Today’s Topic: Concentration of News for Profit and What the News Ignores
As much as Don Imus’ downfall has not only been talked about from the mainstream news but brought about by the same group, I only have to say that my African-American wife suggested that perhaps this should be considered a freedom of speech issue.
Well, I’ve said it here a number of times, and as I repeated to her, the Constitution guarantees your right to freedom of speech, but it is the people who have the right to grant you your right to freedom of speech.
In the first place, freedom of speech is guaranteed specifically for the purposes of addressing grievances against the government, not for grandizement of one’s own personality. Now as it appears, Don Imus just became verbally stupid and upset a lot of people and they well should have been upset. Don must bear the brunt of the vocal outburst and the people who contracted with Mr. Imus to provide a radio show have the right to pull his show if it offends the listening audience.
In terms of how most freewheeling Americans react, the concept of "if you don’t like his show, don’t listen" applies to the freedom of speech sanctuary, but if people do listen and hear things which are offensive, they have the right to bring up the fact that things were said that aren’t within what mainstream Americans want said. And truthfully, it behooves society to have watchdogs who monitor extremists which may present problems to the majority of Americans through the actions of a few. However, this isn’t what we are talking about here.
Freedom of speech comes from the people you speak to. Again, the Constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech is in terms of addressing a war, for example, that was sold to the people based on false and purposely misleading information. This administration’s efforts to "cage" dissent large distances from an administration based event is an abuse of the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution.
But there is nothing to say that Don Imus might actually have his right to freedom of speech taken from him. His sole job is to bring dollars into the company broadcasting his show, and if the advertisers aren’t there, then the show is of no value.
With the pullout of a large number of advertisers who no longer wish to be associated with his show, NBC (via MSNBC) and CBS both choose to negate Don Imus’ contract and there is absolutely no conflict with the First Amendment right of free speech.
However, there are some niggling points that should be addressed, and it actually applies to the more vocal African-American contingent of the American population.
I find it incongruous that blacks (and my wife doesn’t object to being black, so I’ll continue to use it until she tells me different) have the generally accepted right to speak in whatever terms they wish and white’s are held up to scrutiny and even ridicule when falling into the generational jargon espoused by a large number of blacks.
For instance, when it comes to rap music and its broadcast over the airwaves, most white people simply don’t listen if they don’t find the music pleasurable, or they don’t listen because they object to the language or the degradation of blacks as a whole.
And admittedly there has previously been a number of uproars about rap music and the negative connotations, either direct or insinuated, that are derogatory to black women specifically and women as a whole. There have been many congressional hearings, which have decried the same source for talking about and possibly even inciting black people to kill policemen. And this is a reasonable concern.
But white people aren’t allowed to have this concern, nor to express it in the same context which black people can.
This isn’t a case of white vs. black discrimination, it is a case of reverse discrimination. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been called a honky and a cracker dating back to my high school years in the 60s. Regardless of that I chose a gentleman who happened to be both a great friend and a black person to be my first born son’s godfather.
I was more often than not quartered with black servicemen, largely because it appears that more blacks were in the service during the Viet Nam war than whites, but regardless the constant derogatory remarks about being white in the middle of a black society didn’t cause me any concern.
However, even though blacks on the street seem to have a self-derogatory verbal environment that seemingly also creates a vicious circle of self degradation and a wider outreach of disdain for all those of white descent, I would rather not hear comments about me being a cracker or a honky or whitey or whatever that somehow distinguishes me as something other than a human being. I’m certain that all Americans feel this way, whether inconsequentially black or white. No one chooses their parents and are the people they are.
However, for this consideration upon the part of the black population I think that we somehow have to correct the problems by not allowing someone promote negatives about any American citizens, regardless of race, on either TV or Radio. These are radio frequencies held in trust by the federal government for the people of America, and that means all of the people.
What I want to know is how black oriented TV shows can easily deride the white American without fear of being held to the same level of community obligations? For if all of America is a community it includes all of those who comprise the community.
The real question also points to some other areas America, as a government, has with not understanding the psyche of a group of people. Let’s face it, white America and it’s government enslaved or allowed enslavement of a race of people. How do we address this at some level of equilibrium? How is it possible to allow Revs. Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson the ability to continually pull up the sins of our fathers and when will it stop?
Don’t get me wrong. I really like Al Sharpton. He’s a pip and almost every time I’ve listened to him, even in the case of discussing Don Imus’ gaffe, I agree with him. He really does have the pulse of America even if most Americans don’t see it. However, when he speaks about accountability, and I agree wholeheartedly, I want to know is when that door is going to begin to swing both ways.
I remember when my now 28 year old son was bopping around the house to rap from NWA and a number of other artists who continually provided a barrage of anti-woman and anti-white sentiment, and it finally took me, in front of my wife, to inform him that negative things being presented in these songs were about him simply because he was born white. As nice as it is to have children who grow up oblivious to racial differences, it crushed me to have to tell my son that these artists represented a portion of today’s blacks and they don’t like whites. I would rather he continued to be oblivious of what some people perceive as racial differences.
I actually have had more black people being disposed to tell me what they think about me having a black wife than I have whites wondering what the hell I’m doing being married to a black woman. I have no idea of whether the reverse is true for my wife, as she has never broached the subject.
Well, for all that read this, I’m married to a wonderful woman and we will be celebrating our 19th Anniversary this year and I’ve never been happier. I assume that my wife is either happy or she is a saint to put up with me. Either way, I get the better of the situation.
So I ask. When is it that the door will swing both ways? How is it that whites have to hold their tongues when blacks are seemingly more than willing to wag theirs? Now before anyone gets angry, yes, we are talking about a very few individuals who bring these situations to a head, but one has to wonder. Like I said, I’ve had no problems with being called the names I’ve been called, but more often than not it has been within the realm of a greeting handshake and a genuine feeling of being welcomed. Largely I have used "brother" as a designation, which during my service days, really meant a black to black relationship but held a slightly different connotation for those who may die today or tomorrow. But I felt it was more the truth of the situation, not some type of opt-in to a brotherhood to which I wasn’t invited.
As this white to black interplay became more pronounced, obviously it became more important to have a black to black personal designation to dissuade whites from becoming part of the group, hence the growth of the "N" word as some level of greeting for blacks. Strictly a reaction based on bias and bigotry, if you ask me. Certainly it is one of disengagement. Those who chose to use the "N" word did so in order to disassociate themselves from whites, period.
The street is different and continually has been a breeding ground for expressing differences between blacks and whites, and no matter how many black friends a white person may have, or how often they are able to exchange some racially yet good-natured barbs without insult, it doesn’t work within the rest of America. Perhaps a large continguent of America's 2 million incarcerated citizens being black may have something to do with the dichotomy. So perhaps they aren't part of the "rest of America".
Notice I ended that statement with "America". This is because most of the world doesn’t have the same biased and even bigoted view, however slanted it might be or how wrong it might be. Being an American somehow relates to most Americans as being white. This has to stop but the largely black communities could help. If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a country to raise awareness and eliminate prejudice. And that effort requires the participation of all Americans.
But it is also true that the blacks of America need to simply become Americans and perhaps drop the ever-present African-American nomenclature if the differing cultures are truly to be integrated into a cohesive whole.
As long as blacks on the streets hold it a right to degrade whites, or as long as whites can degrade blacks (usually groups of whites vs. one black, as we are a bunch of pussies afraid of a higher level of melanine), then we still aren’t a true people.
There is no use in apologizing for slavery as President Clinton did if large segments of the citizens of America don’t agree or accept the apology. I didn’t implement slavery, have never condoned the idea, and certainly haven’t had anything to do with slavery at all. I’d appreciate it if I weren’t somehow lumped in with the white Americans of 400 years ago who did.
So if accountability were the key, as Al Sharpton has intimated, then I’d like accountability to go both ways. Tell me why blacks are more than willing to denigrate their bothers with the "N" word, thus helping to hold them down and presumably to stifle their dreams when there is already enough of this happening in a largely white country. Seems to me that those who have been downtrodden would benefit from organizing and raising themselves up, rather than trying to keep their brothers down. I believe that was what the Black Panthers were really all about. By standing up for proper treatment of their brothers by witnessing arrests, they stood fast on the idea of equal treatment.
In other words, I think it is time for the black community to look to standing up to the level of being more than a street society and joining the rest of society. Once we get that started perhaps we can come together and start working on integrating the Hispanics so they feel more like Americans and less like third world citizens.
Thomas Jefferson wrote "that all men are created equal", and although that was good enough to get the ball rolling, lets face it. The proper way to say it is "that all mankind is created equal" and get this other bullshit over with now. Then perhaps we could adjust some of our concern to Darfur and the genocide going on there even as I spend the time to write this blog. If all mankind is created equal, and I belive it is, then the same requires that all stand up for people everywhere.
You can't do that by standing on the street corner debasing women, making derogatory statements about people of other communities and deciding that some people in the world aren't worth saving.
This is not West Side Story. This is life and no one gets out alive. Try to do something positive while you are here. The fact is you'll feel better about yourself and your place in society.
1:05:39 PM 
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