The dictionary reminds us that a tragedy is when we suffer because of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. Most people view this as the tragic story of Don Imus – he had the moral weakness of racism, and that caused him to suffer a downfall. Now, no one should ever fear the terrible fate of being called a nappy-headed ho.
A large group of people see a more serious tragedy – a tragedy that casts American pop culture in the lead role. In this story, America’s indifference to the mistreatment of women in rap music and the hip-hop culture is the tragic flaw. America is suffering because we insulted a group of women that deserve our praise. Instead of singing songs that call women bitches and hos, we should cast out the demons of misogyny and sing Kumbaya. While holding hands.
That’s a great story, right?
Sorry, I think both of these stories stink. Firing Imus didn’t fix anything. No one is better off – no one is safer. It will not reduce the amount of actual racism in America.
I hereby make two bold predictions: first, no one will ever show their breast during the Super Bowl again, and second, no one will ever say, “nappy-headed ho” in anger on the radio again. Overt racist speech by white men on syndicated radio is not a national crisis because the amount is minimal. The civil rights movement has managed to defeat this monster. Want proof? How about the backlash against “PC” speech? There is so much pressure for PC speech that people are now rebelling against that! America does not generally tolerate public personalities that routinely use racist speech.
Want more proof that public racist speech is so small that doesn’t hurt America? Imagine you can wave your magic-no-public-racist-speech-wand. Woosh. All racist speech on the radio is now gone. Isn’t life great? No more wars. No more poverty. No more crime. No more racism. Woosh. I just waved my no-magic-necessary-duh!-wand. Even if all public racist speech was gone, there would still be racism. And wars, poverty, crime, and a bunch of other things that suck.
And the exact same thing goes for trying to wave a magic-no-rap-music-wand. Censoring rap music will not fix our racism or sexism problems.
I promised you a tragedy, though. The real tragedy is that we wasted a lot of time and energy firing Imus but racism still hurts us all. Look above at our definition of tragedy – we are not coping with unfavorable circumstances. Racism is still a major problem in America: education, poverty, wages, enforcement of the laws, capital punishment, etc. We have defeated overt public racism, but we have a long way to go.
And I have proof. The federal government just released a report that shows cops in America are more than twice as likely to search black and Hispanic motorists than white motorists. Even worse, cops are almost four times more likely to use force on a black suspect than on a white suspect. 4.4% of all public contacts with blacks involve force or the threat of force. 1.2% for whites. The report did not track the number of nappy-headed ho incidents.
Let me tell you the tragic story I witnessed this month. The main character is America. America has an inability to cope with the reality that we mistreat people with black or brown skin. America suffers from the division, from the derision, from the wasted minds, from the wasted talent, and from the elevation of mediocrity.
The tragedy is that America spent a lot of time firing Imus instead of actually fixing race inequality.
[Edit 14 May 2007]
This cartoon is excellent.
a note on your statistics… because I’m not afraid to appear racist when it’s not actual racism but realism.
There is no question that there is a distinct economic difference between black, hispanic, and white segments of our population. A cop interacting with a white person is more likely to be dealing with someone from higher income brackets, and therefore less likely to be a criminal. (i’m not a sociologist, but there are many reasons other than economic standing that affect this status)
what that means is, it’s possible that a cop interacting with a black suspect might be more likely to be dealing with a hardened criminal that one interacting with a white suspect. I don’t know how it really works, perhaps my reasoning is completely off, but it’s at least possible that it’s not racism that results in cops having more violent encounters with blacks and hispanics than with whites.
It’s possible that more blacks and hispanics create violent scenarios for police than white people do. my guess is that it’s not four times as likely, but a combination of the increase in violent potential, and police reacting to that potential with prejudgements that create most of the gap that you described.