The most shocking thing about the Don Imus story is how shocked everyone is that he said something so hateful. This is the original "shock jock," after all, a man who has made a career out of saying outrageous, insensitive, even blasphemous things. To be surprised that he hung a racial/gender slur on the Rutgers women's basketball team is akin to being surprised that a dog barks or a cat meows.
While there's no doubt Imus deserves every ounce of excoriation he's received – dressing-downs from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, a two-week suspension from his radio and cable-TV gigs, talk of his career going the way most of America thinks Sanjaya ought to go – there is equally little doubt that the entertainment industry should shoulder as much blame as Imus. He is, after all, a creation of that industry – and an enduring one at that. Don Imus has been popular for going on 40 years now not because he offers insightful analysis of the issues of the day or even witty takes on those issues. He's been popular because he calls people mean names.
For reasons well-articulated in this space yesterday, the insults in this instance are particularly unfortunate, given the personal triumphs of the women he denigrated. But it is hypocrisy of Herculean proportions for entertainment types to blackball Imus over this incident, while not only allowing, but celebrating, the very same bile when somebody else disgorges it.
You may remember, the same industry that signs Imus' paycheck awarded an Oscar for Best Song just over a year ago to a group called Three 6 Mafia that used many of the same words Imus has been lambasted for spewing – and a whole lot worse ones, too. The song came from the movie Hustle and Flow, about a man who exploits women sexually for a living trying to make it in the music business. It's called "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," and if you want to see how bad it is -- note: I am not encouraging you to do this -- you can Google the title and find the lyrics.
Can you see the disconnect here? Don Imus is pilloried for his comments – and a rap group that objectifies women just as demeaningly receives the most prestigious honor those in the make-believe business can bestow on one another. Where's the top-of-the-newscast outrage over that kind of bigoted, misogynist bilge – which fills the radio airwaves and the heads of our children every day?
Some will argue the difference is that music is art – and talk radio is not. Others will say rap songs like "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" are an aspect of African-American culture – so it's OK for blacks to say such things, but not whites. But the coarsening of culture is not an art-or-not or black-or-white issue. Each song, film, TV show, Internet or print article and talk-show comment that enters the pop culture mainstream has the potential to do good or ill. To build people up or tear them down. To offer hope or despair.
Don Imus has long contributed to the latter half of those equations. But he is hardly alone. A society truly outraged by his remarks would do more than realize that – it would do something about it.
