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April 11, 2007

Seeing racism when you hear it

I have to confess that when I saw the Rutgers' women's basketball team having a news conference on the television I left on for the dog because there were workmen here, I didn't know what had happened. I didn't know who Imus was, or what was said, or why it merited a news conference. So I poked around a bit, and found the "apology" and still didn't know what had been said. Today I had the time to go through the stack of newpaper sections that have been collecting these past few weeks, and I learned what had been said.

Holy Mother of God. What the Fuck is going on here?

MSNBC "suspends" this jerks program for a couple of weeks. Big deal. He won't even notice. But now that I get what happened, I sure as hell notice. It's not enough. If MSNBC had any integrity at all, and clearly they don't, they would just simply drop him. For good. Who needs crap like this cluttering up the airways anyway? MSNBC has a better image to uphold, and certainly better options for their airspace/time.

So I'm reading this entry from Becky today, and I followed the link to C. Vivian Stringer's comments published in the NYTimes, and I got mad. Teary? Yes. But also just downright mad.

I've tried for the last two years to teach undergraduate writers at my institution under course outcomes and syllabi that emphasize "diversity" only to be met with rolled eyes and Pollyana-esque platitudes about how racism doesn't exist in our country anymore. I can even imagine some of those students talking about this incident and saying that the mere fact that these black women got to college "proves" there is no racism left to deal with.

To which I can now reply, with some venom, "bullshit, and this is why." It's one thing to get racist e-mail messages on a family list (I have to say I am more than somewhat disappointed to be related to these people, but it sure explains a lot of my earlier life), but it is quite another in this day and time for anyone to accept this kind of foulness as acceptable.

I'm saving the articles about this incident. It sickens me that these people not only exist in the world but that they exist in levels of public broadcasting. I support the First Amendment to the Constitution, but I don't for a moment confuse a freedom with a license to harm.

I've had two women basketball players as students in my time here at Syracuse. These young women are multiple times the individuals this racist "personality" is. He should be removed from the airwaves. No apology can make up for placing those words into the public ear.

I'd say "shame" on him, and his syndicator, and MSNBC, but, of course, it wouldn't do any good, because if they had the sense of decency that makes shame effective, this incident wouldn't have happened.

To the women at Rutgers: Stand proud. Stand together. Stand above this idiot and those who follow him.

Posted by cageyer at April 11, 2007 04:01 PM

Comments

Posted by: senioritis at April 11, 2007 08:11 PM