Imus in the Mourning?

If you are not aware of the recent drama surrounding Shock Jock host Don Imus, you really need to stop watching LOST, Idol, and 24 and pay attention to what's happening in the larger world.

Some thoughts...

Two Reasons Don Imus Is Getting What He Deserves:

1. He comes off as a bigot. A bigot towards “all people” (Spreading one’s animosity around equally is not the most savvy of arguments I might add) but a bigot nonetheless.

One national writer notes, “He has acknowledged using the "N-word" in conversation with a producer. He has referred to the "Jewish management" of CBS as "money-grubbing bastards." He has called Palestinians "stinking animals." And he has been quoted as calling former attorney general Janet Reno "the big lesbian" and a prominent black journalist as "the cleaning lady."


2. He targeted specific people. It is one thing to use humor (though what he said is ‘out of bounds’ for public humor in my estimation) towards different sub-groups in American culture; it’s another thing to target specific people: Rutgers female athletes.


One Reason to Fire Imus:

1. His original comment is reprehensible and his apology wasn’t much better.


One Reason NOT to Fire Imus:

1. We are all guilty of racism and stereotyping on some level. Whether it is subtle insinuations or blatant comments about who owns the party stores in Detroit—we are all guilty of turning people into straw men false constructions.

I’m not thrilled that the Rev. Al Sharpton is at the forefront of this discussion but it does not mean that Imus should not be held accountable for his demonstrative public comments. Imus can only apologize so much. It is up to everyone (regardless of color, socio-economic status) to name the mistake, learn from it, and move on.

One reporter shared these words with Imus:

Jeff Greenfield: "...But, it is true I think that your show makes fun of black people in a different way than you make fun of white people. Which is, when your comedic staple does "Ted Kennedy" he doesn't sound like "Hulk Hogan", who doesn't sound like "Dr. Phil" who doesn't sound like whoever else you're doing. But I think it is fair to say, and I just read this by one African American columnist who made this point today, that when you parody black people they all sound the same, sort of a nineteenth century mushmouth minstrel thing. And I think that comes from a more general notion, that like all comedic insult type humor, you look for the most obvious thing to parody. If some of us put on weight you make fun of that, but when that gets into the area of race, and I think that's what happened with this admittedly idiotic and hurtful comment you made yesterday, you look for the most obvious thing, and in this context, in this country when you do that with people's skin color it's at a different level of insult. And one of the things that I think would be really useful in the two weeks that you're off, is not to swear off making fun of black people who do dumb things, I mean you know if Barack Obama or Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson says things that are hypocritical, I mean the idea that Reverend Sharpton gets to decide what's a racially inflammatory remark kind of shows that God has a sense of humor, but you may want to think about how you do that in a way that isn't the most obvious stereo-typical comment to make about someone's skin color. That's what I think about that."
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This is a great example of the way in which all of us share in the comments made by Imus. Imus is responsible for completely irresponsible dialog. His listening audience is responsible for being drawn to a personality who is notorious for the ways he belittles people of various, ethnicities, genders, etc. No doubt, Imus will also gain listeners now because of this. In our modern shock jock ethos there is no “bad publicity.” And…I am responsible because I have too often stayed silent on issues such as this, contributing to the degredation of women, minorities, and other targeted persons. We all share in this. We are all in this together.