Home » African-Americans are not responsible for the racist remarks of Don Imus
African-Americans are not responsible for the racist remarks of Don Imus
Posted: Saturday, April 14, 2007
by Zarian Phipps
http://africanamericanpoliticalspot.blogspot.com/
CBS and MSNBC did the right thing in
Hip Hop music has long been criticized by African-Americans for not only negative lyrics, but negative stereotypical imagery as well.
Read about C. Delores Tucker's fight against this in the early 1990's. The big executives in the music industry are making billions of dollars from these artists and see no need to filter their music. To put it simply, as long as the mainly white corporate executives are making money from hip hop, they will not change the message. While you won't find a defense for the hip hop industry here, it must be stated that black people saying derogatory statements about other black people is not on the same level as white people saying the same things. Many white people think that it's okay to say these things because African-Americans say them. This is ludicrous because these negative words were indoctrinated into our society by white people to make Blacks feel bad about themselves hundreds of years ago. The word "nappy" was first stated by WHITE slaveowners and racists to describe the hair of the Africans that had been stolen and enslaved by this country. Why do many people suddenly have amnesia when it comes to this issue? More importantly, why would a white person that is not racist want to say these words in the first place.
The word "nappy" and the "n" word were not made up by black people. It is true that many African-Americans seemingly want to make these words positive these days and they use them amongst themselves to take the sting out of the meaning of these horrendous words. Personally, I feel that words like these will never be turned around and black people should not use them when addressing each other. It gives racists a license to say these words and blame the black community no matter how illogical that defense is. The use of these words need to stop for the good of everyone, but don't blame the African-American community for words that were put into existence by white racists hundreds of years ago.
Many people are criticizing the black community now because they feel that we have not protested against black rappers using demeaning verbage in their lyrics. This is totally false as black people have been
concerned on a large scale about rap lyrics for more than a decade now. This story just never gets any media attention because the powers that be in the media, don't care about African-Americans complaining about rap music. Let it be known that 80 % of rap sales are made up of young WHITE teens not BLACK people. Let it be known that the best selling rapper is Eminem who is WHITE not BLACK. Let it be known that when rappers use derogatory words in their lyrics it is not in the same racist context that Don Imus used. When a black person calls another black person the "n" word it doesn't hurt as much as when a white person says it. That is a fact that the white community has to face and if they think it is unfair, they should criticize their white ancestors for putting the word into existence in the first place. Don't criticize the black community for trying to take away the negative sting from these words.
Why weren't white people calling for the end to hip hop lyrics before the Don Imus story? Because they didn't care.
Zarian Phipps is a Senior Political Science scholar at the University of New Orleans. He was stranded for five days in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and saw the chaos and mistreatment of American citizens firsthand. He is the founder of
The African-American Political Hotspot!
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