Random Imus Thoughts And The Intersection of Racism and Sports
Posted by
Kevin
Some random reactions to the defenses and other thoughts about the Don Imus firing and a rumination on sports place in society.
- Imus Was Trying to be Funny: Yes, but he was trying to be funny in a specific way for a specific purpose. I watched much of that Rutgers/Tennessee championship game and I can tell you flat out that Rutgers played awful. If he wanted to make a joke about the game, there was plenty of material related to the actual game play that he could have used. But he choose, instead, to attack them in a personal manner and to make fun of them in terms that were designed to denigrate and humiliate them. He was, in other words, trying to put them in their pace. That he was also trying to be funny is not an excuse.
- Rappers Say Worse: So? Am I to excuse Pol Pot because Hitler killed more people, to use an extreme example? An Imus is not your average rapper, now is he? He is a prominent insider voice whose position can literally make book sales and aid political careers. When the rapper du jour gets to that level of power then maybe that might be a valid point. Until then, it’s like comparing Buicks to unicycles.
- Other Radio Hosts Say Worse: So? See the above point. And then give me a list - -those people deserve to be fired, too.
- Imus has Said Worse: Yes, he has. That does not mean that he should not have been fired; it means that he should have been fired sooner.
- Imus Does Charity Work: It is entirely possible to be a racist and a sexist and to do charity work. The charity work does not excuse using a radio show to spout racism and sexism.
- Now Other Radio Host Will Be Too Afraid To Speak Their Minds: Only if they are racist or sexists. If they don’t use sexist or racist language then there is no problem. Essentially you are telling me that Imus’s firing make sit harder for casual racism and sexism to be transmitted through commerical media. Why am I supposed to think this is a bad thing?
- But Imus is a Shock Jock — This Is What He Does: So? That doesn’t make it right. Again, that’s not an argument that he should not have been fired, that’s an argument that he should have been fired sooner
- CBS and MSNBC Only Fired Imus Because Sponsors Pulled Out: Maybe, maybe not. MSNBC’s chief in particular made it clear that he had gotten a lot of heated opinion from his reporters on the Imus issue. But, again, so what? Before the firing, MSNBC and CBS and the show’s sponsors were quite happy to take the money of racists and sexists. Today, they have learned that pandering to racists and sexists can cost you money. Again, why am I supposed to think that this is a bad thing?
The most fascinating thing to me in this story is how it intersects with sports. Don Imus has said much worse about politicians and reporters and gotten away with it for years. Indeed, there are precious few reporters and public figures who dared to ignore his show because of its place in the insider media food chain. But this first time — as far as I can tell — he personally attacked sports figures in this way he gets fired. Much of the discussion and the news I heard about Imus I heard through sports shows and sports talk radio. I don’t think its an exaggeration to say that millions more people heard his comments and about the uproar because of sports talk. I have to believe that it had an effect on the outcome. The more people who hear about the affair, the more people there were to put pressure on the sponsors. Rush Limbaugh went through a similar event. He made a racist comment about Donovan McNabb on ESPN and was fired. That comment was mild compared to some of the racist remarks he has made in the past, but it was that remark that caused him to lose a job and that remark that is the one I hear most often when his racist past is brought up.
I am not sure what this tells us. I suspect that it means nothing more than that sports is the one area where we still share a largely common culture in this country and that we, as a society, pay far, far more attention to sports than we do to journalism or politics. But it might also mean that sports — with it’s clearly measurable objectives and obvious markers of success — is the one are of our culture where racism’s inherent idiocy is most clearly revealed. It is easy, sometimes, for people not to see the effects of racism, to argue that minorities aren’t discriminated against in the real world, that they just don’t work hard enough. No one with a brain, though, could argue that the Rutgers players hadn’t worked hard and didn’t belong where they found themselves. No one could argue that Donovan McNabb wasn’t one of the league’s best quarterbacks or that he had gotten where he was because of some weird quarterback affirmative action. Sports fans expect their games to be honest and reflect of actual effort and ability. When someone implies the opposite, the fallacy is obvious and jarring in a way that it isn’t in almost any other activity.
Baseball is celebrating Jackie Robinson today. I have heard people say that Jackie Robinson the baseball player (the distinction matters; Jackie Robinson the man, it is often forgotten, was a tireless champion for civil rights from the day of his retirement to the day of his death) was the most important civil rights leader the country ever had. I used to think that was a ludicrous exaggeration. I still don’t believe it, but I think it’s a lot closer to the truth than I had believed.
