Trash Talk Radio

Gwen Ifill, whom I like, on Imus, whom I like sometimes, in a NYT Op-Ed:

[...] That's the kind of story we love, right? A bunch of teenagers from Newark, Cincinnati, Brooklyn and, yes, Ogden, Utah, defying expectations. It's what explodes so many March Madness office pools.

But not, apparently, for the girls. For all their grit, hard work and courage, the Rutgers girls got branded "nappy-headed ho's" - a shockingly concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male camaraderie by a group of amused, middle-aged white men. The "joke" - as delivered and later recanted - by the radio and television personality Don Imus failed one big test: it was not funny.

The serial apologies of Mr. Imus, who was suspended yesterday by both NBC News and CBS Radio for his remarks, have failed another test. The sincerity seems forced and suspect because he's done some version of this several times before.

I know, because he apparently did it to me.

"Isn't The Times wonderful," Mr. Nelson quoted Mr. Imus as saying on the radio. "It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House."

Why do my journalistic colleagues appear on Mr. Imus's program? That's for them to defend, and others to argue about. I certainly don't know any black journalists who will. To his credit, Mr. Imus told the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday he realizes that, this time, he went way too far.

Yes, he did. Every time a young black girl shyly approaches me for an autograph or writes or calls or stops me on the street to ask how she can become a journalist, I feel an enormous responsibility. It's more than simply being a role model. I know I have to be a voice for them as well.

So here's what this voice has to say for people who cannot grasp the notion of picking on people their own size: This country will only flourish once we consistently learn to applaud and encourage the young people who have to work harder just to achieve balance on the unequal playing field.

Let's see if we can manage to build them up and reward them, rather than opting for the cheapest, easiest, most despicable shots.

I love ethnic humor. I have a lot of fun telling jokes about other folks - the alcoholic proclivities of Irishmen, the athletic ability of Mexicans to run, jump, climb, and swim to get here, the, er, thriftiness of Scots and Jews, Polish rocket scientists, all the way down to 'them' humor like why they have to use astroturf on the athletic fields in the neighboring town/county/state due to the predilection of their cheerleaders to eat the grass.

Having said that, an awful lot of ethnic 'humor' is downright hateful, or just wildly inappropriate, or both, like Imus' stupid comment. Some of it is downright funny, too. Some of it used to be funny because we didn't know any better. I know 'race jokes' from fifty years ago that used to elicit laughter that today would get you a cold stare from any audience. I sometimes tell these to illustrate to younger folks what ethnic humor was like in the old days. And how things have, or ought to have, changed. The old guys know these jokes, the youngsters are a little shocked by them.

I think the stuff is OK in a private setting, although that can get you in Dutch (is that ethnic?) sometimes too, as Fixer well knows.

You gotta pick your spot. To me, the point of any joke is to get a laugh, not to hurt someone's feelings. With the platform that Imus, Limbaugh, ad nauseum, have, they should just plain know better. Apparently, they think they know who their audience is, but really they don't. They keep saying this kind of shit, get yelled at for a little bit, apologize for their insensitivity, nothing really happens to them, then they go do it again and keep making their millions.

It makes me wonder why some of the richest white men feel so insecure that they have to insult "others" in order to feel superior. Or is it just utter contempt?

Also, there's a big difference between ethnic humor and racial slurs. The former is pretty generally in bad taste to say in front of a mass audience, the latter is completely inexcusable.

It's perfectly legal, though. There's no law against racial prejudice, only against discrimination under the law. The First Amendment allows you to say any damn fool thing you want short of threats and blatant incitement to riot, as we see every day.

As any old drunk can tell you, choices have consequences and words are choices. I've had to pay many times for my own poor choices, aka 'steppin' on my weenie', until I decided to make better ones.

Two weeks off for Imus isn't going to make a bit of difference to Imus unless he uses the time to think about what he did - needlessly and thoughtlessly insult some young girls in front of millions of people - and change the way he thinks. I bet he doesn't. He's old and rich, and he knows this will blow over. What might make a difference is if the father of one of the girls punches him in the nose for trash-talkin' his daughter.

The dad'd go to jail for assaulting a white man, and Imus'd put a $60 steak on his black eye and sue. Life goes on.

This Imus deal isn't huge. Just another example of someone with access to the public's ear (or eye, nose, throat, and wallet!) showing how brain-dead they can be when their position dictates they ought to know better. Thank God no other celebrity or public figure has ever done that! It might spawn an industry!