Drop Him Like He’s Hot

Anyone who’s claiming the the firing of beltway insiders’ favourite radio bigot Don Imus as a victory against mysogyny is deluded. He may have been canned, but all those beltway journos and sycophantic pols calling themselves liberals who’ joined in with his on-air racist and sexist bollocks are still in their jobs exercising that same ingrained bigotry in everything they do and say, even if not as explicitly as they were given licence to by Imus. Imus was the the yellow tip of a large, suppurating pustule of moral corruption.

No, this is a victory only for the forces of a corporation not wanting to be sued for libel and the desire not to have to pay out millions of bucks.

All the sudden soul-searching abouit appearing on the show by the likes of former shock-blogger Wonkette Ana Marie Cox of Time is just ass-covering from someone seeing which way the political wind is blowing and positioning herself for the new market. That doesn’t mean Imus isn’t scum and should’ve been dropped – let’s face it, when even Snoop Dogg, a self-described pimp who’s no slouch in the misogyny department himself,says in effect that you’re sexist and racist scum, I think that probably clinches it that you’re sexist and racist scum:

Snoop Dogg: Rappers’ Hos Are Different

12th April 2007 11:01:01

Snoop Dogg: Rappers’ Hos Are Different…. Rapper Snoop Dogg has dismissed comparisons between sexist hip hop lyrics and the recent racist remarks made by American radio Dj Don Imus.

Imus was suspended by Cbs Radio and Msnbc on Monday (09Apr07) after he referred to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as ‘nappy-headed hoes’ – a racially charged sexist term.

Snoop frequently refers to women as “b**ches” and “hos” in his music, but insists Imus’ use of the term was unacceptable and the 66-year-old DJ should be taken off the air.

The Doggystyle star says, “It’s a completely different scenario, “(Rappers) are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports.

“We’re talking about hoes that’s in the ‘hood that ain’t doing s**t, that’s trying to get a n**ga for his money. These are two separate things.

“First of all, we ain’t no old-ass white men that sit up on Msnbc going hard on black girls.

“We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them muthaf**kas say we are in the same league as him.

“Kick him off the air forever.”

Clever bit of spin there – not only does he manage get his licks in at Imus, but excuses his owm misogyny at the same time. Genius, of a sort, to absolve your own self while condemning someone else for the same fault. But as Joan Walsh of Salon(via Digby) puts it:

I hate the misogyny of some rap music — it’s not all misogynistic — but rappers didn’t invent sick notions of black women as sexual objects in America; those ideas have an old, old history here, going back to the days when the chains black men wore weren’t bling. As I said to Scarborough and Ridley, when we have “Snoop Dogg Country” on MSNBC, and Young Jeezy’s doing the morning drive-time show instead of Imus, then let’s talk about how rappers deserve the outrage Imus brought on himself. In my opinion, hundreds of years of the racist misogyny of white men like Imus and McGuirk are far more responsible for misogynistic rap music than the reverse. And as I type this I’m thinking, is that even up for debate? Fellas, please.

History isn’t an excuise for misogyny in rap but it does add context and meaning.

The only context of the casual hatred expressed by shock-jocks like Imus and Michael Savage, and to a lesser extent even the supposedly squeaky-clean BBC’s very own Chris Moyles, is the arrogant expression of supposed white male privilege and power.

The cult of Imus amongst beltway insiders was always, in my opinion, just so much whistling in the dark by a bunch of timid little white boys scared of a world that’s moving on without them (I hate to make yet another attack on boomers but it seems to me all these people are of a certain age…).

That advertisers dropped MSNBC of their own volition and that there was a revolt by MSNBC employees of all races against Imus’ comments supports the contention: these DJs are preaching to a smaller and smaller demographic as their target audience ages and generations coming up aren’t interested in these dinosaurs of radio and their outdated attitudes any more. They get their political news and jollies online.

Now, about Instapundit and Malkin…