Every morning as I get off my graveyard shift, I count the days I have left to graduate and curse the day I was left on my own to pay my way through school. As I pull out of the parking lot I tune in to Imus. Whether it was the skit on Ray Nagin or the parodying of a pill-popping Hulk Hogan, Imus has made me smile and made me forget about my miseries; every weekday morning for the last three years. This morning the birds stopped chirping and the rush hour seemed to be a menace. The laid-back and relaxed voice on the radio was replaced by the venomous barrage by Revered Jesse Jackson who is upset because television is "all white all night." The great Don Imus has been sacrificed on the "altar of political correctness and race relations" in America.
As I was following Don Imus' indictment, trial, sentencing and execution in the courts of the "Reverend Twins," I wondered what is this all about. It is not about free speech. The double standards for free speech were set the day the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. It was not about misogyny. In spite of his occasional gaffes about men, women, heterosexuals and homosexual, Don has always scored well with the ladies. It was not about race because the Rutgers basketball team is made up of both black and white players. So, was it about hate? Surprise! Yes it was about hate; the hatred for Western Civilization.
When Kamau Kambon (a Professor at a North Carolina State University) called for the genocide of white people, I wasn't shocked. After all, I have been a witness to a condoned and growing trend of advocacy for violence against white people and desecration of Western Civilization. Whether it was the protests in London calling for the murder of white men and rape of white women or it is the usual Hip-Hop glamorization of the thug culture and assault on women's dignity, everything is alright as long it is the "crackers" who are on the receiving end. The same students and faculty who took part in candle-light vigils and protests against the "Duke University rapists" were nowhere to be seen when the supposed "rapists" were acquitted earlier this week for "not raping a black woman." Instead of apologizing for his promiscuously filthy remarks against the three Lacrosse players, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton utilized their time and resources to capitalize on the gaffe of an old white man who has devoted his entire life to the cause of children and grown-ups, both black and white, who are suffering from autism, cancer and other curses of Mother Nature.
Kamau Kambon is still a Professor. The protesting Muslims of Europe still mock the impotency of their hosts. Snoop Dogg and his fellow thugs still rap about the tough gangster lifestyle they don't live. The Duke progressives are busy enrolling for their African-American History and History of Feminism classes for the summer semester. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are buried under their own hubris for their successful whack-job on Don Imus. And, the Don himself just lost all he had achieved through his career, for making a stupid remark that no one cared about for two days until Media Matters realized its exploitative worth.
Through all this, I hear calls for a need for dialogue on "Race in America." So, can anyone suggest to me how we could categorize Professor Kamau Kambon's call for violence or the blind accusations against a bunch of white kids whose only crime was underage consumption of alcohol, as a "dialogue?" Isn't the "Liberal-Progressive America" already having plenty of dialogue on "Race in America" and that too on their own terms? What more of a dialogue could they want when they can get away with just any thing they have to say that a decent person won't say even after downing an entire bottle of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey?
Entire institutions have become bastions of hatred against Western culture, values and civilization. Being neither white nor black, I was caught in the crossfire between political correctness and liberal education when I came to college. Being an outsider who was unaware of the American Liberal Education system, my reaction was "you got to be kidding," when my academic advisor drew a long list of courses (approximately 36 hours) related to African-American history, Feminism, Sexuality, Tolerance and Racism in America that I needed to take in order to graduate. I asked my advisor, how come it’s Liberal education when you are forcing me to take courses that I am not interested in. I was more eager to take advanced calculus and mathematics courses to improve my career prospects, using the scarce financial resources that I had. Her response was equivalent to: "shut-up and do as I say." Over the next two years I was a victim of Liberal education. I was tormented by being forced to read Ward Churchill essays and writing reviews of Spike Lee films. For me, what was "just get the credits and get the heck out of here," for the white kids those were two years of repenting and a reminder of the evils of Western Civilization, upon the virtues and values of which, America was built.
It is a sin to explore an alternative understanding of Race in America. If anyone dares to part ways with the institutional beliefs, there is a heavy price to pay. I was an A-student in my American Cinema class. Thanks to my usual clashes with the instructor, I passed with a B in spite of having straight A's on all exams. My instructor once mentioned how racism still persists in America and cited the example of a whites-only high-school prom in a small Georgia town. Coincidentally, that day I went back home to read Patrick Buchanan's article on the whole controversy. The next day I presented a copy of the article to my instructor. She wasn't visibly furious. But, her furor was evident the day I got my grades. She used a dormant departmental rule to reduce my grade for three absences which were fully excused by her in the first place. I protested all the way up to the program head Dr. Maricarmen Martinez; but it was a sail against the winds.
Don Imus became just the fodder that feeds this sadistic anti-Western culture. Imus, who is known to have been supportive of numerous black figures like Harold Ford Jr. and Barack Obama, was dumped by them in his time of need, in favor of the political fallout from the entire non-controversy. Everyone from Sen. Hillary Clinton to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann rushed to pick up the pieces like birds of prey. The very person, who was among America's 25 most influential individuals just a week ago, became the fossil fuel for so many political and other ambitions. Don Imus' gaffe was just what thugs like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Hillary Clinton were looking for to boost their Political vantage.
Race in America isn't a social issue. It is more of a Political Issue. Huge voting blocks and chunks of cash are at stake. Individual like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and institutions like NAACP, ADL and others have undemocratically claimed guardianship of the minorities in America. They claim to have psychological and mental control over the minority voters in the voting booth. Thus, it isn't the minorities themselves who the Politicians need to address; but they deal directly with individuals and institutions that run the franchises for wholesale lots of minority votes and issues. Just like there are elections every couple of years, these minority franchises have to invent minority-related incidents and controversies when there isn't one to be exploited, in order to retain their control over the pulpit of minority affairs.
The whole sham is shielded under the cover of "Civil Rights." The only known credentials of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are those of marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. So what? There were thousands of others who marched alongside Dr. King. But, those thousands others aren't as conniving and enterprising as these two thugs. These two individuals have exploited their "Civil Rights" credentials beyond all imagination. The issue of concern isn't what is happening. But the issue of concern is that while the media, the politicians and certain sections of the white community themselves condone it sometimes; they turn a blind eye towards it at other times, either out of political correctness or out of political gains to be made.
The victims of the sham are not the white or the black people. The victim here is the healing process that was supposed to have brought together the two major ethnic groups of this country after decades of Government-endorsed segregation. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have to remind the black people every few days of how vile and racist the white community is; and that they are fighting for equality and "Civil Rights." On one hand they condone civil threats like Snoop Dogg and other gangster rappers whose "work" promotes a thug culture in the black community at a macro level, while on the other hand they are on the lookout for a Don Imus to make a stupid remark that is nothing more than a term out of a fifth-grader's social vocabulary.
The other victim of the whole incident is the Rutgers Basketball Team itself. I have a hard time imagining how someone would be scarred for life by being subjected to an unexpected yet stupid expletive. I once remember my roommate from Bombay (India) return home laughing about what just happened. He told me that some white kids in a pickup truck called him Osama. I laughed back and asked him what he did about it. He waved back at the kids and asked "hey what's up." While I laughed it away that day, I never thought that I would think of that incident again, ever in my life. The whole Imus-Rutgers affair once again reminded me of my roommate's calm demeanor and maturity. One really does not have to stoop to the irrelevance of a stupid remark. There are some very important things in the world that should be scarring us at this very moment, like global strife, corrupt governments and vile individuals like the "Reverend Twins." By being told to grieve for the stupid remarks of a Radio Show Host, most of whose listeners are middle-aged white Americans, we are cultivating a highly vulnerable generation of individual who will someday in charge of this country.
While most people may be compelled to say that Don Imus' remarks were really evil, I beg to differ. Don's remarks were just what he was paid for, for nearly four decades. His reckless commentary and stupid humor are what people tune in for. It was just what the corporate sponsors of his show paid for to get slots during his show. A stupid remark that is just one in a long series of lots of stupid remarks did not set these corporations' board rooms on fire. It was the days of blackmailing and threats of picketing by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson that forced the corporate sponsors to part ways with Imus. Imus may have worked hard enough to have a comfortable retirement. But, as he admitted on his last show, he does not need a job. He did what he liked doing the most and we the listeners did what we liked doing the most every weekday morning; to tune in to his show and start our days with a smile on our faces. He may not be doing his show anymore and we the listeners will have to juggle with our other options of morning talk shows. While everyone moves on, I wonder who will be the next target of a Sharpton-Jackson whack job.
April 18, 2007
