Truemors
America is a mentally ill nation that refuses to accept it's own blatant contradictions. While conservatives as well as progressives proclaim America, bias-free, traditional American ethnic bias continues unabated. Even in media that purports to represent ethnic minorities in the United States.
As I have written before in a series of articles for the now defunct French-language African cultural magazine "Racial Crisis," I pointed out that historical ethnic bias and institutionalised Eurocentric racism in the United States was as pervasive on the oppressors as well as the victims of said oppression. I went further to point out that racial attitudes amongst communities subjected to ethnic marginalisation are generally mirrors of the predominating social system rather than biases engendered by direct experience.
European colonialism and imperial control especially under the British in the 1800's utilised "Divide and Conquer" to greater effect in India, Africa, Western Asia, Nepal, Tibet and the Americas before and during the Revolutionary War against the English Crown. These practises cannot be divorced from the current trends within American social biases and the fact that generations of American citizens have been personally affected and indoctrinated by traditional ethnic biases established by the European cultural paradigm from first contact in the Americas up to the present day.
Minorities are not immune to ethnic bias against other minorities. (i.e., zealous American Catholics eager to denounce what they perceive as anti-Catholic bias) This is not to say that such individuals are "racist" as "minorities" do not generally wield the economic, legal or military force to impose their collective bias against other groups aside from isolated cases of ethnic discrimination that leads to denial of services or criminal cases of assault or intimidation. The socio-political power to employ "reverse-discrimination" simply does not exist in any great measure aside from doltish biases and ill-tempered language.
The latter is the current crux of the problem. In the hail of condemnation following remarks from shock jock Don Imus and his subsequent firing by CBS, the real damage of America's ugly history of racism is ignored as "good, clean fun."
Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Medved, Debbie Schlussel and a host of other neo-conservative pundits spew racially-tinged commentary on a daily basis in every media form available without being called on it except by those media outlets outside of the corporative news world. The fact that such bias goes on unabated is not new. But the face of such bias is now becoming increasingly Brown.
Michelle Malkin, Shelby Steele, Armstrong Williams and many hosts of predominately African community radio stations are little different than their media counterparts in ridiculously bigoted language and insinuation on the matter of ethnic parity. And while it is all to easy to list these people as "Uncle Toms," this gets us nowhere. Why would the victims of racism now espouse those very same biases, many of which would by default apply to them as well?
Franz Fanon documented the psychological damage colonialism does to the colonial subject in great detail. I will not go into the details here as I strongly suggest that the reader take the time to review the book. But I will go on to the suggest that such a framework exists for understanding why so many of us are buying into this system of racism. For African radio hosts to use the same language as those who have marginalised us is telling of the self-hatred that has been installed within us after centuries of abuse at the hands of the colonial society that to this day steadfastly denies a racially-biases origin that serves as the basis of it's internal social policy.
Eventually this continuation of the American hate ethic will swallow this nation whole. And the brainwashed on all sides will be responsible for the outcome such ignorance engenders, nurtures and struggles to keep aloft. Ethnic bigotry only works for the system, not those caught up in the system.
And that includes you and me. - The Angryindian
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From Intelligentaindigena News Blotter:
Hypocrisy in Media: 101 - In a bit last week on Miss Jones in the Morning, the show on New York’s Hot 97. The hosts were talking about a recent controversy involving Jennifer Lopez and her new Spanish language album. Miss Jones’ male sidekick said "That bitch ain’t really Puerto Rican. She can’t even have a baby." Irony number one: This comment was made in the middle of what historians may later term "Don Imus week." Irony number two: I actually didn’t hear the joke live. I caught it later in the day in a promo in which Hot 97 replays the funniest bits from the morning show.
So I am not surprised that black shock jocks, including the often hysterically funny Wendy Williams, didn't jump on the anti-Imus band wagon. The New York Times had this interesting article on the rules on racial humor on the radio. One of the rules is that the joke has to be actually funny. Rule number two is that cross racial (or gender or sexual orientation) humor can be funny, but it’s a more tricky proposition. The Imus and J-Lo jokes fail both these rules.
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