TIME FOR A BOYCOTT OVER IMUS' STATEMENTS

By Arelya J. Mitchell, Publisher

The Mid-South Tribune

The Mid-South Tribune ONLINE

And the Black Information Highway

When you think about what Don Imus said, it’s not surprising.  Because what is going on now is nouveau racism aimed specifically at African Americans, where there is a comfort zone in blurting out whatever you feel about African Americans, reminiscent of pre Civil Rights era—well, before the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was legislated into law, and about a good hundred years after the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments were supposed to have taken care of that little problem of race. They didn’t.

A new comfort zone is rising as high and as dangerous as the ozone level that it is again all right to ridicule and demean our Black children. Don Imus demonstrated that he would do this when he called young African American girls of Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy headed hos.”

If Don Imus had called young Jewish girls “little Kite hos” or some other derogatory name, the Jewish community would have expressed outrage.  The Anti-defamation League would have, justifiably, screamed and Imus would have been gone in a flat New York minute. Naturally, Imus wouldn’t have done that, because he would have known of the consequences from the Jewish community. In fact, even if he had called young Caucasian girls, “straight haired honky hos”, he would have suffered justifiable  repercussions—but, of course, he wouldn’t have thought of calling what would be the equivalent of his mother, daughter, aunt, sister a ‘honky ho’. It wouldn’t have entered his little mind because he thinks of White girls as human beings, but obviously thinks less of Black girls. Let us remember that these young African American ladies on the Rutgers’ winning basketball team are still teenagers or they are just emerging from their teenage-hood.

 From his bold actions (in the same vein as comedian’s Michael Richards’ ranting), we are sure that Don Imus would have felt a comfort in calling Mrs. Rosa Parks a “nappy headed ho” or Mrs. Fannie Lou Hammer a “nappy headed ho” or Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. “a nappy headed ho”, or Ida B. Wells a “nappy headed ho” or Sojourner Truth a “nappy headed ho” or Harriet Tubman  “a nappy headed ho” or Mrs. Medgar Evers a “nappy headed ho”  or Mrs. Dorothy Height (who heads the National Council for Negro Women, the oldest Black woman’s organization in the country)  “a nappy headed ho” or every slave woman the ‘massa’ took in his barn or to his bedroom to violate.

 The truth of the matter is that Don Imus didn’t hesitate to say what he did about the Rutgers women basketball team’s young African American ladies, because he knew he could get away with it. Why not?  This nouveau racism is coming into vogue because Blacks are failing to rise to the occasion—as was done in the 50’s and 60’s.

The Don Imuses of the world feel this renewed freedom to utter what they want to toward African Americans, especially African American females who still remain at the bottom of the totem pole, where the Black woman remains the most disrespected of all women even though it was she who fought along side her man all the way from the Underground Railroad to the Civil Rights Movement and upon many occasions being the one to lead the fight as her man was bound to chains or was strung from a tree.

 Even though there might be a battle of the sexes (as within any race at times) in that too many Black male rappers (not all) show a disrespect for the womb from which they emerged, there is still that universal profound difference between what Imus did and what some rappers have done. That Universal Law is that you can talk about your mama, but nobody else can. Yes, that is universal law which crosses all color, racial, and ethnic lines. And it further translates into you can talk about your family, but nobody else can. Imus broke that rule, because—to repeat-- he knew he could do so without consequence from a Black populace that is becoming all too comfortable in believing that racism is a thing of the past. As dead as the dinosaur.

 So, CBS gives Imus a two-week suspension (vacation?) and only did so after mounting pressure. And why not do it this way? CBS like so much of white Corporate America operates on the theory that Black folks will just holler and shout and do little else other than whine in the aftermath; thus, they can continue the practice of treating African Americans like second class citizens under the guise of ‘diversity’ and Affirmative Action. 

Some values should not be based solely on monetary concerns. Acting on the value of humans being treated like humans is the very fabric of how this country came into being albeit by a Revolutionary War, a Civil War, riots, a Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Movement and other anti-discrimination battles. Battling is exactly how these freedoms came about, because they were at least written in the Constitution if not always upheld by those implementing it (Read: Dred Scott Decision, and ‘Separate but Equal’ laws). These battles ensued to make the Constitution itself live up to its Bill of Rights promises and its added amendments to enunciate and secure those promises.

Don Imus needn’t worry about much. He’ll be back after mouthing (mocking) his Act of Contrition. 

Only in the 60’s when Blacks learned to keep boycotts going did White Corporate America wake up and smell the black coffee.  It’s time for the black coffee to be smelled again, and this time it should be the premium brand which will cost big bucks in boycott action.

            Since Rev. Al Sharpton as a Black Male, husband and father took on Don Imus, we await him to give us the Imus’ sponsor to target and boycott to make an example of. Drastic? No more drastic than when the Jewish community takes up its cause to go after those who offend them and their heritage—and the six million plus who died in the Holocaust. Here we are in the 21^st century and literally business towards African Americans continues as usual.

 We thank Rev. Al Sharpton as a BLACK MALE for coming out with a fight for respect of Black womanhood. We thank a Rutgers player’s minister, a BLACK MALE, for coming out with an Easter sermon of protest. But just where are those BLACK MALE rappers when the tough gets going or are they and Don Imus blood brothers in spirit? Even they should know the Universal Law of you might talk about your women, but you don’t let anybody else do it? (Even though we don’t think that even they should do it). Where’s all the bling bling when it comes to protecting the womb from which they came to have the equal opportunity to make their videos and CD’s and have freedom of speech. Indeed, Emmett Till did not have this freedom. Of course, maybe they can stand if Imus were to call Emmett Till’s mother a “nappy headed ho” for making sure the world knew of the son’s animalistic torture by white racists.

       To those Black rappers who continue to defame Black women, lest you forget the Civil Rights Movement gave you  the freedom to make money, wear that bling bling upon which to build your multi-million dollar mansions. Lest you forget those from the street to Black Hollywood to Black entrepreneurs, to Black churches, Black sororities and fraternities, sharecroppers, teachers, farmers, janitors, sanitation workers dodged water hoses, dogs’ teeth, bullets and shed blood ironically so you Black rappers (not all) could have the freedom to call your mothers, sisters, daughters, and aunts ‘hos’ and ‘bitches’ along with Don Imus. However, don’t forget one Black woman who sat so you could stand was the beautiful Rosa Parks whose naps were just as beautiful and she was no ‘ho’.

            Again, we thank Rev. Al Sharpton for standing up for Black womanhood, especially for young impressionable Black womanhood in the form of a Rutgers’ basketball team that has shown nothing but courage under fire. To the Rutgers women’s basketball team, you have our love, respect, and the commitment to do the fighting as you continue your education. Let us handle this.

            We’re calling on every BLACK MAN and BLACK WOMAN to protest that attacking our children will NOT be tolerated, by any means necessary!

As stated earlier we, as Black Americans, are going to have to get back to THE BOYCOTT.  

We need to finish what was started in the 50’s and 60’s and reclaim our pride and family values—our ‘roots’. If we don’t take the time to look back while we’re running under the allusion that we have ‘overcome’, we’ll see Jim Crow is catching up again.

            As a footnote: Don Imus, would you call that young African American female out there carrying a rifle in Iraq a “nappy headed ho” while she protects your white ass back home?