Don Imus is hardly the only offender
By no means do I condone the remarks Don Imus made about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. The remarks were demeaning, disrespectful, sexist and racist. They should not have been made by anyone, white or black. Those women represent the cream of the crop in Black America. To have them denigrated in such a manner was inexcusable.
Those remarks should serve as a wake-up call to Black America. It is long overdue for us as black men to begin to show more respect to ourselves and especially to our black women. We do not show them the respect they deserve. We degrade them, humiliate, abuse and treat them in a manner that would be illegal in other countries.
You can stop at any traffic light and be exposed to language that even Imus would not use on his radio show. The rap "music" is laden with profanity, sexual innuendo and such outrageous comments about our black women until I am ashamed to be standing next to the vehicle where that "music" is being played.
We should not let the Don Imus comments go in vain. We should use those comments as a wake-up call.
Pollard Stanford
Greensboro
Comments (4)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
didn't we use those comments to get him fired, scare away his advertisers and send a certain gov'na to the hospital because he wasnt wearing his seatbelt? i dont think his comments went in vain. lots of people listened to imus.
you may have to try to work on that for the generation after next. I hear 8-14 year olds singing "flirt" and "bubble gum" and talking about their "B*%$@#" in the courtyard area of my apartment complex. The parents of 2 of the kids seem to let the unedited music run rampant.
You can't save everyone and some folks don't want to be saved.
Posted on May 2, 2007 7:15 AM
"It is long overdue for us as black men to begin to show more respect to ourselves and especially to our black women. We do not show them the respect they deserve. We degrade them, humiliate, abuse and treat them in a manner that would be illegal in other countries."
And, oddly enough, they let you. Go figure.
Good letter.
Posted on May 2, 2007 9:18 AM
Good point, Denzien.
Ever seen a rap video? Not only do they let, they are willing participants.
Posted on May 2, 2007 10:02 AM
Great letter. Problem is, people hide behind celebrities to mask their own prejudices:
Rush Limbaugh calls Barack Obama a
"Halfrican".
Earl Butts, Nixon's secty of agriculture resigned after the leak of his memo saying, "All n_ggers want is tight p___y, loose shoes, and a warm place to sh_t".
Have we really come very far? It doesn't appear so. Nixon's "Southern Strategy" is still being used by the GOP to win elections, and radio personalities still use stereotypical dialects to present black people as "Step n'fetchits".
Posted on May 4, 2007 10:34 AM