Don Imus & Al Sharpton

Why is Al Sharpton involved?

Why is this newsworthy?

Al Sharpton is a media whore. Nothing more. And he has somehow parlayed being an outspoken jack ass into full time gig! I can’t stand the guy. He parades around, with cameras and reporters in tow, like he’s a god. Just because he continually tells you that he is against racism and social injustice does not mean that he is neither racist nor willing to take advantage of his social status. (“you” = generic citizen that has made Al Sharpton famous.)

Leah is away on a work trip; maybe that’s what’s really gotten me all riled up?

——————

So I decided to add a bit more to this post – copying directly what was posted by some Tragically Hip fans on a discussion forum:

——————

If, by the title of this thread, you don’t know who Don Imus is and what the uproar is all about, then you’ve done a bang-up job of avoiding the media for the past few days. Google his name and you’ll quickly be up-to-speed

The coast-to-coast fervor over this story is ridiculous, but not surprising.

I have heard many say that Imus’ remarks reflect the ever-present ignorant and racist attitudes that contaminate our society. I contend that the uproar itself, not the ill-advised attempt at shock-value humor, is what is truly indicative of the continuing racial disharmony in this country.

I’m not going to defend Imus’ remarks, because the term “nappy-headed hos” should never be uttered on public airways in reference to a team of collegiate athletes.

But isn’t there a boatload of irony in the branding of a white person as ‘racist’ for using slang that is common and widespread throughout a cross-section of American culture, but one which eminates directly from black culture itself? After all, it’s not just that the rap / hip-hop culture uses these terms freely and without castigation; it’s that the rap / hip-hop culture is specifically responsible for creating them in the first place.

A societal uproar directed at the shock jock whose hackneyed use of these terms in a attempt at cutting-edge humor seems almost hypocritical, doesn’t it?

Does to me.

——————

Equally hypocritical in my mind is the failure of the mainstream media, willful or in fear of attack by upstanding African-American leaders like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, to report on the rap/hip-hop culture that spawns these attitudes towards women and to black culture at large. There is almost nobody of stature in the media industry attacking the likes of Nelly (who swiped a credit card through the buttocks of woman in one of his music videos) or R. Kelly.

——————

that is a very interesting point – while he shouldnt be defended for what he said, how does something like this fly in comparison to what he said?:

“Bitches Ain’t Shit”
(feat. Snoop Dogg, Dat Nigga Daz, Kurupt, Jewel)

[Snoop] Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks…

[Chorus: Snoop (2X)]

Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks
Lick on deez nutz and suck the dick
Get’s the f**k out after you’re done
And I hops in my ride to make a quick run…

[Dr. Dre]
I used to know a bitch named Eric Wright
We used to roll around and f**k the hoes at night
Tight than a mutharfucka with the gangsta beats
And we was ballin’ on the muthafuckin’ Compton streets
Peep, the shit got deep and it was on
Number 1 song after number 1 song
Long as my muthafuckin’ pockets was fat
I didn’t give a f**k where the bitch was at
But she was hangin’ with a white bitch doin’ the shit she do
Suckin’ on his dick just to get a buck or 2
And the few ends she got didn’t mean nothin’
Now she’s suing cuz the shit she be doin’ ain’t shit
Bitch can’t hang with the streets, she found herself short
So now she’s takin’ me to court
It’s real conversation for your ass
So recognize and pass to Daz

[Dat Ni**a Daz]
Now as i’m rollin’ with my ni**a Dre and Eastwood
Fuckin’ hoes, clockin’ dough up to no good
We flip flop and serve hoes like flap jacks
(Snoop: But we don’t love them hoes) Bitch, and it’s like that
This is what you look for in a ho who got cash flow
Ya run up in them hoes and grab the cash
And get your dash on
While you’re chillin’, with your homies and shit
And how my ni**az kick the anthem like this

[Snoop] BEEEYYAAACHHH!

(Chorus)

[Kurupt]
…To the store, to get me a 4-0
Snoop Doggy Dogg paged, that must mean more hoes
So I head down the street to long beach
Just so i could meet, a freak
To lick me from my head to my feet
And I’m here, now I’m ready to be done up
Nothin’ but homies around so I puts my gun up
Bitches on my nuts like clothes
But i’m from the pound and we don’t love them hoes
How could you trust a hoe? [Snoop:] Why? [echoed 3X]
Cuz a hoe’s a trick
We don’t love them tricks [Snoop:] Why? [echoed 3X]
Cuz a trick’s a bitch
And my dick’s constantly in her mouth
And turnin’ them trick ass hoes the f**k out
Now…

[Snoop Doggy Dogg]
I once had a bitch named Mandy May
Used to be up in them guts like everyday
The pussy was the bomb, had a ni**a on sprung
I was in love like a muthafucka lickin’ the protung
The homies used to tell me that she wasn’t no good
But I’m the maniac in black, Mr. Snoop Eastwood
So I figure ni**az wouldn’t trip with mine
Guess what? Got gaffled by one time
I’m back to the muthafuckin’ county jail
6 months on my chest, now it’s time to bail
I get’s released on a hot sunny day
My nigga D.O.C. and my homey Dr Dre
Scooped in a coupe, Snoop we got news
Your girl was trickin’ while you was draped in your county blues
I ain’t been out a second
And already gotta do some muthafuckin chin checkin
Move up the block as we groove down the block
See my girl’s house, Dre, pass the glock
Kick in the do’, I look on the flo’
It’s my little cousin Daz and he’s fuckin’ my hoe, yo
(Bitches ain’t shit)
I uncocked my shit…I’m heart-broke but I’m still loc’ed
Man, f**k a bitch!

[Chorus]

[Jewell]
(Dr. Dre in background “Bitches ain’t shit”)
I don’t give a f**k about a bitch
But i and her know that they can’t fade this
Cause i’m doin my own thingdown with the swang
I’m hangin’ with Death Row like it ain’t no thing
I say you know can’t deal
Cuz I’m a btich that’s real
Motherfucker need to step back, hell yeah
They need to chill
Because I don’t give a f**k
And I don’t give a f**k [x3]

And now I gotta do some…
And now I gotta do some shit that’s clean
But when I’m on a dick, hell yeah, I get real mean
Like a washing machine
I can wash the clothes
All the hoes knows
That i’m on the flo’ ho
But they can’t hang with my type on swang
I ain’t tryin’ to say I suck every ding-a-lang
But just the juicy ones
Witht he tip of the tongue
And then their sprung
With the nuts hung
[Dr. Dre:] Bitches ain’t shit

——————

This particular example really highlights the essential problem and underlying argument. How is ok for men in the black community to use derading language and have it not braded as sexism at the very least? Why does it become more offensive when the terms are utter by a white man? Is it becaue there is a dual layer of ignorance at work, both based on sex and race?

Ben Folds covered “Bitches Ain’t Shit” on his last tour a number of times. In doing so, he acknowledges the aburdity of *off limits* slang/vernacular. There are few artists who are as obviously and unbashedly white as Mr. Folds. In my opinion, he uses this detail to its fullest advantage to acknowledge such flawed logic [/end sidenote].

——————