Nappy Headed Status Quo

[omega minimo]

There is a great opportunity presented by the uproar over the bigoted slurs used so sloppily and casually by a nationally broadcast hatemonger. The boil of bigotry on America’s ass has been lanced and what oozed out was not pretty. A nation caught with its pants down and forced to face in the mirror the assumptions and attitudes that we sit on, day after day, decade after decade, with varying levels of discomfort....

It’s no longer possible to keep those attitudes in the dark and deny their existence or laugh them off as “entertainment.” The outrageousness and the outrage has finally reached a tipping point.

Yet the opportunity is obscured and could be lost when attention is shifted to the small arguments and black and white thinking that professional media hatemongers have conditioned the American public to engage in and expect. A public with short tempers, short memories and short attention spans are easy to manipulate.

Two decades of social progress segued into the rise of Reaganism, the fast-tracking of corporate and media consolidation, the end of the Fairness Doctrine and the Backlash against women and other subgroups whose progress threatened the status quo. Another quarter century passed and those combined forces led us to the moment when a syndicated schlock jock/political wannabe chuckled over the appearance of a collegiate team of champion athletes who happened to be women, many of whom happened to be African American.

With all his power to broadcast his bile and belittlements, propped up with visits from prominent politicians, the poor man was baffled by the sight of youth, vitality, power and achievement in the form of women with dark skin. The image did not fit into the limited repertoire of acceptable cliches formatted into his mind and his audience-- a repertoire of cliches limited to those that serve the needs of the owners of the company he worked for.

Which boosts ratings? Which serves the status quo of the powers that be? Praising the winning team of athletes as athletes and not even noticing or mentioning their color and gender? Or ridiculing, insulting and dehumanizing them and their achievements?

Attacking them with bigoted slurs puts them back in their place, maintains the status quo and inflames the audience. It’s a win-win-win!!

The companies that own and operate national hatemonger media (where right wing blowhards complain about “liberal” media that Lush Rimbaugh now calls “The Drive-bys”) also happen to produce and market the formulaic corporate music that the public is supposed to blame for injecting hate speech into the mainstream. Unable to connect the dots, we are expected to argue about rappers making big bucks and if they can say it why can’t anyone else and why are they allowed to say it and what about censorship and he’s not the only one that does it and why was he singled out and he’s not the only one that does it and why do we put up with that?

And it’s all good for ratings.

The offensive schlock jock was not fired for political or moral or social reasons-- it was a business decision. The media octopus doesn’t mind lopping off an arm-- it will just grow another one.

Some of those arms work overtime to make sure that styles and demographics stay rigid and regimented; that the limitations on appearance, participation and perceived power are kept in place; and that the public is divided along artificial and obsolete boundaries, lest they wake up one day and notice that the game is rigged. Wake up and form a team, a powerful group that takes on the status quo and wins.

[volstork]

1. Pleased to recommend

such an eloquent and incisive post

[omega minimo]

2. much obliged, volstork

:thumbsup:

[SemperEadem]

3. the one thing that keeps getting lost in this Imus controversy

is that both Imus and his boys, McGuirk, Rosenberg and Ruffino, were being sexist in their remarks against both of the teams. True, a hideous detour was made into the ugly realm by all of the racist name calling, but between disparaging Rutgers' team, they turned around and sexually objectified Tennessee's team:

"IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --

McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know. (fuckable, Imus? Is fuckable the word you're looking for, you old, nasty, shrivelled up ass?)

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

IMUS: Yeah.

McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes -- that movie that he had.

IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough --

McCORD: Do The Right Thing. { Note: No,the movie was School Daze, but far be it from any of them to know Black Films--and this scene was in context to the whole movie)

McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

IMUS: I don't know if I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah.

RUFFINO: Only tougher.

McGUIRK: The Grizzlies would be more appropriate.
_____________________________________________

So because Imus, McGuirk, Rosenberg and Ruffino couldn't get a woody from watching Rutgers' team, they were deserving of disparaging remarks? And that was these women's duty to take the slander without grievance why? How?

And because Tennesee's Lady Vols were 'cute,, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know', it was ok to sexually objectify them because these overgrown teenagers thought that maybe, just maybe, they could possibly, just this one time achieve a hard on? And that is these women's duty to them why? How?

[omega minimo]

4. Absolutely

So many aspects of this reveal -- blatantly!! -- the truths that have been argued right here on DU. This is the face and voice of white male privilege, of the winners over the losers, the topdogs over everybody else.

As soon as I heard the comment about "cute" without seeing the team, I got an image of Elle from Legally Blonde. As long as those girls fit an image that these bastards can categorize and relate to in terms of how it affects their own (waning) power (i.e doesn't challenge it) then that it status quo.

"With all his power to broadcast his bile and belittlements, propped up with visits from prominent politicians, the poor man was baffled by the sight of youth, vitality, power and achievement in the form of women with dark skin. The image did not fit into the limited repertoire of acceptable cliches formatted into his mind and his audience-- a repertoire of cliches limited to those that serve the needs of the owners of the company he worked for."

You're right-- and the casual Master Race attitude of the bastards was striking enough to make the dismissive attitude toward the "cute" team get lost in the shuffle.

Both the "jigaboo" and "wannabe" cliches are used to prop up the impotent status quo.