Posted 4/14/2007 05:24:00 PM by Douglas

Because I don't feel like Imus has been given enough ink in the last six years this scandal has been going on, I'll to this. I hope this isn't the first article written from this point of view, but its perspective needs to be more broadly considered.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

[ . . . ]

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

Yeah, what he said. Turn on any rap video and you'll see veneration of the prison lifestyle, and that hipity-hop culture has permeated every corner of America. Do these cRappers speak for all black people? Of course not, but neither does Imus, but making such a big deal about a comment that about 1/100th as offensive as any lyric on a Snoop CD is quite counterproductive.