The most important aspect of the Don Imus affair is not that in 2007 a quasi-prominent radio personality made an unprovoked, racially insensitive* and sexist remark about a group of young women. Nor is it, I believe, that these sort of attitudes still exist (because of course they do.) The real--and as far as I can tell, mostly ignored--story here is that in 2007, a vast majority of the American public consider this sort of thing completely unacceptable.
How do I know this, you ask? Did I take a poll?
I don't have to. There are organizations whose very existance depends on their ability to gauge the needs and desires of the American public. Those that persist and thrive do so because they are very, very good at this. They have names like Proctor and Gamble, Sprint, American Express, and General Motors. Their response to this is a far better read on the attitudes of the typical American than any politician, pundit, or pollster can produce.
Imus didn't get canned for what he said. He got canned because he lost his sponsors. More importantly, he lost his sponsors not because the CEO's of all these companies are wonderfully enlightened liberal-minded people (though many of them may very well be), but because they felt being associated with those kinds of remarks would hurt their bottom line.
The beauty of capitalism is that you never have to speculate about what motivates people.
This means that they (the sponsors) believe--really, honestly believe--that referring to a group of African-American women as "nappy-headed hoes" is unacceptable to most Americans. Moreover, they believe it is probably unacceptable to most of Don Imus' target demographic: those nasty, largely Republican-voting, middle-aged middle class white men. And they are most likely correct about this.
None of this is to say that I expect my fellow Americans of all pigmentations and hair textures to join hands and celebrate the End of Racial Oppression in America. To be sure, there is plenty to be upset about these days if you are black, and especially if you are black and poor. As Radley Balko points out in his excellent post on the Duke case today:
Yes, Nifong was rotten to the core. Yes, the liberals who convicted the lacrosse team in the press rushed to judgment, and were dead wrong. But listening to the right wing over the last several months, you'd think this kind of thing only happens to white people, and only liberal, bleeding-heart prosecutors like Nifong are capable of unjust, overtly political, race-fueled witch hunts. The unique thing about this case is that everything happened in reverse...
These kinds of injustices happen to all people, of course. It's just that most of them don't make the newspapers. The [sic] do also tend to happen disproportionately to black people, and to poor people who can't afford big-shot attorneys.
The sooner we can can muster the same level of general outrage over the excesses of law enforcement and politically ambitious prosecutors that we can over the bad jokes of a geriatric DJ, the better off we'll all be.
*I think calling it 'racist' goes a bit too far, but it was definitely a shitty thing to say.
3 comments:
Excellent observation. And the subservience paid to Al "Tawana" Sharpton and Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson would have been more irritating if Don "nappy head" Imus wasn't such a doofus to begin with.
never heard imus. and didnt know what his game was. as far as i can tell, he made his money in the media, and like anything else... the 'rules' eventually got him.
as for nifing, and such assholes as him: the penalty they face isnt severe enough. any prosecuter found guilty of such malfeasence needs to face mandatory prison time eqaul to the time of those they would have convicted.
only one or two of these guys will do hard time, as the practice would soon become self-abolished.
make crime/coruption expensive, and you get less of it.
economics, properly practiced, will cure all ills, whether its on the radio, or in the courtroom.
You have a lot of balls to call Mr. Sharpton an "elephant in the room." Shit dude, he just got someone famous fired! You think it'd be tough to get some no name blogging punk fired?
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