Sticks and Stones

Radio personality Don Imus has been suspended from his radio program for two weeks as he becomes the latest in a string of high-profile persons who have fallen into the linguistic trap of using racially inappropriate language. In case you are one of the two or three people who hasn't heard of this affair, Mr Imus's offense was that he referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's."

Leaving aside for a moment the fact that Mr Imus behaved stupidly and should have known better, let's look at the predictable reaction to his comment: media hound Al Sharpton, smelling the chum of publicity in the water, immediately began santimoniously thundering for Imus's head on a platter, while other black commentators decried the racial insensitivity shown by a white man as an example of how The Man still holds down the nonwhite population. White commentators also immediately joined in denouncing Mr Imus.

Yes, Mr Imus was stupid and insensitive. But I'd find the protestations of Mr Sharpton and his ilk a lot easier to accept if they would turn the light of their denunciation on the black community as well. You don't have to spend much time on city streets or in shopping malls anywhere in the country to hear young black men loudly referring to women as "bitches" and "hos." A whole disgusting tide of misogynistic "gangsta" rap and an in-your-face "thug" culture allows blacks to refer to each other with the very negative terms - up to and certainly including the dreaded "n-word" - they blast whites for using. Sauce for the black linguistic goose is evidently not sauce for the white gander.

Where are the elder statesmen and leaders of the black community when their own people treat each other with such shabby and inappropriate language? A few years ago, the black community turned on comedian Bill Cosby when he made comments severely critical of modern black culture. Granted, Mr Cosby may have been a bit over the top with the range of his comments, but not by much. By using objectionable racial epiphets freely and loudy itself, the black community has fostered an atmosphere in which others can rightly infer that the use of such terms is okay. Where are the community leaders to set the example and get young blacks to clean up their act?

I read an article some time back in which a linguistic scholar defended blacks' use of inappropriate racial language by theorizing that the appropriation of these negative terms served to reduce their sting when used. I personally think this is asinine. Inappropriate, bad language is inappropriate and bad no matter who uses it. There's no excuse.

My mother was fond of telling us that "sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you." She was right, of course, but only to a point. Names can hurt you by creating an atmosphere in which worse things than name-calling become possible. Bad language is often used to dehumanize one's enemies (think of the "Japs" and "Krauts" of World War II, or the modern-day Islamist denunciation of Jews and Christians as "apes" and "pigs"), but it's even worse when it's used lightly to dehumanize one's friends. If you think of women as "hos" and "bitches," it's easier to make the leap from inappropriate talk to inappropriate action - it's probably easier to think of raping a "ho" or a "bitch" than a lady.

Don Imus is paying the price for his stupidity. Unfortunately, sanctimonious denouncers of white misbehavior like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who refuse to call the black community to account for the same stupidity do their community a grave disservice.

The sticks and stones of foul language hurt those who throw them as much as those who are their targets. It's long past time for responsible leaders on all sides to denounce racist and misogynistic language - no matter who's using it.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo