"Imus isn't the real bad guy" (Jason Whitlock)

[RonArtest15]

I came across this earlier today. It has a lot of good points, and for those who don't know, Jason Whitlock is African-American. If this needs to be moved, go ahead and do so...it's a great read.

Imus isn’t the real bad guy
Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.

By JASON WHITLOCK
Columnist
Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

http://www.kansascity.com/159/story/66339.html

[Skinsfor4]

Great reading.I always liked Whitlock when he fills in on PTI.The only reason Imus was fired was the sponsors pulled out.You cant stop at a red light without hearing worse than this blasting from the cars,or let alone stop on BET.Where are Al & Jesse on those issues?

[daviddsims]

I was at work last night and it is a majority black workplace. One of the supervisors was talking about it in front of about 10 black people in the breakroom and they were all laughing about it and the supervisor said hey they were some nappy headed hos and everyone started laughing including 4 black girls sitting there. Meanwhile most of them sit in there with there walkmans on and play songs like Ludacris you is a ho. Rap music does many more times damage than what Imus said, I am not justifiing what he said but I hear black people at work every day calling the women bitches and hos to there face even chickenheads and the girls just laugh. There is such a double standard its not even funny.

[aREDSKIN]

Touche!! Mr. Jason Whitlock. A spot on take.

[RonArtest15]

You cant stop at a red light without hearing worse than this blasting from the cars,or let alone stop on BET.Where are Al & Jesse on those issues?

Bro, you don't even want to get me started w/ BET LOL...To kinda piggyback on what you are saying, where were the people protesting "Flavor of Love" on VH1? As an African American, I was much more appaled at how Flavor Flav presented himself on a weekly basis, than I was of the Imus comments. This was allowed to go on of course because of the ratings. Entertainment is not having a fool parading around in a viking helmet, picking his "women", while eating drumsticks of fried chicken on national TV.

As far as BET there is ABSOLUTELY nothing uplifting on this station. I know they have a target demographic, but glorifying fabricated lifestyles, and yes, I said fabricated, is one of the reasons why our youth is having such a hard time as it is. There are kids now-a-day who want to grow up to be a pusher, pimp, or whatever. We wonder why kids act the way that they do? We have our "own" station, but when you have programming like Beef vol 1-5, and American Gangster shown at prime time, can we honestly be shocked at a lot of the choices that kids/young adults are making?

A lot of the things they are learning are obviously not in school, but by what they are seeing via media outlets like BET, MTV, and VH1. Being able to decipher what is real and what is fake is becoming harder and harder for a lot of the youth in today's socitey. A lot of these kids look up to Rick Ross, Jeezy, etc etc...while they may "make it rain" or glorify "pushin weight" in their videos or actions, they (the younger consumer) at the end of the day get out of character (because it is all an act) and go back to leading a normal life. I don't know if they realize the effect they are having on the younger generation. There is little to no social responsibility portrayed by many of today's musical/entertainment figures.

I remember a time when BET would have nightly news, but now you have the most dumbed down stuff that is programmed on BET....you want to know how bad BET is? Check out this quote:

With Little Brother's The Minstrel Show hitting stores next week, SOHH.com has heard BET is refusing to air the album's first video, "Lovin' It" because it is "too intelligent for the BET audience."
The video begins with a delivery truck dropping boxes labeled "gangsta," "backpackers," "earthy" and "icy" onto a street. The rest of the clip mostly sees LB and Joe Scudda, who is also featured on the song, performing in front of a capacity crowd. The clip also pokes fun at the Hip-Hop subgenres by depicting overly exaggerated backpacker and gangsta characters in the audience. "Lovin' It" also jokingly features typical scenes with Big Pooh sitting next to champagne-sipping models in the venue's VIP section while LB's entourage pop bottles. The video concludes with a car running through the boxes dropped on the street earlier.

http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/7519

I mean, this is one of many examples of what BET has become over the years, which is nothing but a resource ignorant programming. There are kids today who can tell you all the members of a obscure rap clique like D4L or DFB, but can't tell you who some current prominent african-american leaders are. It is a sad state, and I believe it starts at home of course. But, for many of the parents who use the TV as a "babysitter," the way their kids are growing up shouldn't be a surprise.

I agree with a lot of Whitlock's points. I just hope that we just stop pointing the finger at other people. Taking a look in the mirror is a good start, and hopefully a lot of people out there can be reached and steered in the right direction.

[Major Harris]

this was posted earlier, i'm guessing it got merged into something.

anyway, i think it's a great read.

[SC3]

Whitlock is my new hero.

[Killerbo]

Wow, the ignorance around here is sickening, he called them nappy headed hos. He said the black female Rutgers team was full of nappy headed hos. A racist remark and the snakes crawl out of the wood work and bash the kids and coach for denoucing the guy and people are applauding him, calling him a HERO!!!

Wow, and people will say me I'm not a racist because they are black and I heard it in some CD it's ok to call those girls "nappy headed hos" on a national radio. So sad.

[Major Harris]

killerbo, reading comprehension is not your strong suit. no one, NO ONE is condoning what imus said.

[Killerbo]

I don't want any WHITE person to wallow in guilt, but WTF, thanks for EXTENDING BLACK history month? Saying there were alterior motives for that press conference. Ignorance and racism is alive and proud in this country......so freaking sad.

[Killerbo]

killerbo, reading comprehension is not your strong suit. no one, NO ONE is condoning what imus said.

Also maybe reading comprehension isn't your forte with the posts in here calling this guy their HERO.
Also why the heck is he bashing the team and coach, saying its a disguised recruiting drive by the school. Freaking disgusting and pathetic

[Major Harris]

He said the black female Rutgers team was full of nappy headed hos.

no, he said that the rutgers basketball team was full of nappy headed hos. he didn't qualify it with "black."

not that it makes what he said any better, just a little less sensationalistic for you.

[Major Harris]

Also maybe reading comprehension isn't your forte with the posts in here calling this guy their HERO.
Also why the heck is he bashing the team and coach, saying its a disguised recruiting drive by the school. Freaking disgusting and pathetic

well, i'm talking about what imus said. again, reading comprehension and you don't seem to get along.

killerbo, reading comprehension is not your strong suit. no one, NO ONE is condoning what imus said.

[Killerbo]

well, i'm talking about what imus said. again, reading comprehension and you don't seem to get along.

You seem to be OLD and SLOW, so let me slow it down for you.....

Some guy on this board c-a-l-l-e-d WHITLOCK t-h-e-i-r hero while indirectly calling that eloquent press conference nothing more than a recruiting drive. SOME people will never get it even if it heads them upside the freaking head.

[FedExFielder]

Best article I've read in a long while