Can we talk about Imus like adults?

Without letting the conversation descend into juvenile taunts?
Without posting rap lyrics? (Since most of us here would probably agree that some rap music is misogynistic and homophobic).

I see the other thread is locked. Maybe the topic has run its course. But in the last couple of hours I've learned that three companies -- including Staples -- have pulled their ads from Imus' show, and there have been pretty of spirited arguments in the NBC bunker. Al Roker and others are calling for Imus to be fired.
Maybe it's different where you live, but around here, this controversy has created interesting dialogues in schools, gyms, news rooms, coffee shops and clothing stores -- five places I happened to visit today. It's all anyone was talking about, and most remained civil. So maybe something good can come out of the muck, and we can engage in a national discourse about offensive language.

 

This will end up locked.

 

Why? Why can't (mostly) journalists discuss what obviously is an important subject without throwing tantrums or calling names? Even the meat heads in my gym were civil in their disagreement over how offensive the word "ho" is.

 

Well that's good then.

I think it's significant that advertiser's are pulling away from the show, but the question is, how long does it last? With the way society is now, there's a chance all of this gets forgotten in a month, they come back, and the world keeps spinning and the money machine moves on.

Boycotts and protests get forgotten when another scandal breaks next week.

 

Imus' comments were partially crossing the line between comical and just plain ignorant. IMO, the words "nappy headed" set this whole thing off. "Ho" is not a bad word alone, and would not have drawn as much fire as including the first part. He singled out a race, and that is what got Imus. If he said "curly haired" or "blonde haired", I don't think we would have as big of a problem on our hands as him using "nappy headed".

 

It's hard to discuss here because when posting under a fake name, some of us show off our real, assholish self.

But I'm hoping this thread can stay nice and on-topic, rather than sidetracked by idiots.

Good for those ad buyers. I hope more follow. And I hope stations drop the program.

I don't necessarily think Imus should be fired. But I think the results of his foolishness should hit him in the pocketbook.

 

I found it interesting to hear how many newsrooms today were passionately arguing over the proper spelling of "ho." Ours is going with ho's, so it doesn't look like hoes; my insistence that it should be hos because the word is short for whores was shouted down. This isn't conversation sports rooms usually hear.
We did have a similar conversation last year when I wrote about Jeremy Shockey's use of the word ho, but I lost the argument then, too. Headline said ...Ho's.

 

Unfortunately, ginger, there are too many here who will turn this in to yet another pissing conest.
There are others who will say this has been overblown and has run it course and is now only a New York thing.
Realistically, as Essence Carson said this morning, we have become too desensitized to language that should be considered offensive, that should make people -- especially women and, more specifically, black women -- angry.
But instead of intelligent discussion on the language, threads here have degenerated into accusations of racism and attacks on Imus, Al Sharpton, and certain posters.
If, indeed, advertisiers are pulling spots from Imus' show, that will become the most effective way to say this behavior and this language in unacceptable.
But as long as the John McCains of the world say he apologized, he's been suspended, it's time to move on, the issue will stir more argument than intelligent debate.

 

Apologies to Gingerbread, but that is an absurd thought.

Calling a woman a Ho is to say they have no purpose but to please men sexually. It's equally, if not more, deplorable than the racist comment.

 

We've tried to do it as adults, but there are a few too many loose cannons running around here, plus a certain poster got into it with one of the moddys. That's why the original thread got locked earlier tonight. Actually, he caused two threads to get locked with the name-calling and bantering. What I need to say is that adults act like kids and can be childish and boorish regardless of their age.

I am not ashamed to say that I am guilty of the rancor as well. After all, I was the one who started the thread when I asked about it.

Spnited pointed it very well about the desensitization of offensive words. We're have become so used to them, it's part of our daily lexicon. Jason Whitlock, hate him or love him, was dead-on correct on how bad the black community has gotten by letting some of this stuff (degrading words towards women) continue to get a free pass.

Quick story: back in high school, a classmate of mine came into the locker room mumbling to himself. I asked him what's wrong. He goes off about on how many times the 'N-word' was used among fellow black students (both of us are black). He said that he as long as he is alive, he will never used that word again, because not only it was hypocritcal to say it and get away with it, but it was demeaning to other blacks. It was showing disrespect to those who fought to be given the rights that my generation have today. We were taken everything that has happened back then for granted. My buddy and me were history buffs and were smart enough to realize that.

To this day, he has held true to his declaration. I didn't understand it at first when he said it, but I started to see what he was talking about. The words we use carries a lot of weight, inappropriate or not. I respect him to this very day for taking an unpopular stance.

The "ho" reference is easy to dissect: it demeans women. The "jiggaboo" reference is the one that disappoints me a great deal, because it's still being used to describe blacks in a negative way. That's the other part of the this topic hardly anyone has touched is that word.

Right now, I'm plum worn out writing about it or even seeing it on the telly. The ladies need to be left alone, Sharpton needs to stay off every channel, and let Imus finish out this week and let him take the two weeks suspension and serve them in New Mexico. I know Headbutt is going to monitor this one very closely, and I wouldn't blame him to lock it quicker than you can say "Hibachi!"