Well now you've gone and done it. Don Imus have been fired.
I'm just fresh from a discussion over at Jane Galt in which the owner of that excellent blog said the following:
There's a double standard for whites and blacks in our culture regarding racial epithets. As there should be. A black man calling a white man "cracker" is not nearly so bad as a white man calling a black man "nigger". That doesn't mean endorsing the use of the former epithet, or liking the people who use it. There should be cultural opprobrium for both. But there should be much more cultural opprobrium for the latter, because it is a symptom of a cultural sickness that needs to be stamped out not just for social comity, but because justice demands it.
In fact, justice demands that there be no such thing as a double standard. As for 'social comity' whatever exactly that is, perhaps we can afford one, but I doubt it. Specifically anyone who calls the Rutgers women, 'nappy-headed hos' is a crusty lowlife and should be treated accordingly. As I've said before, there are social consequences for acting like a crusty lowlife and even greater ones for being one. The question is whether or not Don Imus is one, a judgment that I'll never be able to make fairly on this side of history.
You see here's the rub. What if Imus, now headed down the path of destruction well trod by Jimmy the Greek, Fuzzy Zoeller and Michael Richards, is not actually a crusty, racist, lowlife scum. What if he just dips into the reservoir of humor that we all know sometimes works, and bombed? What if, like Ice Cube, he's just going through a rebellious phase, when what he really wants to do is make nice family movies? OK, let's not take it that far and keep it simple. Imus screwed the pooch. Was what he did unforgivable?
Hold you breath before you answer because I'm throwing a curve ball about double standards.
Ah. You blew it. See by forcing Imus to resign we have just raised the standards of broadcasting. Why is that a problem? Because we refuse to do it for Ice Cube. I hear you whining. Ice Cube is just an entertainer, nobody takes him serious look at all the crap he's done over the years.... Exactly my point. Which is to say there is a double standard. White men are supposed to be serious and taken seriously at all times. The power of their words resounds around the planet and crushes, kills and destroys, so we must insure that all white men be pure of heart, mind, body and soul. Right? But Ice Cube? Nahh. Nobody needs to take that Negro seriously anyway, ever.
Let me quote via Winds of Change this lovely bit by a cat name Hicks:
What we have then are two positions about the nature of speech. The postmodernists say: Speech is a weapon in the conflict between groups that are unequal. And that is diametrically opposed to the liberal view of speech, which says: Speech is a tool of cognition and communication for individuals who are free.
If we adopt the first statement, then the solution is going to be some form of enforced altruism, under which we redistribute speech in order to protect the harmed, weaker groups. If the stronger, white males have speech tools they can use to the detriment of the other groups, then don't let them use those speech tools. Generate a list of denigrating words that harm members of the other groups and prohibit members of the powerful groups from using them. Don't let them use the words that reinforce their own racism and sexism, and don't let them use words that make members of other groups feel threatened. Eliminating those speech advantages will reconstruct our social reality - which is the same goal as affirmative action. A striking consequence of this analysis is that the toleration of "anything goes" in speech becomes censorship. The postmodern argument implies that if anything goes, then that gives permission to the dominant groups to keep on saying the things that keep the subordinate groups in their place. Liberalism thus means helping to silence the subordinate groups and letting only the dominant groups have effective speech. Postmodern speech codes, therefore, are not censorship but a form of liberation - they liberate the subordinated groups from the punishing and silencing effects of the powerful groups' speech, and they provide an atmosphere in which the previously subordinated groups can express themselves. Speech codes equalize the playing field.
See? Don Imus is not a free individual to be judged equal to Ice Cube or anyone else in this free society. He is a White Man, and therefore for the good of all of us must be specially policed.
But now that he's been cut to shreds, who's next? Do you think we can go after just one overrated media star who is not a white male? How about... hmmm, Kanye West!?
