Yes, Yes, He SHOULD Be Fired
Apr. 11th, 2007 02:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xakaraImus. Fired. Yes.
If you aren't familiar with the story and the comments Imus made about the Rutger's basketball team go Here and read the reply from the coach and then follow links to your heart's delight.
Now if you've followed the story and have already had your fill, worry not you can stop reading now and go on about the rest of your day. I don't mind. Really.
Okay for everyone else, yes, I feel he should be fired. Why? Because others have been fired for similar things and to let him off with a two week suspension is not acceptable. It sends the message that if you're established enough you can say whatever you wish to without consequence. Other prominent figures in sports lost their jobs for racial comments. Jimmy "The Greek" anyone? (Google it if you're lost as to the reference).
But as a woman of color I don't really care about the racial aspects (and I'm using race/racial for ease of understanding despite the fact that personally I use ethnicity and culture over the word race) of his comments implied by the word "nappy". The texture of my hair is not something for which I can be made to feel bad so it carried no offense whatsoever. I was upset because it was used in a way meant to be offensive. "Ha-ha offensive" but offensive all the same.
Now his use of the word Ho on the other hand was just above and beyond. There's no way to spin it, there's no way to justify it, there's no way to joke out of it. It was misogynistic. To call a team full of althetic young women playing their hearts out and doing nothing at all sexual or inappropriate "Hoes" can be nothing but misogynistic.
He tried to use the excuse that it was comedy and that it's used in hip hop/rap and the controversy is because he's white. Would the controversy be different if he was non-white? Yes. Would it be non-existent? NO! Hip Hop artists taking responsibility for their lyrics and how they portray women has been banded about and lamented and publicly discussed for YEARS. It's not right when they do it, it wasn't right when he did it, and there have been consequences.
Walmart, one of the largest sellers of digital media refuses to carry anything with an explicit lyric tag. Other places have made similar stands. Oprah and several other shows that create breakout stars don't feature those artists on their shows. But it's not enough.
The problem however is that the public still buys the albums. I'm not saying they can't make them if they wish to. I'm saying that if its not the image we want out there then we can't buy it. It's not about Freedom of Speech, it's about respect and not mainstreaming misogyny which isn't done with stickers and refusal to carry albums, but by consumers refusing to buy into it. When people stop buying, then rap stars who want to pay their bills will stop putting it out there.
There have to be consistant, unwavering consequences. The same goes with Imus.
Two weeks and a weak apology is not a consistant consequence. If Charles Gibson of ABC World News Tonight had called the Rutger's basketball team "nappy headed hoes", his bosses would have demanded a brain scan and when it came back clean they would have fired him. That's it. No if, and, but, maybe, kinda, sorry, friends now, nothing. He'd be gone. Anyone else at MSNBC would be gone. He should be held to the same standard.
And may I point out that this is not his first comment he's been taken to task to for, but he got off for those in the past and had no reason to think he wouldn't get off this time too. I believe he should be educated otherwise.
Unfortunately, unless a few more sponsors pull out of his show, I don't see it happening.
Ramble done.
~X
But as a woman of color I don't really care about the racial aspects (and I'm using race/racial for ease of understanding despite the fact that personally I use ethnicity and culture over the word race) of his comments implied by the word "nappy". The texture of my hair is not something for which I can be made to feel bad so it carried no offense whatsoever. I was upset because it was used in a way meant to be offensive. "Ha-ha offensive" but offensive all the same.
Now his use of the word Ho on the other hand was just above and beyond. There's no way to spin it, there's no way to justify it, there's no way to joke out of it. It was misogynistic. To call a team full of althetic young women playing their hearts out and doing nothing at all sexual or inappropriate "Hoes" can be nothing but misogynistic.
He tried to use the excuse that it was comedy and that it's used in hip hop/rap and the controversy is because he's white. Would the controversy be different if he was non-white? Yes. Would it be non-existent? NO! Hip Hop artists taking responsibility for their lyrics and how they portray women has been banded about and lamented and publicly discussed for YEARS. It's not right when they do it, it wasn't right when he did it, and there have been consequences.
Walmart, one of the largest sellers of digital media refuses to carry anything with an explicit lyric tag. Other places have made similar stands. Oprah and several other shows that create breakout stars don't feature those artists on their shows. But it's not enough.
The problem however is that the public still buys the albums. I'm not saying they can't make them if they wish to. I'm saying that if its not the image we want out there then we can't buy it. It's not about Freedom of Speech, it's about respect and not mainstreaming misogyny which isn't done with stickers and refusal to carry albums, but by consumers refusing to buy into it. When people stop buying, then rap stars who want to pay their bills will stop putting it out there.
There have to be consistant, unwavering consequences. The same goes with Imus.
Two weeks and a weak apology is not a consistant consequence. If Charles Gibson of ABC World News Tonight had called the Rutger's basketball team "nappy headed hoes", his bosses would have demanded a brain scan and when it came back clean they would have fired him. That's it. No if, and, but, maybe, kinda, sorry, friends now, nothing. He'd be gone. Anyone else at MSNBC would be gone. He should be held to the same standard.
And may I point out that this is not his first comment he's been taken to task to for, but he got off for those in the past and had no reason to think he wouldn't get off this time too. I believe he should be educated otherwise.
Unfortunately, unless a few more sponsors pull out of his show, I don't see it happening.
Ramble done.
~X
