A Michael
Hoffman Essay
April 12,
2007
Don Imus,
Trash-Talk and the Decline of Civility in America
By
Michael Hoffman
My daughter
studies piano and classical Latin, is an honor student and
a first-string point-guard in AAU basketball. She has many
role models, among them the college women's NCAA
championship teams.
Don Imus said that the black women on the championship
Rutgers basketball team were nappy-headed. But those women
did not design the texture of their hair, God did. Imus
said they are whores ("ho's"). To utter that slander, when
they are in fact scholar-athletes, is like something out of
the Talmud.
False witness against the German people is a deadly sin;
how can false witness against black women at Rutgers, who
are trying their best to contribute to our society, be
anything less grave?
Of course Imus has the absolute constitutional right to
speak his mind. But I have no problem with sponsors and
networks who speak theirs by no longer supporting or
employing him; that too is their constitutional right.
His accusation against the university women is being
described as a "racial" slur. The media are omitting the
fact that his accusation was also a sexual slur, an
imputation of moral turpitude. I notice that Imus does not
accuse scantily-clad cheerleaders and half-time dancers of
being "ho's," only the women athletes in the modestly long
uniforms. It seems that he has no problem with women who
shimmy and shake for him half-dressed. His problem seems to
be with women who pursue a higher education, while
excelling at a difficult and demanding collegiate sport,
modestly attired.
Mr. Imus has talked trash, and trash-talk is a symptom of
the incivility and decaying standards in dress and
deportment which we see on display in America today. From
George Bush's pride in his slovenly speech and unbecoming
swagger, to the
I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-came-to-the-mall-in-my-pajamas
fashion statement, which some Americans favor for all
occasions, our nation appears to have lost its sense of
shame and self-respect.
The attempt to make Imus' attack on the Rutgers women a
black/white-divide issue, reveals a hidden agenda. Imus'
false witness is so unjust and despicable that fifty years
ago Americans North and South, black and white would
have, in unison, decried and repudiated it as
nausea worthy of either a drunk or a bum. But in our 21st
century, Imus is an underground hit, slyly commended by the
outlaw kulchur
as
just the sort of shock-o-rama titillation that drives
up ratings, thanks to the enthusiasm of American
kids-gone-wild on the devolutionary road from angels to
beasts.
This case is not without its contradictions. Some of the
sick behavior can be found in black male "gangsta" circles
where the slur Imus wielded is a not uncommon epithet. This
too needs to be addressed. Moreover, the exploitation of
the controversy by corrupt demagogues like Al Sharpton does
no one any credit, but then it was Imus who chose to go
running to Sharpton. Furthermore, to be credible, it is
incumbent on American society, including the television
networks, to combat reverse discrimination and hatred of
poor and working class whites. In Miami on April 10, during
the Imus controversy, NBA basketball star Adam Morrison,
who is white, was repeatedly racially harassed and called
"white trash" throughout the game. Yet it was Morrison who
was the one who was fined, for having, in exasperation,
responded with an obscene gesture. Nothing happened to the
racial heckler, nor did the heckler's anti-white bigotry
become an issue in the press. To be effective, to unite us,
justice must be blind.
But the fact that there are bigots among other races in no
way diminishes the offense against the Rutgers team. Imus
should know better; with his prominent position comes
responsibility. And let's be
real. Any black talk-show host who called a sports team
comprised of Judaic girls "shikses"
or "zonah,"
would be out of a job faster than you can spell A-D-L.
With all the temptations that assail young people of any
color nowadays, the Rutgers ladies have set an academic and
athletic example that requires courage and asceticism,
dignity and self-respect, precisely the qualities fathers
like this writer pray their daughters will evince in these
strange and challenging times. The popularity of Don Imus
is in exact proportion to the degree to which Americans
have lost their dignity and perhaps to some extent, even
their souls; hence, the need to mock those who have
not.
Copyright ©2007
RevisionistHistory.org
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