The Imus Incident: How We Missed Another Opportunity to Really Talk About Racism

Update: Greg Boyd nails it.  This is a must-read. 

Update 2: Articles - The Linguistics of Color-Blind Racism, Bonilla-Silva;  Talking About Race, Learning About Racism, Tatum (pdf); Books - Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Tatum;  How Jews Became White and What that Says about Race in America, Brodkin

Update 3: Dick Morris: It’s Time to Say Goodbye to Imus

Update 4: Jason Whitlock on how Sharpton and Jackson always mess this up.

The same thing goes down each time something like this happens. White Celebrity makes racially-charged remarks. Jackson and Sharpton arrive on the scene blowing their whistles. The media freaks out, and the whole thing gets turned into some extreme discussion that misses the point. White guys immediately turn their guns son Sharpton, Jackson, and the media. They deserve their criticism, but what gets missed every time is the crucial step of the white guy actually thinking about and reflecting on the wicked, racist thing that was said in the first place by the White Celebrity. It’s always some argument like, “Yeah, what he said was wrong, but free speech blah blah blah, and look at how Sharpton is an idiot and the media always distorts everything and Democrats just want votes.”

But this terribly misses the point. The predictable media over-reaction gives White Guy the opportunity to fail to analyze the actual racism that is still incredibly present in American society and cast blame on the media for perpetuating racism for the political benefit of liberal Democrats. The media and politicians on both sides of the aisle deserve their criticism. But time after time we miss the opportunity to talk about the fact that racism is still the norm in America.

One of the primary reasons White Guy fails to analyze the situation is the simple fact that as a white male in American society, he is born into a state of privilege. “White Guilt” is what naturally happens when it finally dawns on a white guy that in American culture, his Whiteness grants him privileges and powers that blacks simply do not have. In reaction to White Guilt, White Man refuses to entertain the idea that racism is still part and parcel of American society - not the exception, but the norm - and instead blames the Democrats (I heard Rush do this a few weeks ago).

While I was initially inclined to agree with the analysis that the response from the Rutgers women was a touch melodramatic, I have noted that the criticism thus far has come from - Surprise! - white men. This gives me pause. I don’t know their experience any more than any of other white guys who have commented on this situation. I don’t know what they’ve overcome, but I’m willing to bet it’s a lot of racism. And to overcome a lot of racism and end up being successful against so many odds, only to be called a “nappy-headed ho” on national TV and radio - well, perhaps that’s a bit more traumatic than some middle class white guys are able to understand. So I think I’ll reserve judgment on black women who have just been wickedly insulted with a racist and sexist “joke” until I’ve had some experience with a lifetime of not living in a culture that privileges me because of my race and sex.

There really is a difference between black people having their white jokes and white people having their black jokes, because it’s not the joke that’s the issue - it’s the power relationship that is the issue. Sure, we should all be able to laugh either way. But black jokes by white people can and often do perpetuate cultural dominance that has been in place for, oh, a couple hundred years now, and contrary to middle-class white republican opinion, has not gone away.

Sadly, we’ve missed yet another opportunity to talk about the continuing dysconscious racism in American culture that propagates white cultural superiority in education, the economy, and political power. And it’s a conversation that desperately needs to happen. Why can’t we stop and actually talk about what Imus said, why he said it, and why these kinds of comments are still so prevalent in our society if racism is ended, as so many - Surprise! - middle class white folks believe.

And what I’ve said so far doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the intersectionality of oppression present in this particular situation.