Don Imus is history.
When the hysteria clears away, most of us will realize it is time to be very, very afraid. We will look back upon this as a time when all sense of proportion was lost. All agree Imus’ comment was way out of line, but the response has been even more over the top.
When Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are the ones leading the outcry over a racially insensitive remark, this is where I get off. Sharpton has been handled with kid gloves for too long by the media and politicians currying his favor. He is the same guy who was involved in the disgraceful Tawana Brawley case long after he knew she was lying. He was in the vanguard of those who rushed to judgment against the Duke players falsely accused of rape. Sharpton is a provocateur of the worst sort.
And while we are seeing things clearly, let us also be certain about The Rev. Jackson. There was a time when he was a rising young star in the civil-rights movement, but that has long since gone. It passed for me when Jackson called New York "hymietown," a remark that cost him nothing more than an apology — the kind he couldn’t accept from Imus.
Together, Jackson and Sharpton are no more than racial ambulance chasers, each racing to the scene of some perceived injustice, no matter how slight, each seeking the rewards of basking in the spotlight and mouthing fake outrage.
When Imus asked, "When can we expect Al Sharpton to apologize to the Duke players?," we knew the answer. Never. Sharpton never lets truth get in the way. He just moves on to provoking the next street fight. Sharpton is routinely allowed to inflame passions without regard for the racial tinderbox in which we live. To see these two for what they represent is not to excuse what Imus said, but to place this whole sad affair in the correct context. This is what they have allowed the once-proud civil-rights movement to become. For, as comedian Bill Maher remarked recently, "Civil rights must be doing better than I thought in this country, if this is what they are spending their time protesting."
Imus is a straw man in this racial soap opera. His ability to hurt the Rutgers team and other African-American women with his slur is dwarfed by what the hip-hop culture does to them every day, blaring the message about degrading young women that is drummed into the heads of young men. Oh yes, Revs. Sharpton and Jackson say they are just as angry at the Snoop Dogg culture, but I see no protests in the streets outside rappers’ homes or recording studios. I see no effective pressure against stores carrying their garbage. I see no decrease in the obscene profits they reap.
If Dr. King were around today, he would be going after the people who have really degraded African-American culture, not some 66-year-old white New York talk-show host whose influence on that culture is almost nonexistent. The old civil-rights leaders are gone and the new leadership is even more effective at wielding economic power. It showed when it forced sponsors to bail out on Imus and drove him off the air. But Imus wasn’t creating the violence in inner-city schools. He wasn’t selling drugs to kids on street corners or intimidating people into keeping silent while their neighborhoods are taken over by drug pushers. So Imus is gone. So what.
Where is the mobilized outrage over what is being allowed to happen to good people trying to raise their kids and lead a decent life in America’s inner cities? And I don’t mean that phony bluster when Sharpton or Jackson run for president every four years. We went from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Al Sharpton — that’s sad. We went from fighting for the right to vote to fighting for the right not to be offended — that’s sad.
While all the media attention was on the flap over the Imus firing, a more important story received little attention. There has been a surge in America in interracial marriages. Our young kids just don’t think race is all that big a deal anymore. That’s why there’s an African American who has a good shot at becoming president. That’s why most young kids weren’t laughing or even listening to the I-Man every morning. That’s why Sharpton and Jackson are probably in the twilight of their careers, too. In fact, as a friend said to me, they should be fired too, except they don’t really have jobs. That’s why in 10 years, we’ll wonder what the hell the fuss was about.
