Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson have done more harm to Black & White relations in this country than a million Don Imus' could ever do. In fact, Don Imus, regardless of his reprehensible comment on the Rutgers Girls Basketball Team, was the one to apologize, ask for forgiveness and pledge to change both his behavior and show format for positive good. And let us not forget that the terminology which all those righteous media commentators and educators used to crucify Imus on the cross of Political Correctness (including dear Obama) came not from white culture, but directly from the Black under belly of gansta rappers and hip hoppers...a standard of conduct by which too many young Blacks define themselves. And that garbage permeates our air waves for many more hours a day, week, month and year than the Imus show could do if Imus lives to be 100.
In short, the pound of flesh exacted from Don Imus by hypocrites like Jackson and Sharpton and White Big Business (ABC) who short sightedly copitulated to pressure have missed an opportunity to use Don Imus for future dialog on the air and positive change which he pledged to do.
So who looses? We all do. The firing of Don Imus divides Black & White America again. The double standard of a Jesse Jackson's infidelities, anti-sementic rantings in the 1980's, his boycott of Budweiser Beer in Chicago which suddenly disappeared once his two sons were awarded the Bud Distributorship, and a Sharpton who personifies a reverse racism through his self appointed, self righteous politics of division, these are the people who should not have a public forum for their twisted views and confrontational comments.
Black America and Corporate White America have rushed to judgment on Don Imus, who I believe through his good works (just raised over 2 million on yesterday's radiothon for kids, including minorities, charities) is indeed a good man who said a stupid bad thing ...without thinking! So the PC Police now have Imus' head on a pike, and he's lost his job.
NOW it's time for BLACK America to CLEAN ITS OWN HOUSE and stop playing victim. It's time for these so called Christian (aka business)leaders in the Black Community to stop the destructive words of the gansta rappers, and the mega bucks sports figures with police records longer than my college degrees, who refuse to speak the "kings english" in favor of a low class jive that only serves to divide and lessen communication.
It's also time for WHITE American businesses like ABC which owns pieces of Viacom, BET, MTV etc. and profit greatly from the very words for which Imus was fired to change their policies and stop the junk from being produced and sold...they too are hypocrites hiding behind a warped view of the 1st Amendment.
Get with it guys. Firing Don Imus did nothing except ruin his career while stifling an opportunity for change. Now it's up to the righteous media, corporate sponsors and the Black Community to step up to the plate...or be labeled the HYPOCRITES I truly believe them to be.
By the way, if the only correct way to address a person of color in this country is AFRICAN AMERICAN, then I demand to be addressed as an ENGLISH SCOTS-IRISH AMERICAN of ANGLO decent. Of course, all along I thought we were all just Americans...or not.
