So Don Imus is shortly about to return to the airwaves on right-wing radio station, WABC. This will be a fitting place for his brand of racist, sexist, sophomoric, unintelligent drivel. The marketplace has decided to take another chance on him, after deciding he was too much of a liability by his offending so many a few months ago. His free speech was never an issue then, since no government entity attempted to suppress his speech. Instead, the capitalist marketplace decided he was a liability, at least in the short-term, and would lose more money than he would make for it, so he had to go.
His many fans of like-minded insensitivity and racism, will be delighted that he is returning, and on one hand I'm not so sorry he is returning either. We need examples of slime like him, to remind those who say racism and sexism is now a thing of the past and the playing-field is now level, that racism is very much alive and well, and has not really gone anywhere, at all. On the other hand though, what about the millions who tune in to validate their own belief systems that embraces privilege, separation and hate? I can see how this show can serve to bolster their unbalanced view of the world, and if Imus believes it and says it, this is all they need to perhaps embolden them to racist actions. For this reason, I would prefer that he did not return.
The marketplace that had been rewarding him so handsomely, turned on him and decided to suspend subsidizing him. It had nothing to do with Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson's displeasure, just plain old American profits and the bottom line that was being jeopardized by this latest of his many racist rants. The angry white men demographic, that Imus champions, are in the same school of bullies like him, picking on those who have no voice or a microphone, as they did to the Rutgers female basketball team. This time enough people resented his disrespect and racism, that even the amoral capitalistic marketplace had to react and fire him, at least for a while. His brand and product was the lowest of the lowest products out there, and for just a few months, the consumers voted with their wallets, and said, 'you're fired!'.
To me, Imus is just a decrepit, unapologetic, alcoholic, cowardly racist, and his ignorant vitriol has been ongoing for decades. His defenders cried 'political correctness', which is just another attempted slur invented by white males, who can't abide cultural changes and diversity, and who believe themselves to be exemplars and paragons of the best and brightest. Consciously or unconsciously, he was using his bully pulpit to affirm his investment in whiteness, and protecting his group's privileges and power as top dogs in America. He was also showing his deep investment in historical white narcissism expressed as scorn for 'others' - in this case the mostly black, Rutgers basketball team.
He's now found a different network where his insensitivities are acceptable, at least initially and until he again reactivates the market forces that 'fired' him before. I'm betting that he will be just as, or even more offensive than before - after all, there are millions of his demographic that just loves his slop!
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