerful of those which are taboo.

Other words which are deeply offensive are in the process of being taken back or apart or forcibly deconstructed by comedians these days. It might be argued that Lenny Bruce was the comedian who first wandered into these waters. Of course there has been a comedic history of exploration into this whole business of loaded language: George Carlin has been at this for ages and Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock are two other notable comics who investigate this zone. Of course there are many others....

The taste for this type of comedy is not for everyone, just as the taste for middle of the road rock or American Idol is not for everyone. Nevertheless, I do appreciate humour which pushes the envelope for this is often the fashion in which we finally figure out the hidden hypocrisies and paradigms of our societies. Humour is iconoclastic: it has to break the rules.

Oh, for sure Imus went way too far. Those girls did not merit that cheap throw-away comment and the dude should certainly be required to do some serious public grovelling as well as suffer some serious financial loss but as for having his career ended, I disagree. You see, sensitive, refined, middle-aged and middle-class women are not Imus's target audience and he should not be required to pay their price.

When the choice comes to listening to a shock jock, rap, country, or listening to Celine Dion/Whitney Huston/or whatever, we do have certain options, have we not? We can twiddle with the radio dial until we find something appropriate to our personal needs. Young white males like listening to shock jocks.

Most women prefer to listen to country or to soft rock and to the current array of divas. Well, this grrl only likes jazz, classical, and shock jock and so she is in a minority, go figure, eh. And like everyone else she would be comfortable in defending her tastes as being the most valuable and therefore the only ones worthy of respect.

Imus had a mandate from his owners and his advertisers to play up to a certain audience. He certainly did f!!!k up big time with his fuzzy-headed wisecrack but this was not due to his own racism: rather the poor bastard took what he thought might be an amusing quip far too far and now he is being publickly smacked for this. This is certainly warranted but is he a racist? No. Does he deserve to lose his job? No.

[foodstampchamp 3]

I cannot believe I forgot to tell the story of an incident that happened to me last night.

My crew works 12 hour rotating shifts. Once a month after our four day shifts we get 7 days off in a row. Well yesterday happened to be my fourth day shift and a large part of my crew goes to the bar on this day after work to Celebrate. There is a guy who just transferred to my crew 4 months ago who appears to be full Mexican. Accent and all. Well he informed me a few months ago that he was half mexican half german and grew up in Germany. Thinking we had a bit in common being mexi-mutts and also I was born in Germany and lived there until I was 5 I thought we had a little bond and stupidly I assumed he might have a sense of humor. Last night he pushed past me to get by as the bar was overcrowded with drunken gold miners and I said to him jokingly "watch where you are pushing half breed!". I thought he would think this was funny and boy he didnt'. He stopped and turned to me and said I'm a full breed C---!. I said, whoa Eddie I was kidding and I thought you would think it was funny. I apologize and did not mean to offend you." Talk about feeling awful I wish I would have never said it to him. then he called me another colorful name and walked away. I was not mad that he called me those names because A. I called him a name. B. if that is what he feels, who am I to say he can't feel that way. Later on he came up to me and started lambasting me again. I told him I aplogized already and he needed to stop being an overly sensitive crybaby. I said it, I can't take it back, I certainly won't say it again to him in the future, and I definately owed him an apology. Which I gave and gave and he continue to call me names. I must wash my hands of the situation because there is nothing more I can do. And honestly I don't think there is anything else I should do except not do it again. I said it in humor. Be it in his opinion bad humor (although everyone else seemed to think it was funny). I just thought this story was interesting because of what we were talking about.

[Sunta 5]

but if I was it would have been because of your assuming that I'm not educated.

As I said I was not implying you are uneducated "in general", but simply on this one particular issue of race in society (as taught from a sociology perspective) that we are discussing.

Similarly, if someone said to me "you can get on the road to be educated about microbiology by reading this list of attributes of a cell" I would not be offended because I do not know much about microbiology.

So that is what I meant.