The Anger that Emasculates Black America?

Sections of society in the US, particularly the Black community and various mass media outlets have been consumed by what amounts to reckless and racially-inspired expressions made by shock jock broadcaster Don Imus, who is Caucasian on his morning show, Imus in the Morning on Good Friday morning about Rutgers University’s female basketball team, the Scarlet Knights. He apparently singled out the eight black members of the ten-person team and called them “nappy-headed hos” in remarks he made on the air chatting with his producer, Mr. Bernard McGuire.

Almost immediately, those remarks drew sharp angry responses from elements in the Black Civil Rights establishment including the Revs. Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson. Mr. Imus’ moment of contrition began almost right away with an appearance on the Rev. Sharpton’s own radio show early in the next week where the latter made it clear that the former’s apologies were insufficient. By Tuesday many in the Black community including some Black leaders who the New York Times reported as saying that “Mr. Imus has not understood the depth of the hurt his remarks caused” were not only expressing their anger openly and extensively, but were also calling for NBC, Mr. Imus’ employers to fire him for cause. The two week suspension without pay slammed on Mr. Imus by the NBC, which simulcasts his show, and CBS Radio, his primary employers could hardly assuage the anger caused by his remarks in the Black community. Rev. Sharpton who promptly insisted during an appearance on the Today Show on NBC that Imus’ suspension “is too little, too late, further called it “not really enough”.

At the news conference called by Rutgers University, the head coach, Ms. C. Vivian Stringer tearfully observed: “It’s not about them as black or nappy-headed. It’s about us as a people. When there is not enough equality for all, or when there has been denied equality for one, there has been denied equality for all”. Members of the team, who took Mr. Imus’ offer to meet and apologize, have equally expressed their outrage at his remarks.

All that anger seems to be having the desired effects for those who continue to express it: As at today, MSNBC, the cable affiliate of NBC has dropped its simulcast of Imus in the Morning, and seven advertisers have pulled their business altogether from it. Who knows what will be by the time the team gets off the Oprah Winfrey Show to which it has been invited.

If one were to go by conventional wisdom, the one would discern that the quick backlash from the reaction of prominent figures and others in the Civil Rights establishment to this ugly incident particularly amongst Caucasians would add to feelings of animosity directed at the Black community by Caucasians many of whom routinely regard Blacks as too angry. In fact, such miscast of Blacks in this regard remains a major obstacle in age-old attempts by the former to seek remedies for centuries of mistreatment they rightly feel that they have been subjected to in American society.

Without minimizing the ugliness of Mr. Imus’ remarks, some people who talked to IkengaComments expressed the view that this kind of anger expressed in the Black community, underscores the miscast of Blacks by their fellow citizens who are Caucasians. People who hold that view insist that it doesn’t do much good for Blacks. Those who hold this view argue that while such dragged out anger benefits the Civil Rights establishment, which one individual characterized as ‘shake-down-the-tree experts’, it alienates many Caucasians who could be their allies, and even tends to distract the Black community from engaging to solve some of the harsh pathologies—single parenthood, crime and prison, extensive high school drop-out rates, etc.—that plague its members.

One person pointed out the case of the Duke University lacrosse players who were alleged to have kidnapped and gang-raped a Black female stripper March 13, 2006 to buttress his argument. That incident which attracted similar expression of anger in the Black community and in the Civil Rights establishment subsequently fell to pieces when their accuser kept weaving inconsistent tales. All charges in the case were dropped only yesterday by North Carolina attorney general, Roy A. Cooper during a news conference where he said: “We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and failure to verify serious allegations”.

A few years ago too, there was the Tawana Brawley incident in New York that featured the Rev. Sharpton’s prominent role. Tawana Brawley who was a teenager at the time in 1989 had alleged that she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by Caucasian NYPD officers. At the end, a government report revealed that the teenager’s story was invented. So did Les Payne, a Black journalist with Newsday. But that was after the Black community roiled itself extensively in anger.

Anger, particularly on the excessive side is often counter productive. How different could it have been for everyone involved to have settled with Mr. Imus’ apologies, while members of the team use the opportunity of the meeting he invited them to get to him to pledge some serious contribution to and involvement in a course that targets one of the terrible pathologies plaguing the Black community for solution? Although some would consider that akin to accepting blood money from Mr. Imus, how would the destruction of his career help solve a single pathology in the Black community? There’s certainly wisdom in an Igbo proverb, which says that: uka di ire bu ndetu onu—a serious discourse doesn’t need to be belabored!

Postscript: Finally, Mr. Don Imus was fired this afternoon from his radio show by CBS. In his announcement of the firing, CBS President and CEO, Leslie Moonves said: "There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society. That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision"