April 16, 2007--The Real Ho's

Although we are about to be moved on from Anna Nicole, the Duke lacrosse team, and even Imus because another media event is about to absorb all the oxygen—Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ Senate testimony—I’m not ready to move on or willing to agree that we took care of our race problems last week.

The political and media elites who were frequent and all-too-thrilled guests on Imus’ show for decades, either ignoring or guiltily chuckling along at his “humor,” spent the weekend looking for ways to spin the reasons for their own Imus-enabling involvement. There were three full columns in the “Week In Review” section of the NY Times on Sunday, one by I-Fave Frank Rich, and both Time and Newsweek put Imus on their covers (at least a half dozen Newsweek writers and editor Jon Meachem—all white men—were regulars) in which these folks went through various contortions of self-forgiving self-reflection as a way to find the larger “meaning” in the situation and of course ultimately excuse themselves. (A sample article is linked below which claims that Imus got in trouble because his racist comments weren’t funny enough!)

By the end of Week One, after Imus met with the Rutgers basketball team and was “forgiven,” attention began to shift away from Imus toward the larger “political” and “cultural” implications. It was perfect timing that the North Carolina attorney general declared the three Duke athletes “innocent” because it gave the networks an opportunity to move the focus from Imus to the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton—why weren’t they apologizing to the Duke students for joining the outcry to bring them to justice; and while we’re on the subject Rev. Jackson what about your calling New York City “Hymie Town”; and Rev. Al, why haven’t you ever apologized for your role in the Tawana Brawley outrage?

The good Revs managed to tap dance around that so the media folks again shifted their attention, this time to Hip-Hop as the incarnation of all cultural evil. This not only promised to set a context within which to “explain” why the “good Imus” might have made his Ho comment (he was trying to be youthful and cool) but is also served to identify a place to assign blame for the corroded minds and values of our youth. Especially our white youth, since 80 percent of the Rap audience is now apparently white. Tim Russert’s kid listens to rap for God sakes! When it was just 20 percent, who cared?

Then, while on the subject of Hip-Hop, the media turned again to Jackson and Sharpton—you all of a sudden got interested in the H and N words when Imus used them, but where have you been during the past decade when Gangsta Rap ruled? Isn’t it hypocritical, Jessie and Al, to be beating up on Imus and ruining his livelihood and career when there are even more powerful (black) cultural criminals out there?

So today, while getting ready for Alberto Gonzales, we’ll still have time to continue to talk about and solve the Hip-Hop problem. We know that Al Sharpton will be out on the streets this week, maybe even picketing the Black Entertainment Network, and there will probably be a 90 second spot about it on the NBC Nightly News. But what do you think will be covered and we’ll be talking about next week? I’ll wager not much about Imus or race because, you see, we’re getting all of that solved this week.

If this turns out to be true, who are the real Ho’s? If we really want to talk about and do something about race in America, it’s time to end the self-congratulatory spinning and posturing and look for, find, and do something real about racism. If you want to figure out where to do that I direct you toward—

Virtually any big-city emergency or classroom; half the street corners in Newark; behind the counters of Burger King or behind bars in Attica Prison; down in the basement mailrooms of NBC, CBS, the Pentagon, New York University, and the Ford Foundation; and of course in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans.