Don Imus and What He Said to Infuriate Us All

Hello.

I’m not sure if you have heard this, but in the news lately, along with much information about the shooting in Virginia, has been the more controversial issue of Don Imus. For those of you who don’t know, Don Imus made a racial slur on public airwaves, calling a basketball team that had lost the NCAA finals words offensive particularly to African Americans and to women.

The NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, supports the removal of Imus by CBS and MSNBC claiming that this is the first step to the larger issue of eradicating all racial slurs. And they are not just taking on the radio, but also modern music, TVs and movies. They also are concerned not only for racist remarks, but also bigamy, homophobia and other common insults that spread on our airwaves, TV channels and movies.

Frank Rich, on the other hand, an ex-theater reviewer and a writer for the New York Times in the op-ed section, is not so sure that the issue is black and white. He believes that what Imus said was wrong, but Imus had made many racist, sexist and homophobic comments in the past, including against Rich’s own minority, the Jews. I don’t believe that Frank Rich is saying that Don Imus shouldn’t be censored, he disagreed with much that he had said, but he believes the way to fight back is with more free speech. For example, opinionated editorials.

Now, to what I think. Frank Rich has some very good points, however, I think that some of this is being blown far out of proportion. Thirty-three people were killed in Virginia and we are just as concerned with a racial slur uttered on the radio as with the deaths of all those innocents.

However, I also think that some of the things that are out there are REALLY offensive. The worst of these are slurs that are passed off as jokes. For example, the term that has recently fallen into modern usage, “gay” as a synonym for “stupid”. People can laugh over this in their own circles, but some things are not to be joked about. Just as religion, money and politics are not to be talked about in polite conversation, homosexuality, religion and race are not things that should be joked about.

And last, there are some things out there that are OK speak out against in public. Some are calling for the removal of Rosie O’Donnell because of her comments against Chinese Americans, Christians and Gorge Bush. I think this a bit of an odd list. Christians and Chinese Americans are both groups of people. You can’t speak out against either group until you know every person from that group and can say, with utter certainty that EVERY Christian or EVERY Chinese American is “bad”. Otherwise, you are making a horrible generalization. On the other hand, however, you have Bush. It is easy to speak out against him, as you can directly disagree (or agree) with something that he says, or his opinion on a certain issue. Then, you are not making such a broad oversimplification.

Goodbye.