I haven't written about Imus, because it's been pretty well covered by everyone else on Earth. It's perhaps best covered by Jason Whitlock, a Kansas City Star sports columnist and former ESPN contributor.
He's written two columns about the affair, both of which you should read in full. Will he get the Bill Cosby treatment for writing them?
First, he calls on Jesse and Al, the President and Vice-President of black America, to step down:
Rather than inspire us to seize hard-earned opportunities, Jesse and Alhave specialized in blackmailing white folks for profit and attention.They were at it again last week, helping to turn radio shock jock DonImus’ stupidity into a world-wide crisis that reached its crescendoTuesday afternoon when Rutgers women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringerled a massive pity party/recruiting rally.
Read the whole thing. Seriously.
Second, he decries victimhood and hip-hop culture as part of the problem, and points out that it's not just Imus calling people hos:
But an hourlong press conference over a man who has alreadyapologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is justplain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is adistraction.
In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us ingeneral and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are sopowerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, thenwhat should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and everyblack-owned radio station in the country who use words much morepowerful and much more destructive?
Read the whole thing.
Update: Ahhh, and victimhood inevitably leads to calls for draconian government regulation of private industry in an attempt to protect the aggrieved. Lovely.
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