Watching Rev. Sharpton and Imus go at it on the Today Show this morning, I felt my stomach start to turn. As a black woman, I hear things that offend me everyday. We live in a country that places our beauty at the bottom of the list compared to women of other races, of course unless your beauty closely resembles that of women of other races. We know we are just as beautiful as anyone else, and that's how we deal with it.
I made my opinions about Imus clear yesterday. It got so many hits of digg, I was getting a little nervous. If people actually start reading this stuff, I should probably say something important. I wasn't as offended by the comments Imus made because I watch that show all the time and I've heard him say worst things about black people when he's joking and I've heard him say very respectful and positive things about people when he's serious. It doesn't excuse what he said. To add the term "nappy-headed" goes beyond a basic insult. It is too specifically an insult of the beauty of black women everywhere. And these girls aren't public figures, so they don't deserve to have their ethnicity, dignity and sexuality disparaged on the national stage just because they won a basketball game. And a room full of white men discussing black women is always going to end up like this because they don't know, and don't care to know, anything about us. Suspend him for 2 weeks or 2 months, whatever. I've moved on from that incident and when he comes back on the air, I'll probably still watch the show.
What really bothers me is the hypocrisy of these so called black leaders. They have every right to go after Imus. What he said was hurtful and crossed the line in a very touchy area. White men degrading the sexuality of black women is an issue that has existed for centuries in this country and you know what I'm talking about. But I don't want believe that the dignity and honor of black women has anything to do with what they are doing. There is no place where black women are respected less than in our own entertainment culture. For entertainment we are depicted in ways so less honorable than anything Imus said. What he's said in his entire career is less than how many times we are degraded in one hour's worth of videos or songs on the radio.
If it was the dignity of black women that leaders were really concerned about, they would go after those who degrade that dignity with the same gusto they are going after Imus. But it isn't. This is about "see what we can do to them." For all those years that white men disrespected blacks in general and got away with it, they want to show that now you can't. They want to bring him down to show that even rich, white men have limits. To get him fired would be a wonderful victory for them and them only. Herein lies the hypocrisy.
Because at the same time they are celebrating their victory over Imus, kids all over the world will be subject to cultural messages that tell WHITE and BLACK BOYS and GIRLS that black women aren't s%#*. So where was the victory for us? When black leaders are confronted with a white man who disrespects black women, he must lose his job. But when they are confronted with black artists who disrespect black women for profit, their only punishment is to say, "You shouldn't do that." Or maybe if they're feeling real angry, they'll say "That is wrong." They are always admitting that we shouldn't promote this kind of message, but it never goes beyond that. These songs go over the same national airwaves that Sharpton said cannot support these degrading comments my Imus. So who needs to be fired? What artists should we boycott? Which corporations supporting this message should we start calling to pull their support?
The answer is no one. For these black men (and women because there are plenty of them supporting this industry because they profit), their only punishment is to be told what they are doing is wrong and they should change. There is no benefit to these leaders in bringing down anyone who is not white. That's because its not the message they care about. It's the race of the messenger. That's hypocritical.
I want to repeat that I DO NOT condone what Imus said. Black women deal with so much disrespect every day. We are considered "less than" by many and there is no excuse for that. God is just, so all those people will get theirs. I'm just saying if you really believe in a cause, then you have to believe in the cause no matter what. There aren't degrees of concern if you think something is cruel, hurtful and wrong.
Sorry if I seem mean, but I'm mad and it's only 9 in the morning. I promise my next post will be about something that is meaningless and vacuous.
