Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com
Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refuses to step down over the politically motivated firing of eight US attorneys. His boss, President George W. Bush, continues to support Gonzo despite bipartisan calls for his ouster. However, new information about the attorney firings may take on greater relevance in a post-Don Imus world.
Reports have surfaced that at least two attorneys in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division were fired because they failed to file charges that would have helped disenfranchise Black voters. Continue reading
Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com
Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refuses to step down over the politically motivated firing of eight US attorneys. His boss, President George W. Bush, continues to support Gonzo despite bipartisan calls for his ouster. However, new information about the attorney firings may take on greater relevance in a post-Don Imus world.
Reports have surfaced that at least two attorneys in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division were fired because they failed to file charges that would have helped disenfranchise Black voters. Continue reading
Less than one week after Don Imus was fired, only days after Oprah’s round table with hip hop, and days after a gunman killed 33 people in Virginia, nothing has changed in the world.
I was listening to commercial radio in Detroit for the first time in months. I’m giving a songwriting workshop at a high school next week, and I wanted to hear what the kids are listening to so I don’t seem “out of touch”.
I heard the word “ho” bleeped or edited out more than I heard any real lyrics or original ideas. Let’s not even talk about how bad the songs are as “songs”. Let’s just talk about the language and the subject matter. It’s ridiculous.
But alas, I know that this is the state of the music industry. As an independent artist, I can’t get a song on commercial radio without literally paying THOUSANDS of dollars, but these knuckleheads with NO real lyrical content and NO real musical content get played over and over in Clear Channel’s 14 song playlist.
The most talked about news of the week has been that Don Imus was fired for racially insensitive remarks. Imus had a history of racism, sexism and just downright nastiness that stretched back for years.
His ouster reminds us that perhaps it’s time for a bit more spring cleaning. There are other public figures who should also get the boot for past and present deeds.
Huffington Post offered a few names, and I’d like to add some to the list.
Bill O’Reilly: This guy offends every night, and his flagship show at the Faux News channel has got to go. Besides his repeatedly racist rhetoric, he shouts down his guests and turns off their mics when they disagree with him, and he cannot debate them on a fair footing. This is not the news. What was the CBC thinking?
Rush Limbaugh: Rush told his listeners this week that they are coming for him next. And he is right to be worried. It’s only a matter of time before he maligns Black quarterbacks or insults everyone as he did when Survivor tried to play the race card.
Howard Stern: Stern may be safe for a while on the realm of satellite radio, but his sexist and racist rants are well known. What about his Aunt Jemima fantasy?
Paul Wolfowitz: This NeoCon poster boy is currently in hot water for helping his love interest get a raise at the World Bank. But he should be indicted, tried and convicted for his role in starting the Iraq War back when he was Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Alberto Gonzales: A recent poll says most Americans agree that “Gonzo” should resign for overseeing the politically motivated firings of several US prosecutors. But what about his history as the chief architect of US torture policy and facilitating war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Karl Rove: Bush’s Brain is always up to something. You know it. I know it. Congress knows it. The problem is he has an uncanny knack at legally covering his tracks. So now that four years Rove emails have come up missing, we have to wonder just what else this sinister villian has to hide?
Dick Cheney: We all know that Evil Dick is the mastermind behind much of the Bush administration’s misguided policies. From the Plame/Wilson affair to falsifying evidence to promote the invasion and occupation of Iraq, from his energy task force to shooting his buddy in the face, why can’t we find a reason to indict this guy? I still want to know about the live fly war games on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001… Impeach Dick Cheney NOW!!
George W. Bush: If there we are to maintain any faith in the rule of law and the US Constitution, the US House of Representatives has got to begin investigating President George Bush for impeachable offenses. He has admitted to breaking federal law by spying on US citizens. He has overstepped his authority by issuing hundreds of signing statements. By signing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and Public Law 109-364 (or as I like to call it “The Martial Law Act of 2006”) Bush has turned the office of the president into a defacto dictatorship.
Bush lied us into an illegal and immoral imperial invasion and occupation of Iraq, and his policies have caused the deaths of nearly 700,000 Iraqi civilians, far more than 3000 US soldiers and the wounding and maiming of tens of thousands of people. Now his determination to escalate the occupation in spite of the advice of leading generals, his own bipartisan Iraqi Study Group, Congressional and public protest, and basic common sense demonstrate not incompetence, but a desire to bog the US military down in an imperial conflict that will only lead to more deaths and continued looting of the US treasury. He must be stopped. We can’t wait another year. Impeach Bush NOW!
Nadir: I’m sure I’ll offend someone again soon. Probably at my show tonight. Maybe during this post. In my own defense, however, I have resigned from that blog where I used to argue and cuss at right-wing pundits, and I apologized for using racially descriptive language on LastChocolateCity.com. That’s gotta be worth something, right?
Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com
The Imus/Rutgers insult and the furor that followed illustrate both the power of words, and the volatility of race as an issue in America and the world.
The remarks that he made have struck nerves on so many levels. The term “nappy headed†invokes Black hair politics; the reference to women as “hoes†is degradation; darker skinned Blacks are pitted against fairer skinned Blacks with the “jiggaboos vs. wannabes†comment; and all of it raises questions like Who has the right to call people names? Why is it okay that Blacks can use certain language while others can’t? How responsibile are Black people for the words that are used against us when we perpetuate the issue by continuing the use of those words?
On April 10 after the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team’s press conference, I submited a post titled, “Not a Nappy Head in the Bunch†on Last Chocolate City. The post pointed out that those beautiful women had responded to Don Imus’s comments with poise and grace. The title implied, though the article did not clarify, that none of the women had what most Black folks would consider, “nappy†hair. Unfortunately, some people were offended by my reference to the women’s hair.
I didn’t mean to offend anyone with that statement. I apologize personally, and on behalf of LastChocolateCity.com and The Michigan Citizen, Inc., I apologize as well.
Imus and his team had attacked the women for their physical appearance, and the women of Rutgers obviously did not fit the description of “nappy headed hoes†by any stretch of the imagination. My intention with my post was to emphasize the fact that Imus’s comments were not only hateful, but inaccurate. However, by stating that there wasn’t a nappy head in the bunch, I stirred up some deep seated animosities within the Black community.
For the record, I am a brother with waist length locs. My hair is nothing if not nappy. The comment I made was intended to be a humorous remark directed with love for my sisters on that team and for my people. But by making comments that were offensive to someone else, my intentions (and my hair) were not scrutinized. What mattered was the perception and that another human being was hurt by my words.
The politics of hair is still a sticky subject especially among Black women. I have heard sisters criticized for having natural hair and for having perms, for having weaves and for being bald headed.
Blacks have been struggling with the language we use to describe ourselves and our people for many years now. Our choice to continue using the derogoatory terms that are used to insult us is coming back to bite us.
African culture has always been adapted by the dominant culture in the US. Why would we not believe that as Black culture becomes mainstream, that others would not mimic our speech? They always do. This has been the case from “goobers†and “yams†to “cool†and “chillin’â€Â. So when Imus uses our own language to demean our women, we shouldn’t be surprised.
But the question is also, are we not offended when Blacks refer to each other using words that start with the letter “Nâ€Â, the letter “H†or the letter “Bâ€Â? Maybe all this talk of banishing “the N-word†is working. I cringe every time I hear someone use it. I get a knot in my stomach when I reflexively use it myself.
Natural African hair is still viewed by some as a curse or as a negative aspect of our appearance. Yet white kids work very hard to lock their hair. Japanese kids pay hundreds of dollars to have their hair “dreadedâ€Â. The frequent sightings of afros, cornrows and locs in public let us know that nappiness no longer has the negative conotations that it once did.
But when a white man calls a group of sisters “nappy headed hoesâ€Â, and then a Black man says, “No, they aren’t nappy,†emotions flair.
Is it time to remove all racially identifiable language from our speech altogether?
The most talked about news of the week has been that Don Imus was fired for racially insensitive remarks. Imus had a history of racism, sexism and just downright nastiness that stretched back for years.
His ouster reminds us that perhaps it’s time for a bit more spring cleaning. There are other public figures who should also get the boot for past and present deeds.
Huffington Post offered a few names, and I’d like to add some to the list.
Bill O’Reilly: This guy offends every night, and his flagship show at the Faux News channel has got to go. Besides his repeatedly racist rhetoric, he shouts down his guests and turns off their mics when they disagree with him, and he cannot debate them on a fair footing. This is not the news. What was the CBC thinking?
Rush Limbaugh: Rush told his listeners this week that they are coming for him next. And he is right to be worried. It’s only a matter of time before he maligns Black quarterbacks or insults everyone as he did when Survivor tried to play the race card.
Howard Stern: Stern may be safe for a while on the realm of satellite radio, but his sexist and racist rants are well known. What about his Aunt Jemima fantasy?
Paul Wolfowitz: This NeoCon poster boy is currently in hot water for helping his love interest get a raise at the World Bank. But he should be indicted, tried and convicted for his role in starting the Iraq War back when he was Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Alberto Gonzales: A recent poll says most Americans agree that “Gonzo” should resign for overseeing the politically motivated firings of several US prosecutors. But what about his history as the chief architect of US torture policy and facilitating war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Karl Rove: Bush’s Brain is always up to something. You know it. I know it. Congress knows it. The problem is he has an uncanny knack at legally covering his tracks. So now that four years Rove emails have come up missing, we have to wonder just what else this sinister villian has to hide?
Dick Cheney: We all know that Evil Dick is the mastermind behind much of the Bush administration’s misguided policies. From the Plame/Wilson affair to falsifying evidence to promote the invasion and occupation of Iraq, from his energy task force to shooting his buddy in the face, why can’t we find a reason to indict this guy? I still want to know about the live fly war games on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001… Impeach Dick Cheney NOW!!
George W. Bush: If there we are to maintain any faith in the rule of law and the US Constitution, the US House of Representatives has got to begin investigating President George Bush for impeachable offenses. He has admitted to breaking federal law by spying on US citizens. He has overstepped his authority by issuing hundreds of signing statements. By signing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and Public Law 109-364 (or as I like to call it “The Martial Law Act of 2006“) Bush has turned the office of the president into a defacto dictatorship.
Bush lied us into an illegal and immoral imperial invasion and occupation of Iraq, and his policies have caused the deaths of nearly 700,000 Iraqi civilians, far more than 3000 US soldiers and the wounding and maiming of tens of thousands of people. Now his determination to escalate the occupation in spite of the advice of leading generals, his own bipartisan Iraqi Study Group, Congressional and public protest, and basic common sense demonstrate not incompetence, but a desire to bog the US military down in an imperial conflict that will only lead to more deaths and continued looting of the US treasury. He must be stopped. We can’t wait another year. Impeach Bush NOW!
Nadir: I’m sure I’ll offend someone again soon. Probably at my show tonight. Maybe during this post. In my own defense, however, I have resigned from that blog where I used to argue and cuss at right-wing pundits, and I apologized for using racially descriptive language on LastChocolateCity.com. That’s gotta be worth something, right?
Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com
The Imus/Rutgers insult and the furor that followed illustrate both the power of words, and the volatility of race as an issue in America and the world.
The remarks that he made have struck nerves on so many levels. The term “nappy headed†invokes Black hair politics; the reference to women as “hoes†is degradation; darker skinned Blacks are pitted against fairer skinned Blacks with the “jiggaboos vs. wannabes†comment; and all of it raises questions like Who has the right to call people names? Why is it okay that Blacks can use certain language while others can’t? How responsibile are Black people for the words that are used against us when we perpetuate the issue by continuing the use of those words?
On April 10 after the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team’s press conference, I submited a post titled, “Not a Nappy Head in the Bunch†on Last Chocolate City. The post pointed out that those beautiful women had responded to Don Imus’s comments with poise and grace. The title implied, though the article did not clarify, that none of the women had what most Black folks would consider, “nappy†hair. Unfortunately, some people were offended by my reference to the women’s hair.
I didn’t mean to offend anyone with that statement. I apologize personally, and on behalf of LastChocolateCity.com and The Michigan Citizen, Inc., I apologize as well.
Imus and his team had attacked the women for their physical appearance, and the women of Rutgers obviously did not fit the description of “nappy headed hoes†by any stretch of the imagination. My intention with my post was to emphasize the fact that Imus’s comments were not only hateful, but inaccurate. However, by stating that there wasn’t a nappy head in the bunch, I stirred up some deep seated animosities within the Black community.
For the record, I am a brother with waist length locs. My hair is nothing if not nappy. The comment I made was intended to be a humorous remark directed with love for my sisters on that team and for my people. But by making comments that were offensive to someone else, my intentions (and my hair) were not scrutinized. What mattered was the perception and that another human being was hurt by my words.
The politics of hair is still a sticky subject especially among Black women. I have heard sisters criticized for having natural hair and for having perms, for having weaves and for being bald headed.
Blacks have been struggling with the language we use to describe ourselves and our people for many years now. Our choice to continue using the derogoatory terms that are used to insult us is coming back to bite us.
African culture has always been adapted by the dominant culture in the US. Why would we not believe that as Black culture becomes mainstream, that others would not mimic our speech? They always do. This has been the case from “goobers†and “yams†to “cool†and “chillin’â€Â. So when Imus uses our own language to demean our women, we shouldn’t be surprised.
But the question is also, are we not offended when Blacks refer to each other using words that start with the letter “Nâ€Â, the letter “H†or the letter “Bâ€Â? Maybe all this talk of banishing “the N-word†is working. I cringe every time I hear someone use it. I get a knot in my stomach when I reflexively use it myself.
Natural African hair is still viewed by some as a curse or as a negative aspect of our appearance. Yet white kids work very hard to lock their hair. Japanese kids pay hundreds of dollars to have their hair “dreadedâ€Â. The frequent sightings of afros, cornrows and locs in public let us know that nappiness no longer has the negative conotations that it once did.
But when a white man calls a group of sisters “nappy headed hoesâ€Â, and then a Black man says, “No, they aren’t nappy,†emotions flair.
Is it time to remove all racially identifiable language from our speech altogether?
