Thank you, Jesse Jackson, for remembering the sisters. On CNN this morning, during an interview regarding Don Imus, the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s first comment – before the reporter could even ask him a question – was to list amazing Black women, including Maya Angelou and Marion Wright Edelman, and ask the network to invite sisters like these prominent women to comment on Imus’ racist remarks.
He also turned attention back to the women Imus attacked. Jackson decried the media focus on the MSNBC morning talk show host and the impact Imus’ two week suspension would have on his career. Jackson asked the media to instead focus on the psychological impact of degrading language on Black women, suggested a team of experts be called in to discuss these effects, and asserted that the normalization of dehumanizing language against women may be the first step toward domestic abuse.
Finally!
The NABJ and my local New York Association of Black Journalists blasted email messages to members and provided me with the first news I heard of Imus’ description of my sisters as “nappy-headed hoes.” It is so important that we support and engage our African American organizations like the NABJ. We must insure that the grapevine that was so crucial to Black survival since slavery, our oral tradition, our powerful word-of-mouth, continues in this new, electronic age. We must use the language, the word, of the African American community to begin to do more than just survive. We must think in new ways about language so that we can begin to thrive.
And in the grapevine tradition: Thank you Tayari Jones for alerting me to the outlandish furniture label a Toronto woman’s 7-year-old daughter read when her family’s living room set was delivered. The label had a description of the sofa as n-word brown. This sister, a mother of three, had to explain the n-word to her daughter, whom she says had never heard the word before.
We must act to eradicate violent language and the normalization of everyday speech that dehumanizes. These words have both tangible and intangible effects on us all. As Jackson asserts, words fuel the very physical reality of domestic abuse and, I would like to add, the physical assaults against society’s most marginalized and disenfranchized, as evidenced in cases from Sean Bell to Matthew Shepard. As Jackson also made clear, words impact our psychology; and, as the furniture story indicates, this emotional violence gets passed down to our beautiful Black children as their psychic inheritance.
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okay, what???! the furniture label was desribed as… okay, why you make my blood pressure shoot up this morning???!!!
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Every day it appalls me how we are continually confronted with racial hatred, still. In a relatively short period of time we’ve seen our administration’s blatant disregard for the welfare of our citizens in New Orleans in the face of a terrible disaster. We saw the people of NO go without water, food and shelter in the aftermath. We’ve seen the media’s negative characterizations of those citizens as they waded through the water to higher ground.
We’ve seen a desperately failing comedian break down hysterically on stage into a rage which included a lynching among the images he thrust into the national spotlight.
And we’ve seen a physically weak old man assault young vital women with vitriol, when they should be celebrating their team’s incredible victory.
In these cases, I see this expression of hatred as a sign of pathetic weakness, of failure.
I agree with you Eisa, that hateful words are the first step towards violence. Language is the human way of categorizing things. Any categorization of a perceived group of people as good or bad leads to very very dangerous situations. We’ve seen it here in our violent history, we see it in Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq, Rwanda, the Sudan.
How could this be? How could this ever have been?
But it is…
With the recognition that humans are capable of appalling hatred and violence, we see that we also have a choice. We have a choice not to categorize, not to be lazy and stupid and hateful. We have a choice not to do these things. It is within this choice that I see the future evolution of human society.
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The furniture label……………..Unbelievable! Thanks for keeping me informed.
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Even Al Roker is calling for Imus to step down, and they belong to the same GE/NBC/MSNBC family. And you know All never causes waves. Check it out:
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Author Lori Tharps spoke on the topic and the roots of nappy hair, on the Brian Lehrer show. Check it out on the broadcast:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2007/04/09
It’s about 15 minutes long with folks calling in to make some good points.
I-Mess
Lori Tharps, co-author of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America and writer of the blog My American Melting Pot, takes on the Don Imus flap.
Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America is available for purchase at Amazon.com.
I also hope some brothers step up regarding this dis. Fools like Imus need to know they can’t spew out crap about black women and not be called on it.
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Thanks, Eisa. Imus’ comment was straight up ignorant!!! As a former athlete, I’m personally sick of men commenting on the physical attributes of female athletes. I find it sexist and equally degrading (no female sportswriters comment on how good terrell owens looks nor do male athletes get endorsements based on how good they look in a swim suit, etc.). It has no place in journalism. However, I’m questioning how racist it may have been. I think he was just using the accepted vernacular of our day. To begin, I have no problem with anyone referring to my hair as nappy – this is not an insult. Most black folks have nappy hair we try to cover up with weave, perm and wigs. This speaks to the inability for many of us to truly love ourselves (but that’s another dig for another day). Now, black men call black women bitches, hos, etc. on the regular. So, when you take his comments in full context – he said, the Tennessee girls were “cute” (Tennessee’s line up is predominatel
y black as well) and the Rutger’s girls were “nappy headed hos”. Was this racist or just his pathetic attempt at “black man’s” humor!? If Chris Rock had said it – would it be funny? Hell, I have to admit, if Chris Rock or one of our black comedians had said this, I’d probably be chuckling. So, why not chuckle at Imus? It’s because we still (no matter how far we’ve come) are in no position to allow others to make fun of us. We can do it within our own group, but the wounds of slavery and injustice are too fresh and still present. It hurts. Hell, if Chris Rock had said it, we know he’s laughing and crying with us NOT at us. Further, folks like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should boycott CBS everyday for putting out records glorifying these base terms about women. Why don’t we boycott Hot 97??! They call women hos and bitches everyday. These double standards have to stop. Don’t get me wrong – Imus is a loser and his show stinks and should be pulled because this type o
f humor perpetuates the lowest denominator in our social functions. That being said, we can’t have it both ways.
Peace,
Janie
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oh my God! i could not believe (but could VERY MUCH believe, you know what i mean) the article about the sofa!!! being married to a canadian who is always telling me that racism is an “american” sickness, this article just proves what black folks all over the world already know . . . prejudice against us exist everywhere (even in “oh, canada!”) the insane part is my in-laws used to live in brampton and i know the exact street where that vile sofa was sold. the reaction from the store manager was seriously coo-coo for coco puffs. from his surname i gathered he was of south asian descent. how would he like it if a sofa was described using a slur against his ethnicity? and the description had to be on some kind of stock list at the store. for him to act like it was news to him and then said news was not his problem?!?! un- f-ing-believable!!! there is no way i could live with that couch in my house!
on to the imus rant, i’m pleased that so many people are discussing what happened and taking up this cause which is about all women of color and especially black women. for too long we have been subjugated and villified. enough is enough. and all this talk about freedom of speech being raked over the coals is nonsense! being able to say whatever you want is overrated. a baby says whatever they want to say. that’s no big deal. adults – truly educated, considerate, compassionate, opened mind folks THINK before they speak. in this so-called God fearing nation we rarely recall that the “god” of most religions calls for compassion . . . consideration. that golden rule of treating others the way you would like to be treated. and if you’re going to spit some dumb ass crap out of your mouth, don’t be surprised or offended by what is being spit back at you (including calls for your butt to be fired!). as a white man (and a cranky, old white man to boot) imus feels entitled to make a mean spirited, humiliating, racist comment and expect not to be questioned about it. i say let’s turn up the heat and let americans know you can have freedom of speech but it doesn’t mean that the rest of us will sit back and remain victims of it.
last thing, i take issue with the person that wrote about the n-word: “but then, hip-hop and rap are the outrage of the ignorant so what else can you expect from a group who choose to glorify their limited intellect and lack of ambition?” that may be the current state of hip hop (and by current i mean since 2000) but not all hip hop comes from ignorant people. first off, you would have to have some kind of intelligence to be outraged because ignorant people i would think would be more complacent. and these rappers are ambitious. maybe the issue for debate is what drives their ambition. hip hop like most of us has been many different things in it’s lifetime but if you look at the true foundation of it, you will find an art form and a way of life that i believe came from the best intentions and was inclusive of many types of people (race, class, gender, etc.) the fact that so many young people and not some not so young people (have you ever heard russell simmons talk?) choose to use the n-word is way more complicated than just the hip hop music that they listen to. and that control issue you wrote about with white people and the n-word . . . well, who do you think is really CONTROLLING hip hop?
easy everyone!
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Here’s word from a brother, Julia – what you were looking for in your post…
This comment comes from Gabe Tolliver, a co-author of the recently published book, Bling. (www.blingbook.com) He was having trouble connecting to the site earlier, and he gave me permission to post his comment for him:
Yes. Its crazy but until we start some community therapy and there’s a
> mental paradigm shift toward self esteem ascension and knowledge of
> self. Then maybe folks will think twice about calling us out. Hell
> motherfuckers profit off portions of the community who revel in
> commodifying ignorance and that is considered cool. All this hype of
> Imus’s ignorant ass is warrented to a degree but we need to address
> the source but since he’s a high profile target, it makes good news.
> If we go after him, then let’s hit up every rapper who puts out a
> degrading tune, then let’s hit up the coonshows on BET like comic
> view, then onto the next. It’s easy to hit big targets. Just my
> thoughts while rolling the hood.
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Below is a letter I sent to Imus and a shout out letter I sent to a student out of frustration:
Well, you have shot your ugly mouth off again. I know you don’t care but
>your stupid remarks hurt people. Is it in your ability to think before you talk
>or is this what you are being paid to do? I realize there are plenty of
>Americans who agree with you and who have little affection for such things as
>diversity, human dignity and factual information but people like you are helping to
>push this country over the edge in terms of global standing, respect for
>others, and general intelligence. Regarding the last point, I am guessing that
>you share Harriet Miers’ view that George Bush is a genius?
>
>When should we expect the next empty and meaningless apology from you for
>another of your profoundly ignorant remarks? I don’t ask for censorship – just a
>modicum of common sense and awareness. This is what most of us in and
>outside of the public eye do each day. Stop abusing people with your mouth – it
>may help you as an individual and the country as a whole. At the very least,
>read something about the African American experience. You may just learn
>something about the young women you so cruelly vilified last week.
>
>Written with extreme restraint,
>
>Sabiyha Prince
Imus has received a slap on the wrist and it is not enough. He appeared on NBC the other morning talking out of the proverbial two sides of his neck. He is apologetic in one breath while attempting to escape blame and denigrate Al Sharpton in another. He says he is sorry but he is also quick to mention that, hey, he’s no dummy; he knows that African American men say these same things about their women every day. Apparently, this is where Mr. Imus learned of these phrases and I don’t doubt that. Imus also offered in his defense that he is not a journalist; that his show does comedy and he was attempting to be funny. With all of these excuses he doesn’t sound very sorry to me and as I told David Gregory on Hardball yesterday, he wasn?t even funny.
Is he sorry for insinuating, through his “comedy,” that Venus and Serena Williams should be in National Geographic or that, PBS journalist, Gwen Ifill is a cleaning lady, or for digs against Maya Angelou, etc. etc. etc. It is obvious to most of US that Imus is sorry he hit a nerve that has reverberated in this way – he is. Apparently so are his powerful, white male friends, supporters and/or sympathizers like John McCain and alleged liberals like James Carville, Tom Oliphant, hosts of Air America’s The Young Turks. They have either been quick to come to his defense or to, now, insist it is time to move on; especially since this show will be suspended NEXT WEEK. Imus still had today to defend his words, work up support over the airwaves, and direct venom toward those who criticize him. What kind of punishment is that? I am also forced to ask, what if a black host on a major corporate-funded radio show insulted the women of a white ethnic group in this way – REPEATEDLY! It wouldn’t happen because one infraction would have led to his or her dismissal. There is a glaring double standard operating here.
Thanks to Marsha Jones for getting to the issue of corporate culpability. Boycotts, letters and pickets worked in the past and they can work now. Yes, I may have to miss Heroes and Keith Olberman but I am just angry enough to do it – it is the least. I am also offering my energies, words, and deeds to a reinvigorated black feminist movement that continues to encourage African American women of all ages, classes, colors and locales to speak out against gender discrimination, misogyny, and the abuse of women and girls everywhere and by every and anyone. We shouldn’t accept it from the power structure and we shouldn’t accept it in our own communities. Let us eliminate the factors that encourage Imus to blame black men for the language he so crudely appropriated. But let us also be reminded of the University of Chicago (2006/2007) study that found African American youth are, overwhelmingly, tired of the violence and sexual degradation of corporate hip hop. They want a change but who are the primary consumers of the hip hop generated by major record companies? This would be young, white males – something Imus was once.
Let’s join together to fight the power for in the battle against sexism we will also make strides to eradicate racism, classism, ageism, homophobia, environmental destruction, and all forms of inequality.
Yours in struggle,
Sabiyha Prince
Sabiyha Prince, Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
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Thank you, all of you, for your powerful responses to Imus and the furniture label. Thank you, especially, Sister Sabiyha, for articulating a powerful Black female voice on Hardball last night. You represented well, sis.
We are assaulted on all sides and, yes, angry. However, I don’t think any of us have allowed our anger, which is, I believe, natural and human, to overwhelm us in our responses to violent verbal assault, which is, I believe, unnatural and a certain vector of death -not life. The constructed racialist thinking that has fueled White Supremacy and nearly all forms of worldwide social violence for the past several hundred years must be dismantled. I am so glad that on that issue, it seems, we agree.
I believe that ultimately the challenge is to love. That even the Massa, the Overseer, the Paddy Roller, the one who lynched our uncles, raped our grandmothers, and terrorized the generations, must be loved. Yes, I believe that. But I am not going to suggest, because I do not believe, that this kind of mass reconciliation and love-fest will happen in our lifetimes. Indeed, I think that to do that now is actually dangerous, not becuase loving thy enemy renders us vulnerable to his hate, his pain, and his confusion, but because, unchecked, those emotions, his emotions, will continue to impact our descendants, making our children vulnerable to his emotional and physical violence. I think our anger, constructively employed, will liberate our future.
I do hope we can all sing freedom songs together some day, that we can link arms with the former lyncher-rapist-terrorist in reconciliation and peace. I simply understand that we, the dispossessed, right now, have no power, in our arm, with which to link.
I am pumping iron now, not so much for us, but for our daughters and our sons. They are the ones I struggle for. May my anger become a distant echo when they open their mouths to sing. But for now, they are the ones, the only ones, to whom I can sing this song: “If I ruled the world – imagine that – I’d free all my sons… I love em, love em, baby…”
Eisa
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I’m glad to see Imus taken to task for his racist sexist slurs. At the beginning of the 20th century black female leaders spoke out against similarly offensive remarks against their characters. They were assumed to have no morals in large part because under slavery and for a long time thereafter any white man could rape or otherwise take sexual advantage of black women at will. Women in general were responsible for keeping men’s sexual proclivities in check. But black women were not deemed capable of having any moral fiber. It is due to this rampant abuse of black women that most black people in the US today have some white ancestry. Ida B. Wells, Fannie Barrier Williams, Nannie Helen Burroughs and Anna Julia Cooper were among the most outspoken on these issues of the utter lack of protection and respect accorded black women. Their voices were mainly ignored.
For years black women and their allies in groups and individually have spoken out against misogynist rap music and video productions. Again they have not done much better than their foremothers in garnering the media spotlight. We must note too that the music industry pushes this kind of music over better more uplifting talents and that the main consumers of this music in terms of dollars spent are whites.
I think it is a disservice for the mass media to only turn to Sharpton or Jackson to discuss these issues partly because many people will not listen to valid points they make because these two have some character flaws of their own. But more importantly, the mass media perpetuates the idea that there are few people who can speak to this subject with authority and historical insight. I know dozens who can, who are black, white, Native American and of Asian ancestry. Many people of diverse backgrounds could enlarge the conversation and this may lessen the defensive posture on the part of some whites and provide much needed education particularly for those who have the tendency to dismiss these remarks as no big deal.
I believe another part of the context that is missing from much of the Imus discussion in the national news is the larger cultural issue of how women are judged in our society. Sure women have made great strides, but there are still great deficits in pay and in how they are evaluated. And these two issues reinforce one another and are complicated by race and ethnicity.
Overwhelmingly our culture through advertising and other mass media forums tells women it’s how you look that counts most and really you can never measure up, so spend your money buying beauty products, going on guaranteed to fail fad diets, and getting plastic surgery. Prices are going down! So there’s no excuse for not going under the knife. The emphasis is not on health.
So while at the same time we have women advancing we also have women insecure about their looks, judging themselves and each other as many men judge them. Advertising, the foundation of mass media, preys on this insecurity, manufactures it and reinforces it. And this is really a global problem. After armaments, drugs, and oil, cosmetic sales account for the fourth biggest global money maker.
On college campuses disordered eating is particularly acute, and represents a conscious or unconscious desire on the part of these young women to fulfill these ideals and thereby gain value from society.
So here you have a Rutgers team, not fulfilling the narrow and mostly unattainable ideal of beauty and then subjected to ridicule. Only 5% of white women fulfill this ideal by being born into it. Unfortunately through globalization the ideal of beauty is narrowing all over the world to incorporate more European features. Wealth and power of the West and advertising are behind this trend. If white women here in the US feel bad when they measure themselves up to this narrow ideal, it becomes easy to see how women of color can feel the weight of this judgement more profoundly.
Still the vast majority of women or all races, colors and sizes need to reaffirm our uniqueness and demand a more diverse representation of what it is to be human and considered a person of value.
And men, particularly those who are most privileged to be represented in the mass culture, need to speak out against this constant dehumanization of females.
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Hey, Peoples –
I think maybe I wasn’t clear about natural and unnatural. Sorry! Anger is a natural human emotion. However, the violent social systems that have been constructed, including white supremacy, are innovations built by man. Race-based stratification within the human community is unnatural. Indeed, we are learning that there is no biological basis for race at all. Biologically speaking, there is no such thing as race. It is purely a social construction – one I believe must ultimately be dismantled.
And this is the other thing: I have a unique vantage point at Hunter, as the school is incredibly diverse. As I’ve posted in earlier blogs, I am blessed to learn so very much from my students, who literally come from all over the world. I have students from different countries who have been in the US for a relatively short time who tell me they have no idea that the n-word is racist. They don’t know the history of the word, or our country, enough to get that. They are, in fact, surprised to hear that this is a word they should never use, and they don’t understand simply because they hear it spoken so very much. So what may be happening, is that you have to take the extra step in your everyday life to shield yourself from violent language, and pity the speaker, when they have no idea the word they spoke has caused this response in you. It has become that normalized. N-word brown furniture? Come on!
I think we need to voice our experiences as Black women and men in the public realm, re-educate folk, engage the emotion that conjures the word and the emotion that the word itself conjures – what it does to the speaker and what it does to the hearer. And I think Sister Yvette is so right on in putting this issue in an historical context, particularly the Black women’s club movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. I’ve been talking a bit about honoring our future descndants; I think Yvette is right in suggesting we remember to honor our ancestors, women who gave so much – sometimes their own lives – for our relative privilege. I don’t think our grandmothers want us to just sit back and chill on this.
Love to you all!
Eisa
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By the way, I love how sisters are connecting over this hurtful event. I’ve gone from anger to an energetic new feeling of power and hope – and women’s words have gotten me there.
Thank you, all of you!
Eisa
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It seems most of us are looking for a zero-tolerance policy on hate-filled speech but are concerned about free speech and policing thought. How do we begin to change attitudes and eliminate hate speech without stepping on civil liberties?