4.13.2007

I-Mess

The Imus situation has gotten me fired up. My anger doesn't stem so much from what he said, though of course it was upsetting. I'm mostly angry with the talking head hypocrites of our media who have jumped on this story and are dragging it out for all it's worth. My problem is that I don't believe for one minute that the media truly cares about the treatment of these girls, or any other women in America for that matter. Imus's first punishment of being suspended for 2 weeks proves my point. It was only when the sponsors began to pull out that he was fired. The sponsors only pulled out because they feared a backlash of drops in sales from the people who are angry about this right now. His firing did not come from a desire for justice on the part of CBS, it came from the power of the dollar.

Are sponsors going to stop advertising on MTV when they play a Snoop video with titles such as,"Pimp Slapped", "B---- Please," or the heartwarming, "I miss that B----" sporting half naked girls with blank stares shakin' it on the screen? Are they going to stop advertising on the radio stations that play Jay Z's "I got 99 problems but a B---- ain't one"? Or how about Ja Rule's "B---- betta have my money". If Imus were a black man would it have been okay for him to call these women nappy headed hoes? There's a double standard here.

The women of the Rutgers basketball team are no more than pawns in an ongoing game in this country. When someone lets it slip that they are truly a bigot or a sexist the media and the people have to respond with outrage because it's no longer socially acceptable to be a bigot or a sexist. Of course it shouldn't be socially acceptable to be a bigot or a sexist but the hope is that the desire for equality would run deeper than reputation and appearance. If the media, or the general public for that matter, really and truly cared about ending racism and sexism the outrage would not subside with Imus being fired.

Days from now the media will run more Anna Nicole-esque stories and the public will become distracted by the possibility that Angelina Jolie might be pregnant again or Katie Holmes might be leaving Tom Cruise. If we really cared about racism and sexism coming to an end people would start to boycott radio stations that play offensive music and would burn their albums by so called "empowered" women who use sex as a tool like Britney Spears, The Pussy Cat Dolls, and Fergie to name a few. No, I don't want to be a "Slave for You" and I'm not singing along to "my hump."

Imus has been fired, but his show ending does not solve the major issue he was fired over - and I'm not talking about money. Racism and sexism are alive and well in this country and around the world. Earlier this year I heard my neighbor yell the N word at my elderly neighbor's home health nurse and threaten her. I had never heard that word used that way before and it knocked the wind out of me. Thankfully she called the police and I acted as a witness for the shaken up woman. Our immigration "reform" is allowing racism towards Mexicans to be okay and even patriotic! Honor killings are happening by the thousands each year around the world and there is no public outcry.

Progress comes slowly, painfully and with many obstacles but it is worth striving for. We can make a difference in small ways, such as talking to the 13 year old girl you hear singing "my hump" and telling her why she's selling herself short. I don't mean to be overly dramatic here, but the little things are what eat away at the cultural climate and something that was shocking 10 years ago is slowly accepted and even celebrated - it becomes the norm. Jay Z's song "I Got 99 Problems..." has a great beat and is well produced, but we shouldn't be seduced by the music when the words are so vile. I'm speaking to myself here and it's hard to come up against what the culture says is okay, but I hope that this sad occurrence with the Rutgers women's basketball team can be a catalyst of sorts for women and races throughout America.

It would be so amazing if things could change, truly change, and instead of people worrying about coming off poorly to others they are expressing the beliefs of their hearts. A new cultural norm will take a long time, but we can chink away at it one little piece at a time. Join me?