Posted on 04/12/2007 4:07:07 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
It isn't the Don Imus "hos" insult that has a lot of black people calling for his head. It is his use of "nappy-headed."
After all, no one's saying that Bernard McGuirk, Imus' executive director, should be fired, even though it was McGuirk who started the on-air insult by referring to the Rutgers team as "hard-core hos."
Frankly, not even the most popular rap artist could get away with calling black women "nappy-headed hos."
Those are fighting words.
Despite the fact that sisters of the '60s thought they had stomped out the nappy phobia, another generation ran back to the straightening comb and relaxers --adding Korean weaves and synthetic extensions.
So you can best believe that before the Rutgers basketball players showed up for a news conference Tuesday, they groomed their braids and spent time with a flatiron.
Lance Williams, a professor at Northeastern Illinois University's Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies and an expert in youth culture, observed that some of the women in his class were more outraged by the "nappy-headed" part of Imus' comments than they were with the "ho."
"That was really what offended them," Williams said. "Why is it that nappy-headed offends us so much, when being nappy-headed or having a tight curl pattern is natural to us?" he said. "Why do we still perceive nappy as being something negative?"
I can walk around all day with my hair in twists or an Afro, and no one gives a second look. But don't let me put on my No. 33 curly, honey-colored wig -- the compliments flow.
There wasn't a nappy-head among the Rutgers players even after they sweated through a championship loss.
"You look at the sisters, and they were all straight [hair] and permed," Williams pointed out. "These were highly educated, successful student athletes with perms. Still, after all of that, they are called a nappy-headed ho. At some point, we have to please ourselves and not other people," he said.
"Can you imagine what they probably have to go through every day to keep their hair straight, the torture so they are not called a nappy-headed ho? It should be a wake-up call for us. We need to take the same energy of protest and use it to proclaim our natural beauty and talk about the beauty of black women."
To add insult to injury, Imus put down the black female players to entertain his predominantly white audience. That's why Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the NAACP should keep the pressure on CBS to fire Imus. That's the only way to get the message across that racial insults are out of bounds -- even for highly paid shock jocks.
But the Imus fallout also puts the spotlight on the black community's failure to control its own images.
"I'm willing to bet that Imus got that comment from somebody black," Williams said. "There is no way you can tell me a white man came up with that word on his own. I bet he got that from a black person and he repeated it, not understanding how inflammatory the slur was."
The Imus controversy also exposes the same dilemma that African Americans face when they complain about the use of the n-word. How are blacks to hold Imus accountable when black women are denigrated in their own communities?
"They are regularly calling women chicken heads, bustdowns and tricks and so forth. What [can] we say when people outside our community make the same comments?" Williams noted.
Still, Imus did black people a favor.
Often, it is hard to confront shortcomings in one's own family as aggressively as one addresses an outsider's faults. Black people can't deal with Imus without confronting the denigrating rap lyrics because the same corporate greed that spawned Imus fed the misogynist rap genre.
"If you look at MSNBC, it is ultimately responsible for the comments of Imus. It is the vehicle in which this information was delivered," Williams said. "This same kind of organization is responsible for the gangsta rap. At some point, we have to talk about how these images of dehumanization impact people, and how the general public perceives black people and how we perceive ourselves."
If you hate what Imus said about the Rutgers team, you should stop supporting music that denigrates black women.
Imus was the mimic. Rappers were the muse.
mailto:marym@suntimes.com
Nappy - the other “N” word!
And lets not forget SOUTH PARK which is produced by NBC. The stuff I have heard on that show make what Imus said look tame. I don’t see anyone demanding that show be canceled. I don’t see sponsors pulling adds.
You are absolutely right!
That is a much better ice breaker than "Wow! Your hair really looks nappy tonight!"
LOL!
I guess it just means lots of little curls. I didn’t realize that this was considered undesirable. Frizz, now that’s undesirable, speaking for myself with my curly hair!
Nappy: British word for diaper. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! People like Jesse Jackson have spoken so much crap these days, that he would do good to wear a diaper on his head.
Maybe he has some internal guilt over the word "nappy".
There was an R&B artist in the 1950s who used that IN his name, Nappy Brown. I have a few of his singles. According to AllMusic.com, he sang blues, R&B, and jump blues. According to this bio, his use of the word Nappy comes from Napoleon.
Biography by Bill DahlNobody sounded much like Nappy Brown during the mid-'50s. Exotically rolling his consonants with sing-song impunity (allegedly, Savoy Records boss Herman Lubinsky thought Brown was singing in Yiddish), bellowing the blues with gospel-inspired ferocity, Brown rode rock & roll's first wave for a few glorious years before his records stopped selling. But in the early '80s, Brown seemingly rose from the dead to stage a comeback bid. He became ensconced once again as a venerable blues veteran who'd stop at nothing (including rolling around the stage in sexual simulation) to enthrall his audience.
Napoleon Brown's sanctified screams come naturally — he grew up in Charlotte, NC, singing gospel as well as blues. He was fronting a spiritual aggregation, the Heavenly Lights, who were signed to the roster of Newark, NJ's Savoy Records when Lubinsky convinced the leather-lunged shouter to cross the secular line in 1954. Voilà, Nappy Brown the R&B singer was born.
Brown brought hellfire intensity to his blues-soaked Savoy debut, "Is It True," but it was "Don't Be Angry" the next year that caused his fortunes to skyrocket. The sizzling rocker sported loads of Brown's unique vocal gimmicks and a hair-raising tenor sax solo by Sam "The Man" Taylor, becoming his first national smash. Those onboard New York session aces didn't hurt the overall ambience of Brown's Savoy dates — Taylor's scorching horn further enlivened "Open Up That Door," while Budd Johnson or Al Sears took over on other equally raucous efforts. Novelty-tinged upbeat items such as "Little by Little" and "Piddily Patter Patter" defined Brown's output, but his throat-busting turn on the 1957 blues number "The Right Time" (borrowed by Ray Charles in short order) remains a highlight of Brown's early heyday.
After decades away from the limelight, Brown resurfaced in 1984 with a very credible album for Landslide Records, Tore Up, with guitarist Tinsley Ellis' band, the Heartfixers. Later, he recorded a fine set for Black Top (Something Gonna Jump Out the Bushes) with Anson Funderburgh, Ronnie Earl, and Earl King sharing guitar duties, and some not-so-fine CDs for other logos.
Imus was engaging in “trash talking”. There was a program dedicated to it on some Viacom network not to long ago. It may have been called “Snaps”. Where 2 people square off with their crew throwing insults back and forth.
The temas themselves may even engage in such behavior.
It was entirely unprofessional for a radio host to engage in such behavior. This was not trash talking to throw them off their game. This was personal insults designed to savage their appearance. But given the level of discourse we have today (look at the racist drawings of Condi Rice, the slurs levelled at Ann Coulter, Ms. Harris in Florida, Linda Tripp, et al) and this is being blown entirely out of proportion. Blown out of proportion by Al “Jew them down” Sharpton, a man who is a vile bigot in his own right.
The Macaca Moment syndrome continues. Send Imus to the gulag for political “rehab”.
If you hate what Imus said about the Rutgers team, you should stop supporting music that denigrates black women.
Persons that listen to rap music likely were not as bothered by what Imus said.
Have any known rappers come to the forefront and denounced him ?
Believe it or not, ... not all (or even most) black people listen to rap music.
It's obviously quite vocal (i.e loud) ... but it's adherents are mostly young, immature males. Most black people fall outside of that category.
There have been many movements within the black community to curb the excesses of "rap", but we. inevitably have run into the "free speech" argument ... and the fact that the white-run recording companies won't give up the profits generated for them by rap.
Imus was the mimic. Rappers were the muse.
None of the words used by Imus originated in the black community. "nappy" and "ho" (or whore) ... are words which originated in the English language.
Unfortunately, it is the rappers who have mimicked our former oppressors ... and used their language to denigrate their own people.
OK, thanks, What does homey mean?
I think Imus actually perceived he was offering the team a compliment on their toughness by using the phrase. In its context, it appears that way....
Yea... I’d like to know the answer to that one.. I stay at home a lot. I thought that just meant I was old. :-)
What I find amazing is this: When these girls were on the basketball court, they were intending to LOOK TOUGH! A couple did have visible tatoos. They looked aggressive, mean....kinda like, well... “ho’s”.
But, in their press conference?? Oh my. These are delicate little creatures who have been CRUSHED by “da man”. Models for society. Cream of our crop....
I will forever say the biggest crime in this entire saga is that no one was around to show these fine young ladies the proper way to respond to this: By ignoring it and telling Imus to “pound sand”.
What I find amazing is this: When these girls were on the basketball court, they were intending to LOOK TOUGH! A couple did have visible tatoos. They looked aggressive, mean....kinda like, well... “ho’s”.
"Ho" in my understanding of the term ... does not refer to a girl who is tough, agressive, mean, etc.
Rather, the term refers to a woman who is sexually loose ... as does it's originating English term, "whore".
Interesting point.Imus was actually trying to front like a “white soul brother”by his comment.I’m surprised he didnt say something like”them bitches sure be hoopin’on the real”or something equally dumb.
Homegirl at the top of the pic looks like she’s had a rough night!
Thats correct.Similiar to saying “Do”for door and “Flo”for floor.
Nothing new.Dilliard and Smitherman reasearched the whole”Ebonics”question and actually traced such pronunciations back to West African speech patterns that are centuries old.
Down low just means something thats supposed to be kept secret.
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