dejsis wrote:Forgive my ignorance, and as a total outsider to the issue. But why is this a race question?
Because "nappy-headed hoes" is a racial insult, and that's what Imus said.
If the basketball team was white would the Imus comment have been OK?
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If Imus was black would his line be justifiable?
Issues of insult are all about perception. Since I'm not the one offended, I can't speak for those who are.
My guess is that if the team was white it would mostly just be confusing, but still offensive on both racial and gender grounds.
My guess is that if Imus was black it probably would be less (but still somewhat) racially offensive. I don't think this is specific to black or white, male or female. It seems to be pretty consistently true that humans take ribbing better when the person doing the mocking is including themselves.
If it were one of the teammates saying "We're a bunch of nappy-headed hoes" it wouldn't be
as offensive
to the team. The "hoes" part, coming from just about anyone, is still going to be offensive.
Why do women - black or white- stand by and let it happen?
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If you buy the crap, crap is what you'll get.
My jaded response to this is that female, male, black, white, old, young and everyone else, 99% of people are too brainwashed to see anything as being more important than the freedom to buy buy buy. Boycotts rarely do anything because we've turned ourselves into a legion of mindless consumer zombies unwilling to make any material sacrifice whatsoever for what we supposedly believe in.
That said, Imus being fired is, more or less, people refusing to stand by and let it happen. CBS doesn't want to see consumers boycott their station, so they fire the guy responsible. They just did it before the public got a chance to boycott.