i woke up this morning and turned on Good Morning America and the first story i heard, while i tried to ignore my clock, was the whole 'nappy headed ho's' thing. i sleepily watched while robin exuded hurt disapproval and her co-anchor, chris, practically set himself on fire in empathetic outrage over imus' remarks and his lame apology.
as a brown girl who is seriously tired of every single story like this, i give a great big Whatever to his apology and everyone's outrage. i mean, how outraged are we, really? we're shocked and apalled that don imus spewed asshat bigotry on the air? gasp!
and as for his apology, whatever. chalk up another Tour of Sorry as he tries to cleanse himself of his PR mistake.
i don't really give a crap about imus or his remarks (as bad as they are) because, honestly, i don't expect anything more from 'mainstream society.' (read that however you wish.) my expectations have been managed downward at such an alarming rate, things like basic bigotry no longer make my blood pressure jump; i expect the larger society to behave stupidly, crassly and ignorantly. i no longer expect people to behave like civilized, rational adults. unless i have evidence to the contrary, whenever i see people like don imus open their mouths, i wait expectantly for a foot to be inserted.
The Man (and those who love The Man) can no longer stun me with his inner pig because i expect the inner pig to make an appearance, sooner rather than later. how cynical and bad is that?
i am outraged at how paltry our language for condemnation has become. i don't want to hear imus apologize for saying 'bad,' 'insensitive,' 'racially charged' things about those girls on the college basketball team; i want to hear him apologize for being an asshole. i want to hear him apologize for shitting on civility and farting in the face of our cultural discourse. i want him to go on his radio show and say, 'I'm sorry. I'm a pig.' say something that actually matters and is true.
that what repentance and confession is - it's being bald with the truth of one's failure. you don't say, 'dear God, forgive me for saying those really mean things even though i'm really a good person.' you're supposed to say, 'dear God. i'm a shithead. please forgive me even though i don't deserve it.'
on those rare occasions i meet someone who's a bigoted, misogynist or homophobic asshat, or am confronted with an unexpected asshat bigoted, misogynist or homophobic comment during a social occasion, i drop that person. immediately. they no longer exist for me. they disappear from my universe.
when are we going to start setting some rules for all the rest? why aren't we outraged over that?!
[everything bloggy you need to know about the imus kerfuffle can be found here.]
2 comments:
YES, thank you. i could not agree more with your bold italics entire post.
i don't want apologies anymore. i really don't.
i want action. i want all the frakking excuses for being a racist, homophobe or misogynist to stop. really.
in fact, this is what i don't want to hear anymore:
'what do you want? fire everyone who says something bad?'
'it was just a joke!'
'it was supposed to be satire!'
'you're too sensitive.'
'people are overreacting.'
'nothing's going to change, anyway.'
'firing him won't change anything.'
'you won't solve anything by firing bad people.'
'he's not even the first person to say it! what about what people in their own communities call each other?'
'it doesn't matter.'
'if black people can say it, why can't other people?'
all of this, i no longer want to hear. it's all bullshit and just excuses to abnegate responsibility for being badly-raised assholes.
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