Free Speech?

A lot of the continuing discussion of our "coarse culture" is revolving around a basic inability to call things by by their rightful name. Many have criticized Imus for being offensive, insulting, over the top, and the like. But the word that so many find hard to use is "racist." That's what his comments--and not only those about the Rutgers team--were. And when you defend Imus, that is what you are defending.

Imus' comments were a bullying insult to a group of black women. His point: a reminder that black women are there for the mockery, amusement, and dehumanization of their white male superiors.

At times like these, bigots love to trot out the symbols "Al Sharpton" and "Jesse Jackson." In this context they exist only as targets--and the rhetorical sleight of hand is to try and create an equivalence between Imus racism and so called "black racism." If you listened to WFAN the day after Imus was fired, what you heard was,"Yeah, what he said was bad, but now lets talk about Sharpton and Jackson." Anything to to change the subject. And by the way, can people raise all kinds of issues about the real Jackson and Sharpton--of course. But not to justify the kinds of things that Imus and Bernard McGuirk have been perpetuating constantly over the years.

The number three most listened to talk radio host in America is Michael Savage. Savage, by any account, is an unambiguous hate monger whose language about gays, Jews, blacks, Latinos, and even the moderately liberal is sickening. However, the "market" for this stuff is bigger than many of us would like and he exists in a closed end universe. No upscale media guests for him--just full time hatred, twenty four seven. Imus got nailed because of his attempt to pander to the low end of his audience and flatter the high end, at one and the same time. And for a long time he threaded that needle "artfully." After all, getting someone as elegant and generally thoughtful as, for example, Tom Oliphant to tolerate the crap that surrounded his appearances is no mean trick. But in that dual context, his blatant racism finally stuck out like a sore thumb. However, those without Imus' intellectual pretenses, like Savage, remain insufficiently challenged as of yet. Let's hope that starts to change, effective immediately.