Quote:
Originally Posted by firstdown
I don't get the whole part of how much this has offended them to the point that they say it has (life time of pain). Yes the remarks where bad but how can a college and coach allow this to cause these players this much sorrow. What would have happend if this would have been a week before the playoffs. Would they have just hung their heads and given up. I would be of the mind set that what one person said is not going to bother me and I feel the coach and school have let them down by buying into all this stuff. They say how much this offended them but I bet if we could look at their CD collection we could find much worse degrading of women. This is music that the younger generation is listening to and watching so how are they going to treat women after all of this negative influence. I talked to my daughter about this and she said she sees and hears this stuff all the time.
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As for your daughter's comments - were the statements directed at her personally or at a group of her and friends? or at some other group entirely? If directed at her, what was her reaction? If at others, did she take offense?
On the "Scarred for life? Aren't we going a bit too far?" issue, I am with you.
The remarks we wrong and (given Imus' history) clearly part of a larger racist (and sexist) attitude he both holds and condones. He committed a wrong and should (and was) punished.
As to the actual harm caused by the wrong - that is a trickier question in my mind. Granted, I am a white male and have not been the target of either historic systemic racism (given the US's cultural history, a near impossibility) or specific individual racism directed against me either by comment or action (i.e. - comment: "white men can't jump"; action: "We won't hire you b/c ur a white male"). Thus, I have no first hand knowledge of the harm caused by either. Being
somewhat educated and well-read, however, I am capable of learning and understanding the emotions and feelings of someone who has been the subject of either systemic or direct racism.
I do have experience, on multiple occasions, of people directing hateful, malicious or otherwise degrading comments at me. In some cases, this was done in a very public manner. For each case (even those I considered slanderous), however, I did not consider myself "scarred". Some hurt more than others, but all were simply words, and, in my mind, words can only have the power we give them (i.e. Lenny Bruce's famous routine "niggernigger niggernigger - I am going to repeat this word until it is robbed of meaning"). To allow Imus to scar you with words is to give him more power over you mentally than he could ever have physically. I think this is especially true when it is universally recognized that the words used were hateful and, as such, universally condemned.
In light of the universal condemnation of the action, I don't understand the "scarring": Were you unaware that racism exists? Did you as a female black athelete believe that someone who knew you would actually give credence to these words? Did you yourself give any credibility to the words? Does the fact that the words have been universally condemned have no meaning to you?
Granted, words can cause harm but,when it comes to mental anguish, to a certain degree, that harm is yours to control. It is as the old adage says "sticks and stones can brake my bones, but words can never hurt me". It is only when people act upon words that you can be harmed in a way you cannot control. The mere utterance of hateful speech does nothing but highlight the hatefulness of the speaker.
Finally, a question meant to provoke discussion and not intended as either snarky or aloof: Is there any generic racial comment about a group of white men or in reference to a white man that would cause a black commentator to be fired or otherwise sanctioned beyond a slap on the wrist?