Posted on 04/13/2007 9:10:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday that radio host Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team were "disgusting" and she was pleased he was fired.
Imus called the women players "nappy-headed hos" -- racist, sexist remarks that resulted in a barrage of protests and ultimately in the outspoken host losing his CBS Radio show, which was also televised.
"I'm very glad that there was, in fact, a consequence. I think that this kind of coarse language doesn't belong anywhere in reasonable dialogue between reasonable people," Rice said in an interview with syndicated radio show host Michael Medved.
Rice, the first black female U.S. Secretary of State and a former college professor, said the young women Imus targeted were fine athletes trying their best.
"It gets ruined by this disgusting -- and I'll use the word 'disgusting' -- comment which doesn't belong in any polite company and certainly doesn't belong on any radio station that I would listen to," she added.
Asked how she handled racist, sexist comments directed her way, Rice laughed and replied: "I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. And I really don't care because, you know, I'm a mature woman
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
Never trust a woman who looks like a Klingon, which Condi does look like.
You are exactly right. I heard the interview with Medved, and the headline is dead WRONG.
I’m waiting for Imus to come out with a rap album. He’s got the attitude. He’s got the words down.
HO HO HO! < :P
Wise words.
In Appalachia in the 1920s, "N----r" was apt to turn up in every other sentence. But my grandmother, her two sisters and her two brothers knew if they got caught saying it, there would be hell to pay. Educated and polite people don't say such things.
My grandmother and her siblings were among the very few children who asked for a bag of "licorice babies" at the local five-and-dime. They were "n----r babies" to everyone else.
You know, until she came down on the side of firing what's his name (I had never heard of him until this)... I actually thought Rice would make a better candidate than Hillary.
But if she's going to be this short sighted and issue-blind... And if she can't understand that there are in fact times when coarse language is exactly what is called for... Well, then, I have to admit I was wrong, she is the wrong woman for the job.
It’d take an awful lot more than that to bring Rice down to Hilliary’s level.
Secretary Rice did well. Imus deserved to be fired for his idiocy just as Amos & Andy would be fired today if they tried to air their bigoted old blackface “comedy.”
...and firing people isn’t censorship, for all of the brainiacs out there who are hopelessly confused on the subject.
Censorship is the government banning your right to utter words.
Firing is a corporations right to decide to whom they extend paychecks.
Thus, firing and censorship are two vastly different concepts.
Leave bigoted blackface behind. The whole “I’m gonna shock my audience” schtick is old, anyway.
Fire ‘em all.
You said — “ They were “n——r babies” to everyone else.”
Anyone know what “n——r toes” are? I remember that from my childhood days.
Also remember sitting in the front of the bus, wondering why I couldn’t sit in the back of the bus. I was the white kid. So, one day I decided to try sitting in the back. Well..., I tell you, those black people looked at me like I was crazy and I could tell they wanted me out of the back of the bus (but they weren’t about to say it to me). So, I only did that once...
Regards,
Star Traveler
So you are saying that there are in fact times when "nappy headed ho" directed at strangers unprovoked is exactly what's called for in reasonable dialogue between reasonable people?
Where was there any mention of "free speech?" He or anybody else can say what he wants; she has the same right.
The real shocker is that you seem to think that she, as a government official, should give up her right to have opinions and free speech.
Sharpton did not bring down Imus. Imus brought down Imus.
You said — “Maybe but is it even worthy of a Secretary of State to publicly comment on? She never commented publicly on the outright racist and bad mannered statements of Sharpton or Jackson.”
Now, if we want to “talk” about something to be critical about, and really get down on someone’s case, let’s not go to Imus, but to Ludicris... [I posted this over in this thread earlier...]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1817025/posts?page=32#32
.
The phrase “nappy dugout” was mentioned, earlier, on that other thread and I looked up the definition for it —
noun
nappy dugout
Vagina. The dugout is the dug-in bench at the side of a baseball field where players wait until they are up to play. Nappy comes from hair napping up, sort of the way it it on the way to dreading. The nappy dugout would be the dugout (small enclave a few steps off the main field) that has nappy hair (pubic hair). “Giving up the nappy dugout” — Ludacris (’Phat Rabbit), “Nappy Dugout” — Funkadelic
And the following, I got from a web site, giving a “translation” (I suppose for us white folk...) —
Your daughter was a nice girl, now shes a slut.
A queen treatin niggas just like king tut.
Gobbin up nuts, sorta like a hummingbird,
Suckin up the lench mob crew, and Im comin third.
Used to get straight-as, now shes just skippin class.
Oh my, do I love to grip the hips and *ss.
Only 17, with a lot of practice on black boys jimmys and white boys cactus.
Sorry, sorry, sorry, but I gotta be brief:
A lotta niggas like bustin nuts in her teeth.
Drink it up, drink it up, even though shes catholic,
That dont mean sh*t, cuz shes givin up the *ss quick.
Quicker than you can say candy, the bitch is on my snicker...and oh man she
Can take on three men built like he-men;
Her little-bitty twat got gallons of semen.
Fourteen niggas in line ready to bang your
Pride-and-joy, I mean daddys little angel.
Tell the bitch to get her *ss out the house,
Cuz your daughters known for givin up the nappy dugout.
Chorus, 2x: I got a big old ding-a-ling, and if that bitch remains,
Im gonna do my thing, with your dauuuughter!
Mister, mister, before you make me go,
Im here to let you know your little girl is a hoe.
Nympho, nympho, boy is she bad; get her all alone and out come the kneepads.
I know shes a minor and it is illegal,
But the bitch is worse than vanessa del rio.
And if you decide to call rape, we got the little hooker on tape, now:
Tell the f*ckin slut to please hurry up,
And wear that dress thats tight on her butt,
So I can finger-f*ck on the way to the bed,
Been in so many rooms, she got a dot on her forehead.
Face turnin red from grabbin them ankles.
F*ck and get up is how I do them stank-hoes.
You should hear how she sounds with a cock in her,
Boots get knocked from here to czechoslovakia.
Two on top, one on the bottom;
First nigga got the boots, man, you shoulda shot im.
Cuz after I got em it was over. now niggas get lucky like a four-leaf clover.
On daddys little girl.
She keeps nuts in her mouth like the bitch was a squirrel.
So tell sheryl to bring her *ss home,
Cuz the line at my house is gettin loooooooong, and....
Chorus
(givin up the nappy, givin up the nappy....)
Now, this is the kind of stuff that you’ll find the 13-18 year olds listening to, and that’s why our culture has changed so drastically (for that age group), among many other reasons why that’s so...
There was a discussion about these things in regards to Girls Gone Wild owner and his troubles with the law. Many were blaming him, however, the stuff that is going on (out there) with our 13-18 year old group (and afterwards in college) is coming from *that generation* and not from the guys making Girls Gone Wild.
How much listening to this kind of stuff before the entire generation just goes off and does exactly what these songs are saying. Oh..., wait a minute — they’re already doing it...
See some of these other FReeper threads...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760487/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1814975/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1815779/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1816008/posts
And so the story goes with our younger generation...
.
Now, I wonder, considering that Obama was seen to be chummy with Ludicris (in a picture that someone posted), if the Democrats (or at least one leading Democrat) are for this kind of language — really (despite what they did about Imus).
And — then — if SoS Rice can comment about what Imus said — like she did — why on earth couldn’t she say about *100 times more* about what’s going on with Ludicris and how the Sharptons and the Jacksons are apparently “just fine” with it. They apparently don’t care as long as it’s a “black boy” saying it. But, you better not be a white boy...
Regards,
Star Traveler
Firing is a corporations right to decide to whom they extend paychecks.
Thus, firing and censorship are two vastly different concepts.
Ah, but it is the reasons behind the firings that are important.
If they had said "Look, this guy has been a problem for months/years, here's why, and this lack of good judgment is the last straw." fine...
But fire him just for making a racist remark? Hey, who "fires" the racist rappers for making racist remarks? Who "fires" the so-called "artists" for burning/desecrating flags? Who fires the racist school administrations for bending over backwards to accommodate various political/religious sects?
The answer is of course, no-one. There is a tremendous, mind-boggling double standard here. I call someone a Nazi or a Jew, etc. and I'm a racist because they find that personally offensive. An "artist" burns the flag and I'm supposed to allow it? Support it? I find that kind of behavior personally offensive to the point of having taken a swing at someone - my freedom of expression.
My problem with this whole situation is that the very people who espouse "celebrate diversity" and "embrace tolerance" are the very people who scream for vengeance at the first sign of someone who disagrees with them. What's his name expressed a "diverse" opinion (albeit crudely and inappropriately) - I'm sure it diverged from the players opinion of themselves and their effort. But the thin-skinned brigade swung into action and got its pound of flesh. We can all sleep well again.. ;-/
Imus has a long history. It’s not this one remark:
[edit] African Americans
“Nappy-headed hos” April 4, 2007 (about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, which had recently played in the national championship finals; the team has eight blacks and two whites)[1][2]
“Chest-thumping pimps.” (Description of the New York Knicks.)[1]
“William Cohen, the Mandingo deal.” (Former Defense Secretary Cohen’s wife is African-American.)[3]
“Wasn’t in a woodpile, was he?” (Responding to news that former black militant H. Rap Brown, later known as Abdullah Al-Amin, was found hiding in a shed after exchanging gunfire with police. Imus is alluding to the expression “nigger in the woodpile.”)[4]
“We all have 12-inch penises.” (When asked what he has in common with Nat Turner, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, New York Knicks basketball player Latrell Sprewell, and Al Sharpton.)[5]
“A cleaning lady.” (Reference to African American journalist Gwen Ifill. Imus has said he did not make that statement.)[6]
“Nigger jokes” (What Imus told a 60 Minutes employee that Imus’ program producer, Bernard McGuirk had been tapped to do on the radio show, as Imus later admitted saying when confronted by Mike Wallace in a 1997 interview)[7]
From a tape of the 60 Minutes program as it appeared in a transcript of “On the Media”, a program on National Public Radio:[8]
MIKE WALLACE: You told Tom ANDERSON, the producer, in your car coming home that Bernard McGuirk is there to do “nigger” jokes.
DON IMUS: Well I’ve n— I never use that word.
MIKE WALLACE: Tom?
TOM ANDERSON: I’m right here.
DON IMUS: Did I use that word?
TOM ANDERSON: I recall you using that word.
DON IMUS: Oh, okay, well then I used that word, but I mean— of course that was an off the record conversation— [LAUGHTER]
MIKE WALLACE: The hell it was!
Handicapped people
“Janet Reno’s having a press conference. Ms. Reno, of course, has Parkinson’s disease, has a noticeable tremor. [...] I don’t know how she gets that lipstick on [laughter] looking like a rodeo clown.” [9] Reno was U.S. Attorney General in the Clinton administration.
[edit] Homosexuals
“I didn’t know that Allan Bloom was coming in from the back end.”[9] (The homosexuality of Bloom, author of The Closing of the American Mind, became widely known after Bloom died.)
“The enormously attractive [NBC political correspondent] Chip Reid, I can say without being accused of being some limp-wristed ‘mo [homosexual].”[10]
[edit] Japanese
“Old Kabuki’s in a coma and the market’s going up. [...] How old is the boy? The battery’s running down on that boy.” (Referring to Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who died the next week.) [11]
[edit] Jews
“I remember when I first had [the Blind Boys of Alabama] on a few years ago, how the Jewish management at whatever, whoever we work for, CBS, or whatever it is, were bitching at me about it. [...] I tried to put it in terms that these money-grubbing bastards could understand.”[12]
“Boner-nosed … beanie-wearing Jewboy.” (Describing Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz, a frequent guest on Imus in the Morning.)[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_controversial_Don_Imus_quotes_on_women_and_minorities
People don't realize that she didn't volunteer this opinion. She was responding to a question from Michael Medved on his show.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
You said — “Not to mention that a whole bunch of nappy headed homies say worse than what Imus said regularly in widely broadcast Rap music. Then there are the statements of Louis Farakhan widely broadcast on radio about white people. I don’t think the Sec State has any business censoring anyone. Is she changing her mind about a presidential run?”
Yeah, in case someone doesn’t “really get” the kinds of things that are really said by these rappers, like Ludicris for one... take a look at Post #55.
I’ve been posting about these things, not from the standpoint of Imus (or on another thread, about the owner of Girls Gone Wild [it does all fit together, by the way...]) — but from the standpoint that this shows how far gone our society is in terms of it’s morals and what is going on with the kids from ages 13-18 years old.
What Imus did, in a very small and insignificant way, is what Ludicris does in a big way and what the owner of Girls Gone Wild does in his way. It’s all accommodation to the culture of degradation that we’re in.
Condi Rice should be more concerned about that, actually - maybe not from the standpoint of the position of Secretary of State - but if she’s commenting on that anyway (which is certainly not a Department of State matter), then she should focus on these others and not Imus. Imus was *absolutely nothing* in terms of what else is going on out there. And the Sharptons and the Jacksons know this. They don’t care — they just want to exercise their power and “get someone”.
At least Condi Rice should be interested in the morals of the issues and point out these other things and not rag on Imus...
Regards,
Star Traveler
Brazil nuts. I picked up that bit of slang in the '70s, and knew that if I said it in the presence of my mom, I would feel a short sharp shock to the back of the head.
Digression: I love the phrase "short sharp shock." It's so onomatopoetic.
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