Just me thinking out-loud…
While I am getting tired of hearing about this situation (as if it is the first time the words “nappy-headed hoe’s” were uttered from the words of mortal man), I think that there is some good to it because folks are starting to seriously look at the double standards we have in this country when it comes to speech of this nature. I don’t know when was the last time I have seen so many folks reach the point of popping that lil’ vein on the side of their neck on any issue. I think with the ending of the Duke case combined with the Imus situation, we all have front row seats to a post-civil rights era “crash” moment on a more civilized level.
Do I think that we are heading towards an era where these double standards will be abolished?
As long as there is money to be made, NO! Imus, like Opie & Anthony will be back. I think that Jesse and Al are just riding a temporary wave that will quickly fizzle out once it slams into the wall of Market Reality. Advertisers are going to back down only but so much before they realize that their bottom line is shrinking. That is why Jesse and Al are also trying to get the FCC to enter into censorship (which is a very wrong-headed move because the government has NO business censoring what we as citizens have to say–no matter how offensive it may be to YOU). Hip Hop in its present state ain’t going nowhere unless of course we can convince OUR KIDS (Hello!) to stop listening to it instead of placing the blame on White record label executives who are only making money on OUR neglect (relax, nobody is “beating up” on you when I say that). So again, while I complete dispise the vocal garbage that is put out there by hip hop artists and shock jocks, I completely stand by their right to be heard while at the same time I exercise my right not to listen to them. If my home was a stock market, the hip hop industry and companies who support shock jocks like Imus would not survive—our standards are too high for them.
My thing is this, until we are serious enough to engage in ideas such as this, then we will forever have given big corporations parental rights in our own community. Again, these companies do not make our kids listen to this kind of music–WE allow them to.
Anyway, I said all of that to give you heads up of yet another Imus skewer-fest that will be held on the Oprah show over the next two days. It will feature some hip hop artists, social commentators and Al Sharpton. Might be worth recording.
Peace!
P.S. Just out of curiosity, I wonder what kind of music these players listen to when off the court.
(if we are going to keep it real, let’s keep it real!!)
