Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher

No double standard

On his way out the door, Don Imus inadvertently performed a great service for African Americans. His remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team were so offensive and inappropriate that blacks were forced to challenge the language the radio host used. Imus’ defense, which failed, cited rap lyrics as his source.

Public reaction to Imus’ description of the Rutgers team as “some nappy-headed hos” was universally adverse. While acknowledging that his remarks were a mistake, Imus insisted as mitigation that rappers have brought the term “hos” into the common parlance.

Similarly, when Nicholas Minucci, who is white, stood trial last summer on charges of assault and robbery as hate crimes for using a racial epithet as he beat a black man with a baseball bat in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., his defense argued that rappers’ widespread use of the “n-word” had stripped the phrase of its hateful resonance. The jury was not convinced, and Minucci was sentenced to 15 years in prison — eight years of which were tacked on for his bigoted vocabulary.

The massive publicity surrounding the Imus gaffe has forced African Americans to confront an issue that the leadership has heretofore avoided. Few have been eager to criticize hip-hop because it has become so popular. C. Delores Tucker, former secretary of state for Pennsylvania and president of the National Congress of Black Women, was essentially a lone warrior combating “gangsta rap.” When Tupac Shakur called her a “bitch” in one of his songs, she unsuccessfully sued his estate for damages. And there has been almost no outcry among black leaders against the liberal use of the “n-word” by black comedians, except for some sporadic protest by Al Sharpton.

As one would expect, black leaders were unified in opposition to Imus, as they should have been. But missing from their criticisms was the slightest suggestion that blacks foolishly contributed to the situation by accepting the vulgar lyrics of the rappers. Notice of this omission came from an unexpected source — Jason Whitlock, a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star.

Unfortunately, many misunderstood Whitlock’s criticism, probably because they only heard excerpts from his April 11 piece, which ran under the headline “Imus isn’t the real bad guy.” The title gives the impression that he was exonerating Imus because blacks allowed vulgar misogynistic language to be used freely. However, Whitlock stated clearly, “I’m no Don Imus apologist.” The Whitlock article was really a criticism primarily of Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for sensationalizing the issue to make blacks once again feel like victims.

It is time for black leaders to give more thought to the psychological impact on the black masses of some of the issues they raise. Blacks cannot achieve economic and social equality unless they have a positive attitude and are willing to work hard in school to acquire the skills needed for progress. The culture of violence espoused by gangsta rap creates fear among youngsters and a loss of self-esteem.

Whitlock poses an important challenge to black leaders. He states, “In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?”

Whether or not one agrees with Whitlock, he is correct to insist that it is time to hold African American leaders accountable.

“You can see hip-hop leads to violence.”