Letters to the Editor
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Boycotts or phonecalls?
Sugarman, you are right that most us do not have that kind of clout. That is why I suggested direct social pressure on the sponsors. I should have been specific; phone calls, letters to the editor, etc. Boycotts almost never work unless they are pervasive.
The point is to make the sponsors feel it.
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Wake Up and Smell the Insults
An open message to America, minorities, and feminists: As a white male American, I tire of the effing double standard. I never owned a black person or a Ho or a woman. Quit making me pay for the sins of others. Quit being such a weenie when you hear a miserable word or phrase. Grow a pair, will ya??!! Words do not shackles make. Today's shackles are made by lawyers, judges, cops, and politicians trolling for votes as they pimp their Ho called Justice.
As for persons being made to pay for their remarks, I'm STILL waiting for the media to take George Clooney to task for his unfeeling remark about An Alzheimer patient's memory problems. How about Katie Couric suggesting, on national TV, that a man be castrated? His crime? Rape? No. Child molestation? No. His crime was he got cold feet for his own wedding. That was years ago and nobody said diddly.
Do some research and study the likes of Andrea Dworkin and the misandrist crap they love to spout. It'll make you cringe, yet they are never called to task for their hatred. Same goes for the ethnic minorities.
Don't feed your double-standard pablum to the rest of us. Grow a pair, and let's be equal in this situation. You wanna play hard-ball when THEIR guy screws up? Do the same when your team fouls or shut the f**k up!
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Diversions
Staying focused is difficult. It is easy to allow people to bring up other issues to divert attention from this one. We can talk about double-standards when that is the topic. It would make an interesting one, to be sure.
Meanwhile, I am trying to amass a list of sponsors that I am calling since letters end up in the trash.
From today's New York Post website (citation at end):
The National Association of Black Journalists, which is demanding Imus be fired, yesterday singled out three of the show's sponsors - the New York Stock Exchange, Simon & Schuster and Random House - and questioned whether they still wanted to be associated with Imus.
The article also mentions Jos. A Bank, Cadillac and E*Trade as sponsors. Again, I think responsibility comes with sponsorship. These companies are signing their name with this behavior. Sugarman is right about boycotts, and I think I am right about emails and letters. Faxes and phone calls are hard to ignore.
We should remind them that we hold them responsible for their choices, not just with this particular host.
Citation for NY Post story:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04102007/news/nationalnews/sponsors_could_be_feeling_backlash_nationalnews_holly_sanders_and_peter_lauria.htm
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If he'd said the same thing as a rap, would it have been okay?
Sure, the comments were vile. Both sexist and racist. However, there is a whole "music" industry churning out a product every bit as offensive. Rap lyrics demean and objectify women, and rake in millions for the "artists" and record companies. I'm against censorship, but a lot of righteous indignation would be a good thing.
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Oh, the irony!
“The racism was bad, don't get me wrong, but the expression "nappy-headed" just says that Imus didn't like their hair (specifically because their hair looked like black women's hair -- but it still boils down to "you're ugly"). But for no reason whatsoever he called them "hoes". The word means "whores". He compared athletes to prostitutes because they didn't give him wood.”
A couple of weeks ago one of Salon’s Broadsheet contributors suggested that fat girls (pre-teens) are ‘hoes.’ There was never any sort of acknowledgement from the author of that post or from Broadsheet that I saw. It was totally swept under the rug.
I agree that the racism was the most shocking part of what Imus said. It’s right that it was the first thing everyone picked up on and it’s hearting that the consensus is Imus is a has-been jerk looking for cheap publicity. But it’s really gross to me that if Imus had left ‘nappy-headed’ out of his nasty little exchange no one would have cared or noticed.
Anyone think Imus would have dared insult a male basketball team with racial and sexual slurs?
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their One Big Opportunity and they blew it! (i just watched the rutgers' newscast)
my step daughter, kisha, thought it was hilarious, my son (biracial) said "angry? i wasn't angry. there wasn't anything to *be* angry about!". if the rutgers teammates had USED their national exposure for what it was worth, they would have taken the opportunity to let Imus off. be seen as Tough and Noble and parlayed that exposure into *real dollars*. instead they just said "pity us, after this conference, we are all are going on disability for ptsd". is that going to sell? (really, it was *pathetic* the only thing missing was "another holocaust"). the italians i grew up with would NEVER let you know they were "hurt" it would be seen as the worst sign of weakness - but now we have the italian american anti-defamation league crying about the sopranos. no courage anywhere. victims all.
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Boohoo, I'm tired of being blamed for others
Tony, are you so wrapped up in your whining you couldn't bother to find a living feminist to cite? Dworkin died in 2005.
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You've got one helluva nerve, Sugarman
Who are you to tell these women how they should feel and respond? That's some big noise from someone who wasn't called a whore and a jigaboo by a national figure and who hasn't been put under an unwanted 24/7 spotlight. Why don't you admit it--you think they should have acted like this stuff didn't bother them one bit. That way, all this would get swept under the rug and Imus would be free to pull this mess again. It's easy to have "balls" when you aren't the one in the spotlight or who has anything at stake, right? Coward.
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deering,
eat shit, white bitch. where are the black people on this thread? *I* a white man have to represent YOUR race? with my "knowledge" limited to family members? deering, NEVER use the "j" word. i told you that before. or ARE you ACTUAL Klan?