Spring break; My views on the Don Imus thing

Yikes. Ever since the Bloggergate scandal the weekend after Battle I've not written a blog in like two weeks. Over spring break, I've been studying AP World History like a mofo, memorizing my paraphrased version of Brutus' speech from William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", and watching TV and heavy metal videos in my non-studying times. Well, I sure hope that everyone who was offended by my remarks regarding battle knows that I'm sorry and it was simply a keyboard malfunction. Okay? All that "Bloggergate" crap is just silly compared to Don Imus's remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. This brings me to the main point of this blog post: Don Imus's remarks is starting a new debate over acceptable speech. Also...


On Wednesday, April 4, a few days before spring break began for us EVHS students, Don Imus used a three-word slur on his radio program, "Imus in the Morning", which was also simulcast on cable news channel MSNBC, that insulted the women for their hairstyles and race. That drew controversy from such African-Americans as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Imus apologized on April 9, some days before both MSNBC and CBS Radio (who owns the rights to "Imus in the Morning") fired Imus. Late last week, Imus also personally met with the Rutgers players who accepted his apology. The new issue of "Time" magazine has its cover story about the Imus incident, titled "Who Can Say What?" It also compared Imus's words to other incidents with racism, such as Michael Richards dropping the N-word during his stand-up routine in November, Ludacris using the B, F, H, and N words in his song "Move B***h", and others. It claims that Imus drew the line on acceptable ethnic speech. Well, here's the thing. If Imus drops the H-word once on his radio program and later gets fired, why can't gangsta rappers like Ludacris or 50 Cent get massive protests from Jesse Jackson & Co. for using the same word Imus used, or even worse, B and N words? Kudos to L. Brent Bozell, founder of the otherwise stupidest douchebag organization in America known as the "Parents' Television Council", for pointing this out in his latest column. I remember listening to pop-rap in middle school whose language was far worse than Imus's little comments. Why can radio stations get away with playing that, yet lose a radio show over a smaller problem? That is just so hypocritical.

And as I continue typing, most new hip-hop on Wild 94.9 (NOT KMEL!!!), BET, and MTV continue to promote misogyny, sex, and defamation of women despite Imus's racist remarks. Tell you what. Why don't you go listen to THESE hip-hop artists if you don't wanna hear repetitive, vulgar uses of the B, H, or N-words? Instead of all your stupid N-word/hyphy crap like Sh*tty Cent, Chingay, Ugly Ricky, or Ludap*ss, listen to: Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, The Roots, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Rage Against the Machine (they're actually an excellent rap-rock fusion band), or any hip-hop you may find on my Last.fm page.

Besides, some people have also formed petitions to try to get Don Imus back on the air ! Mostly, they're either lazy slackers who aren't sensitive to Imus's racist remarks, or they argue that Imus just let the tongue slip and rap videos on BET and MTV are even worse. Well, now that Imus is fired, why don't we go protest BET and MTV for "running raunchy rap videos full of N-words and 'ho' references" (L. Brent Bozell, "The Incomplete Anti-Imus Lobby"? Huh? Vote for a good video like Mastodon's "Colony of Birchmen" on TRL instead of, well, Ugly Ricky!

And today on Dateline NBC, they reported on this thing. Watch from MSNBC Video the whole report for free