Let's bury this Imus fool and ethnic slurs too!

For a week now, ever since an overaged cowboy called the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy headed ho's" on his radio program, we've had to endure the soap opera of Don Imus and his bullshit mea culpas:

"Want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team.

"It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry."
Maynard Institute.org
And:
"Here's what I've learned: that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it," he said. "And because the climate on this program has been what it's been for 30 years doesn't mean that it has to be that way for the next five years or whatever because that has to change, and I understand that." CNN.com

Oh, just fuck you, Don Imus. Just look at that jackass, nearly 70-years-old and he wears a cowboy suit to work. Hey, this would be O.K. if he hosted the show from Phoenix or Las Vegas or Laramie, Wyoming! But he's lived and worked in New York City since 1971!

And he's a repeat offender in the racial/ethnic/gender slur catagory.

So this old fool is wiggling in a pathetic attempt to try and save his job. His employers, CBS Radio and MSNBC, are giving this aging asshole a two-week suspension. Wow! that's gotta hurt, especially for a 67-year-old man with a fondness for cowboy clothes (I ain't even gonna touch the homoerotic undertones of his particular fetish.)

But dumbass Don's reactionary friends are springing to his defense. Today, Michelle Malkin, the reactionary Filipina-American columnist, writes:

Let's stipulate: I have no love for Don Imus*, Al Sharpton, or Jesse Jackson. I repeat: A pox on all their race-baiting houses.

Let's also stipulate: The Rutgers women's basketball team didn't deserve to be disrespected as "nappy-headed hos." No woman deserves that. I agree with the athletes that Imus's misogynist mockery was "deplorable, despicable and unconscionable." And as I noted on Fox News's O'Reilly Factor this week, I believe top public officials and journalists who have appeared on Imus's show should take responsibility for enabling Imus—and should disavow his longstanding invective.

But let's take a breath now and look around. Is the Sharpton & Jackson Circus truly committed to cleaning up cultural pollution that demeans women and perpetuates racial epithets? Have you seen the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart this week?

She then proceeds to merely copy a list of "gangsta" rap lyrics, verbatim. This is one little Flip ho' who knows how to work her ass off to meet her column's deadline. Malkin's implication, and a heavy-handed one it is at that, is that if it's O.K. for "gangsta" rappers to use offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slurs, it must be O.K. for old assholes who wear cowboy hats indoors to do likewise.

Of course Michelle doesn't question who buys the crap or why " gangsta" rap is so popular--suburban white boys be cause it erritates the hell out of a generation of adults who grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix and The Grateful Dead. Or who makes it possible to market this crap--white MBA's who run the record/CD companies, radio stations and TV-music video channels! Michelle and her reactionary crowd seem to think that all African Americans condone the usage of "gangsta" rap and therefore "gangsta" slang and attitutes.

Writes Morehouse College English instructor Darren Rhym of "gangsta" rap:

Typically, gangsta rappers use sexist and misogynistic lyrics for three reasons. First, they are selfish and seek to empower only themselves. Second, they put business before art: Songs with misogynistic lyrics sell millions of CDs and tapes. Sales mean money. Money means power. Finally, gangsta rappers reinterpret their experiences into a packageable product that can sell. They peddle half-truths and fantasies that formulate a stereotypical mythology in which all black women are bitches and/or all gangsta rappers live the life of driving sports cars, collecting thong-wearing, gyrating women, and smoking chronic.
And:
In the end, this whole argument boils down to the fact that misogyny is ingrained into our culture and we allow it. We buy CDs and go to concerts where gangsta rappers call black women "bitches" and "hos." It is not just black women who are victimized. Since gangsta rappers disrespect our mothers, sisters, and daughters, every black man is a victim.

Excuses -- "I like the beat," "I don't listen to the words," and "They are only referring to certain types of women" -- are not acceptable. When gangsta rappers disrespect men and women and preach violence and hate to us, we must reject their messages. We cannot buy their CDs, albums, or tapes, or attend their concerts, or appear in their videos, or even support record labels or radio or television stations that advocate gangsta rap in any way. Malcolm X used to preach about the ills of airing "dirty laundry," and that is what gangsta rappers do when they disrespect black women in rap songs.

Rap is not just music; it is our African-American culture. It is the way we blacks perceive ourselves, and the way we are perceived by the world. The content of gangsta rap music in its current form is unacceptable. It cannot and should not be tolerated by anyone.
Womanist Theory and Research

The right's excuses to get Imus off the hook are bullshit and racist too boot. The reactionary thugs who run this nation know that racism is the easiest method of covering their crimes against the working middle class. Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and the rest are ready to do their bidding because we let them. By excusing Don Imus we are excusing our own inherent racism, we legitimize it regardless if we are of European, African or Asian heritage. But not only should we, the United States' white community, bury Don Imus and all his reactionary "shock jock" ilk our black brothers and sisters must likewise bury the "gangsta" rap mystique. And all us together must bury the "N" word, now and forever. It can be done.
*Pure, unadultured bullshit. She wouldn't have "written" her stupid column if she weren't rushing to Imus' defense.