Don't worry about Imus, he's not a racist.

[Catherine Vincent]

We're just simpletons who misinterpret his jokes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=600454&mesg_id=607046

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. I know, but he doesn't like Clinton.

Now that's a real issue.

:rofl:

[koopie57]

3. well, if I were Clinton

I would think that was a good thing that he didn't like me.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. I doubt Clinton cares much, one way or another, how Imus feels about him.

[Deep13]

2. Thanks for calming my worry of Imus' perceived racism.

:rofl:

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Wow! There's an awful of simpletons on DU! How did we ever survive

without the genius of durrrty libby??? :eyes:

[Strawman]

6. Racism isn't a personal problem

To be honest, I don't see where a discussion comparing the level of racial prejudice in Don Imus' heart compared to this or that RW talk-radio butthole gets us. They're not "more racist" because they're assholes and he's a nicer guy with some black friends or because he does some charity work that benefits African-Americans.

Setting aside the debatable issue of Imus' niceness. Lot's of "nice" people are racists. It just doesn't matter. He outed himself as a racist. My worry I guess is that something like this happens, we get rid of Imus and the racist langauge, as a matrix of practical reason, survives. Maybe it gets recoded into new more subtle language, maybe it is understood by whites that the old language can't be expressed publicly, but the racism always survives when it is understood as a personal problem of individual prejudice. The lesson most get here is that you just need to be a more subtle racist. You can't say that shit on TV or on the radio.

I'm not sure what the solution is, and I probably haven't made my point all that clearly, but I always feel like there's a lost opportunity, and a teaching moment that passes when these kinds of incidents of transgression occur. There's a ritualistic public expression of shame and regret that is isolated to one individual and that's about the end of it.