Good News Friday

Multiracial Families increasing - America is becoming more diversified and more of a melting pot, day by day, year by year. The more prevalent "race-mixing" is, the less chance that bigotry will develop.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18090277/

And when you have some time, dedicate a moment to reading through Unruly Mob's posts- There's some damn fine bloggin', right there ...
http://unrulymob.blogspot.com/

Imus fired. No need for a link to this story. We all know the details. But arguing back and forth on C&L's comments on this story, I found a lot of white progressives who care more about their ability to call someone jigaboos than they do about the effect of public racebaiting.

Now, far be it from little a ole' redneck whiteboy like me to claim to know much about racism- But, I know my racist family and I know that black people sure have a lot of strikes against them in my part of Texas. I know I can get a job easier than any black guy here in Lubbock, that's the truth.. I know I can get paid more than a woman.

I hired a couple of black guys when I was working for the family business and my dear old dad was out of town. Boy, dad was pissed. He didn't even find out that one of them was on parole for armed robbery until about 3 months later. He couldn't even talk, he went apoplectic. But U.T. was the best applicant, and I could give a shit less about a man's past when he has served his time. Both the guys I hired ended up being some of our best employees.

Even though I had to separate U.T. from my brother one time in a racial incident involving a co-worker of Mexican descent (U.T. defending the co-worker due to my brother's racism). He did call my brother a "big cornfed-looking cracker motherfucker" but U.T. ended up keeping his job. Partly because fistfights were a monthly incident between my brother and others (including me) and partly because I think my father was scared to fire U.T. Hey- one time where prejudice prevented a firing. Woo-Hoo!

U.T., like me, was big on racial awareness. We both admitted to our own racist tendencies- even though we worked hard to get past the racism that had been passed down from both our families. U.T. liked to call himself a nigga's nigga. He was hardcore. We got along fine. We didn't bullshit each other and we treated each other with respect. I like to think we learned a lot from each other. Who the hell knows. But enough about the inner workings of redneck corporations...

Certain things stick out in Progressives defense of Imus from the C&L comments:

1. Nappy headed isn't a racial insult. Uh, it sure as hell IS- dating back to the use of "nappy" hair as a key defining element of why Africans were supposedly SUBHUMAN and less than white people. It doesn't get more racially insulting than that, does it? Worse than the word nigger, anyday, in my book.

2. Black people can insult black people, why can't we? This one just causes anyone of rational thought to kind of stumble, like How-fucking-stupid-are-you? Uh. Well, it's really ignorant to insult your own race, but sometimes I do it myself. But somehow, if a black guy calls me "snow" it's more demeaning than if my fellow crackers do it. Go figure. Plus, we haven't quite reached an equivalent ground, black vs. white yet. Black people are not using these terms to insult their whole race, most of the times- usually they are picking out certain members of their race. But from my firsthand experience, when a white guy starts calling random black people niggers, jigaboos, porch monkeys,etc= he is definitely berating each and every black person in existence. And these terms, used over and over and over work to creating a stereotype in white peoples' minds: That black people ARE inferior.

3.Rappers say worse stuff. Yep. They do. But on public radio, they are censored.

4. Sharpton has said worse stuff. A lot of white people hate Sharpton, for a lot of reasons. But I think mainly its because he reminds us white people that racism still exists- and guys like him are working to improve black people's lot. So why is that a problem? I doubt that Sharpton is going off on jews on a daily basis on his show. If he did, he'd be fired in a heartbeat. So this is a bullshit argument. Don't hate the messenger. Sharpton didn't get Imus fired. Americans complaining to CBS and corporate sponsors did. And employees of CBS complaining as well. If anyone said what Imus said at work, in public- he'd be fired.

5.But the freedom of Speech, man- This isn't a freedom of speech issue. If Imus wants to make a comedy album doing 1000 sexist racist jokes- he can. A government official didn't come in and arrest Imus. His employer fired him. Your freedom to do things stop when they hurt others. His speech, whether you may believe it or not, in your change-the-channel white world- hurts ALL african Americans and women. His tone and his usage were not comedic jabs- they were hateful insults hurled with vitriol.

6. But what about Rush? Coulter? Beck? What about em? This is good news- a shot across the bow of the good ship S.S. Racist RightWing Fucknut. Tone down your appalling obvious racism or the American public will light a fire under your ass. Why defend Imus while attacking Rush? Cause Imus isn't "that bad?". He was bad enough. And if Imus can get fired for this- Rush CAN Get fired for his comments.

So, It was a good day for racial tolerance yesterday.

UPDATE: Angelo over at Progressive Chicano has Maya Angelou's take on it. I believe that she has the right to have the final word on this- and it's perfect.
http://progressivechicano.blogspot.com/2007/04/caged-bird-singsbeautifully.html