[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

I think it comes down to who has more power than whom. The Pres is more powerful than anyone criticizing him (except the Dark Lord of the Sith, Dick Cheney), thus attacking him doesn't carry much opportunity to offend on that visceral level. A white, heterosexual man criticizing African-American women is coming from a more powerful position, and so it's kind of like kicking the cripple, to borrow from Molly Ivins. Which is also likely why slurs coming from someone to whom the slur could also apply don't seem as offensive to society as a whole. I think it's a power (real or perceived) thing. Bababooyee and I already had this discussion and he came up with some most excellent new phrases as a result, which I have stolen.

And hey, the Dixie Chicks said they were ashamed the Pres was from Texas and they got death threats from righies, so clearly it wasn't okay to those conservatives.

(Of course, Bush isn't from Texas; he's a Massachusetts blue blood, so I don't know why they were ashamed in the first place.)

I think Don Imus has a great face for radio.

I guess what is the most annoying part of the whole process is how a story can be so affected by the media and it needs to fill the 24 hour news fix. This in itself is NOT an important story. Imus and his cronies never threatened or personally slurred anyone. They simply made a bad joke. The media grabbed the story and ran with it because sensationalistic race stories get good headlines. Sharpton and Jesse jumping in just makes it less of a real issue in most of America's view because they have virtually zero creditability in mainstream America. Jesse is a hypocrite who needs to make stories like this grow because he jumped the shark about 15 years ago when he refered to NY as "hymietown". Sharpton is as one way as one could be in regards to race relations as pointed out in other posts. Imus was guilty of nothing but poor taste which is not a crime. Making this out to be a crime against black people is a joke. Making this out to be singularly harmful to any member of the Rutgers team is laughable. Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock have said the same sort of things about "white" people and there are no reprecusions and well there should not be. Saying someone is "nappyheaded" or has tattoos or is thugish is in poor taste but these are hardly traumatic things.