How the Media Uses Blacks to Chastize Blacks

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/

How the Media Uses Blacks to Chastize Blacks

The Colored Mind Doubles


ITivo Don Imus as much as I can because his putrid racist offerings are said to represent the secret thinking of the Cognoscenti. Maybe that's why journalists like Jeff Greenfield and others admire him so much. He says what they think in private.

On any day, you might find Bernard McGirk, the man, who, according to "60 Minutes," Imus hired to do "nigger jokes," doing a lame imitation of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, using a plantation type dialect. The blacks who are satirized by McGirk and others are usually displayed as committing malaprops, but, though white writers appear daily on the show, I've rarely seen a black author.

In the last twenty years, black authors have received every prize available to authors. His idea of a black author must be the same as the producers of the movie, "The Tenants:" Snoop Dogg.

Recently, McGirk referred to Rev. Joesph Lowery as a "shameless skunk," and a joke was made about the manner in which Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's window, was murdered. Black athletes are referred to as "knuckle draggers," which, the Irish and and Scotts Irish members of Imus's crew--they discussed their ethnic heritage on C-Span--might be surprised to learn, was the way that the British referred to their groups. When an exhibition of great apes was presented in London, the British commentators said that the exhibition showed the Irish to be the link between ape and man. But their being Irish and Scots-Irish makes sense because it was members of these groups who used to entertain the Anglos by blackening up. Maybe that's why Imus has listeners in Kennebunkport. Bush I is a fan.

Another fan is Congressman Harold Ford (D-TN), whom Imus endorses so as to deflect attention from the show's lowbrow racism. ..............

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[Roaming]

1. But you know, unfortunately this sort of thing goes both ways.

There were some pretty offensive racist cartoons put out there on Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas. It's disgusting either way. Just because you're at odds with someone politically doesn't mean you should use racist rhetoric, even if it's presented as a "joke."

[Asgaya Dihi]

2. A big part of the problem

A big part of the problem is that most people don't understand, or even try to understand, why we see what we do today in the black community. They point at the rap music and references to violence as if that explains something in itself, and it really doesn't.

One in eight young black men between the ages of 25 and 29 is currently in prison, not due to higher crime rates as such but largely due to laws such as safe school zones that hit urban areas much harder than suburban areas and offer mandatory minimums even if you had no way to know someone in the building across the street watched kids. The effect of this is that where a suburban kid might get probation or parole they face extra circumstances that place them in jail.

One in eight, currently in prison or jail, mostly due to our policies rather than their actions. You don't learn good habits in prison, and some of those habits and practices come home with them. Things really don't have to be like this.

[donsu]

3. and the private owned prisons need to keep up their profits

they get so much money per head. you think they might be in cahoots with cops?

[Asgaya Dihi]

4. Yes and no

I'm more a fan of the idea of coinciding interest rather than conspiracy, but to a point yeah. The prison guards unions and others have gone through quite a bit of effort to build the system. An example of how that works can be found at the following, it shows the ties between the lobbies, corporate interests, and our law makers. Main point is an hour long audio linked on the page, though the other stuff is good too.

American RadioWorks : Corrections Inc.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/corrections/index.html

Cops are NOT the enemy though, they are potentially our best friends. Most know things aren't working, they just don't know what else to do. Jack Cole says himself that he was probably responsible for locking up at least 1,000 young men, but he eventually realized the damage he was doing and the pointlessness of it and now he and other law enforcement professionals from around the world are starting to work on taking the system apart and fixing it. Contact for them at http://www.leap.cc/ if you're interested.