Imus
Once again radio show host Don Imus has stuck his ignoramus foot in it.
I must admit I was an avid Imus listener/watcher when his show used to be simulcast on MSNBC in the mornings. Other than Russert, nobody does a political interview better. Really.
But he stuck his ignoramus foot in it by calling a women's collegiate basketball team a bunch of "nappy headed hos."
The reaction and action was precisely swift. He deserved to be fired.
After some mea culpas and an industry enforced sabbatical, he arose from Al Sharpton's ashes to sign a mega deal with ABC radio.
To only do this:
Fire him, don't fire him - whatever. An old white man making prejudicial statements against African Americans isn't new and he will probably get whatever the Sharptonites say he should get yet again.
Question:
Where is our Al Sharpton? Our Jesse Jackson? Who is it? Barney Frank? Please.
How many late night monologues include some snickering juvenile reference to an effeminate man or a Home Depot shopping dyke?
Making fun of gays is so woven into our entertainment fabric that it barely shows as a blip on the radar or even worse - the gaydar.
It's in every medium - everywhere.
How funny would the sausage king restaurant scene from Ferris Bueller really have been if the maitre d had been some burly Stallone wannabe instead of the simpering wimp that he was?
Yes, I'm guilty as charged. It was funny as hell.
Every other scene in Will & Grace involved some gay stereotype to an extent, but it didn't offend me. Why? Probably because I know the creative minds behind the show are gay. It made a difference. I don't know if it should have, but it did.
And so my question is this:
Do we further propagate ignorance and insensitivity by condoning or enjoying some gay humor while wagging our self righteous fingers in the direction of others?
Can we really have our fancy boy cake and eat it too?
A piece of paper can barely be placed between the right thing to say and the wrongness of too much political correctness.
All I know is we don't want another Matthew Shepard tied to a fence. If straight folks telling one more insipid, immature joke happened to desensitize just one more killer - what the hell would be so funny about that?
Now Sue, one little joke about gays won't cause another death. And one tiny misstep on the mountain won't cause a little avalanche either. Climbers will tell you it's never the last action that causes the slide into hell - it was all of them that led to the fateful moment.
So today, let's watch our step.
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Let me be the one! I love and hate everyone equally. I think it is ok to laugh at everyone and everything as long as you understand that it is not always play time. If you can't laugh all you will do is cry. The world is way too messed up to get pissed off every time someone says or does something stupid.
Don Imus is a fumbling old man if people would just chalk his BS up to that we would never have to hear about him again....it's not like anyone is listening to his show anyway, I'm sure no one was offended when he made either comment because he has no listeners. He just happens to have an intern or two that love to hate him and have Rev. Al and Jessy on speed dial.
No one started screaming that Charlie Sheen called Denise Richards the n-word in a cell message. Where were Al and Jessy on that one? Oh ya it didn't make sense that he called her that so it didn't matter....huh. That's strange because I would think for all of the crap that Michael Richards got for useing it I'm sure I heard people saying that word shouldn't be used in any situation. Maybe Denise should call the NAACP and see if they will help in the divorce.
My point is things only matter when we are told they matter. There is always someone waiting for someone to screw up. We all straight, gay, black, brown, female, male, have someone or a group of someones trying to put us in our place or put a foot on our neck. It is how you take whatever they say or do that matters.
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It is how you take whatever they say or do that matters, but hate speech is hate speech and shouldn't be tolerated under any circumstance by any of us. If you're around someone that uses a racial slur or calls somebody a faggot and say nothing, it is my belief that a part of you is diminished forever. Do I think we can take ourselves too seriously? Of course. But a young man hanging from a fence left to die in Wyoming is serious shit and my only point is that by using those terms and making those endless freakin' jokes, we somehow anesthetize ourselves that there are real human beings living and dying behind a barrage of punchlines.
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