Prometheus 6

It seems there's a crew of people than scan teh Internets for less than approving references to Imus. Having just posted one , the shock troops paid me a visit. It was enlightening.

Before I get to the point, let me dismiss a few things. There is obviously a guerilla marketing aspect to the response. We got referred to

http://imustruth.typepad.com/index/
http://www.supportimus.org/

I'm not annoyed at these guys because they're pros doing a job. But if your purpose in responding is to drop that link, I've saved you the trouble so you can move on.

The volunteer shock troopers are more varied in how annoying they are. The people who came to chastise Richard Lipez were funny as hell. Not only do they miss the fact that I am not Richard Lipez, a couple were like, "you're white?" and "I bet you never experienced racism," when, had they actually read the linked article to the end

Richard Lipez writes the Don Strachey gay private eye novels under the name Richard Stevenson

they might have figured out he has reason other than racism for his concern. The funniest guy seems to not only have decided I'm Mr. Lipez, but that Mr. Lipez isn't Mr. Lipez.

Richard Lipez is not Black

On September 1st, 2007 bvb720 says:

Mr. Lipez has a real name. You will find out that he is 2 years older then Don Imus. And is a far left author. You will find his bio here.

http://members.aol.com/fanspage/richard.html

But he seems to censor people. What does one expect from a man going on 70 year old.

Good God get a grip Richard.

And a Happy Saturday to you.

You got your accusation in. You don't have to read any further either. What else?

Right...one of the devowelled comments led with "Give me one example of Imus saying someting racist." Go to Media Matters and search for Imus. Come back in a week when you're done reading. And someone else was all

There are only 2 million+ of us. What are you afraid of? Your arguments should stand up against ours if they have any merit.

Two million + times, from scratch each time, right? Bite me. You get one time, when you come coherant. Get your two million people, show me they all agree on your questions and send them to me.

Anyone who says something really stupid like "Words aren't racist, people are!" gets banned from teh Internets for life and bitchslapped if I meet them.

There were two folks that posted comments worthy of engagement, keeping in mind

The only thing I don't understand is why it's so personally important to you all. Is your entertainment so important that racist language is a-okay, even knowing racist language is socially damaging?

BurtMP, in response to ptcruiser's mention of the Jena 6, said

Obviously what happened in Jena is absolutely hideous. There remain awful people, and sadly there probably always will be. But please don't use one small example and think all white people are the same.

In a now classic post I wrote

And not to put too fine a point on it, but "racist" is the only word that makes white people as crazy as "nigger" makes Black people. It makes them crazier. White people don't want to hear you talk about ANY white person being racist. They'll start telling you how many Black friends they have.

This is why the volunteer shock troopers volunteer. It's a sincere defense of self. There has never been an unequivocal presentation of racist behavior by a public white person that was not followed by a grass roots defense surging forward, demanding second chances, demanding the right to be offensive, to see being offensive as a positive trait.

And in Imus' case it's even more understandable. The thought process goes, "I'm not a racist...how could I be a racist's fan? I'm not, so he's not."

But that you'd call the Jena 6 problem "one small example" shows the huge gulf between Black and white folks' perceptions. Further, it is a survival skill for Black folks to be able to sort white folks into racist and non-racist. You really don't have to worry about middle class Black folks thinking all white people are the same...that's common to the folks who are sufficiently segregated from you to allow you to see the Jena 6 as one small example.

Then there was Dave Ruden

i am guessing most people calling imus racist have never listened to his program. alot of the time the point was to offend people. fat people, unattractive people.. jewish.. irish.. catholic.. black.. hispanic.. asian.. in the words of kinky friedman "is there anyone i missed?"

Uh, yeah. WASP. Thank you for illustrating the point.

no one on either side of this is ever going to say.. "oh.. ok..i see your point." but take a look at imustruth.org and see the discussion imus had with the widow of Bishop G.E. Patterson.. about a month before he was fired.

In a now classic post I wrote

And not to put too fine a point on it, but "racist" is the only word that makes white people as crazy as "nigger" makes Black people. It makes them crazier. White people don't want to hear you talk about ANY white person being racist. They'll start telling you how many Black friends they have.

Thank you for illustrating the point.

i think richard pryor and don imus were trying to prove a same point.. but i am white.. so i could be wrong. maybe i don't get it.

To which I have already replied.

All this is going on 141+ days after Imus went off the air. I had no idea the response to just a link and a sentence would be so intense, but it's been educational.