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I have not been following the Imus thing, except for the bare minimum required by reading headlines on news sites on my way to more interesting stories (possible cure for Type 1 Diabetes YAY!), but today it looks like the stories finally got to the part of the cycle that seems to be inevitably approached.
It's the part where the rich and varied world of largely white, largely male media journalists wonder why it's offensive for a white male to use words about black women that black women often use amongst themselves. They gaze around them with wide, innocent eyes, wondering if maybe Mr. Imus wasn't just trying to be 'hip' and 'with it' by using that language, and if maybe this whole thing isn't just blown all out of proportion.
This whole thing IS blown all out of proportion, but it's not because what Imus said wasn't offensive and idiotic. But then, he is paid--and paid well--to be nothing but offensive and idiotic in a way that his specially tailored audience finds appealing. It's really not a surprise that he eventually got caught saying something appalling about a specific group of people who were famous enough for the media to give a damn. And now the media is running the story into the ground, because if they didn't, they might have to report on the over haul of the Texas Juvenile Prison systems because of massive and pervasive sexual abuse on the part of the faculty. Or on that pesky Iraq thing. Or...oh, who am I kidding? They'd just spend more time on who the dead woman's baby's father is.
Anyway! The tendency of the media to ignore pervasive abuses until they happen to someone famous is not really my point. My point is that the cycle of scandal has come around to the gloriously clueless: Well, if THEY use those words, why should they get angry if we do? It is a common cry of those brave souls opposed to the tyranny of "political correctness" or, indeed, common courtesy. The willful cluelessness in the question shines with it's own, faux innocent light, illuminating their suspiciously designed halos. So, here's the short answer.
Because you're not a black woman. No, really. Go ahead and check. I'll bet Imus has a penis, and so do most of the mainstream media, and well over fifty percent of 'em are at least as white as I am. As a white male who doesn't know, and has no relation, with any of the women on that basketball team, you have no more right to call them 'nappy-headed hos' than a guy off the street has to walk up to me and say, "Hey, bitch!" in a tone of friendly greeting. Even if, in certain cases, I /would/ except such a greeting from someone who I was very close with. Different groups of people have different levels of language and vocabulary which is acceptable when interacting. I don't talk to my father the way that I talk to my friends, and my friends are allowed to say things to me that strangers cannot.
There's no big mystery, here. Imus is a twit who finally got called out for saying something suitably twittish. Don't fall over yourselves trying to make this a case of cultural confusion, or innocent misunderstanding. And, for heaven's sake, don't try to excuse the man by claiming that "they say it too".
It's the part where the rich and varied world of largely white, largely male media journalists wonder why it's offensive for a white male to use words about black women that black women often use amongst themselves. They gaze around them with wide, innocent eyes, wondering if maybe Mr. Imus wasn't just trying to be 'hip' and 'with it' by using that language, and if maybe this whole thing isn't just blown all out of proportion.
This whole thing IS blown all out of proportion, but it's not because what Imus said wasn't offensive and idiotic. But then, he is paid--and paid well--to be nothing but offensive and idiotic in a way that his specially tailored audience finds appealing. It's really not a surprise that he eventually got caught saying something appalling about a specific group of people who were famous enough for the media to give a damn. And now the media is running the story into the ground, because if they didn't, they might have to report on the over haul of the Texas Juvenile Prison systems because of massive and pervasive sexual abuse on the part of the faculty. Or on that pesky Iraq thing. Or...oh, who am I kidding? They'd just spend more time on who the dead woman's baby's father is.
Anyway! The tendency of the media to ignore pervasive abuses until they happen to someone famous is not really my point. My point is that the cycle of scandal has come around to the gloriously clueless: Well, if THEY use those words, why should they get angry if we do? It is a common cry of those brave souls opposed to the tyranny of "political correctness" or, indeed, common courtesy. The willful cluelessness in the question shines with it's own, faux innocent light, illuminating their suspiciously designed halos. So, here's the short answer.
Because you're not a black woman. No, really. Go ahead and check. I'll bet Imus has a penis, and so do most of the mainstream media, and well over fifty percent of 'em are at least as white as I am. As a white male who doesn't know, and has no relation, with any of the women on that basketball team, you have no more right to call them 'nappy-headed hos' than a guy off the street has to walk up to me and say, "Hey, bitch!" in a tone of friendly greeting. Even if, in certain cases, I /would/ except such a greeting from someone who I was very close with. Different groups of people have different levels of language and vocabulary which is acceptable when interacting. I don't talk to my father the way that I talk to my friends, and my friends are allowed to say things to me that strangers cannot.
There's no big mystery, here. Imus is a twit who finally got called out for saying something suitably twittish. Don't fall over yourselves trying to make this a case of cultural confusion, or innocent misunderstanding. And, for heaven's sake, don't try to excuse the man by claiming that "they say it too".