Were Rush’s Slurs Against Black America Not Cancellation Worthy?
I received an extremely interesting email this morning pertaining to the train-wreck that is Rush Limbaugh:
Hi,
Rush Limbaugh’s radio show is a part of the Clear Channel lineup. Let’s send a message to them that no longer can they allow Rush Limbaugh the opportunity to spew hateful and sometimes derogatory comments. Sign the petition and help get this done.
That’s why I signed a petition to Communications / Media Relations: and Communications/Media Relations, which says:
“Sandra Fluke, a law student at Georgetown University who was advocating for health insurance plans to cover the cost of contraception, became the target of a series of attacks by Limbaugh. Besides calling her a “slut,” he also called her a “prostitute,” said that he wanted her to make sex tapes and post them online, and speculated that she only had a problem paying for contraception because she was having “so much sex.”
We who support Ms. Fluke, find that this is a serious offense enacted by Mr. Limbaugh and we ask that his radio show be terminated.”
Will you sign this petition? Click here:
Thanks!
Now, I wholeheartedly agree. Limbaugh is a waste of air space and an embodiment of the hateful rhetoric and dangerous unsubstantiated “facts” that divide the United States and vilify sub-sets of the population.
There is just one small problem here though:
Where is all of this outrage when Limbaugh relentlessly attacks Black America? Yes, Black America, as a monolith. When he throws out generic, racist stereotypes to define all Black people, who protested? More importantly, how many advertisers jumped ship?
Not one.
Where was the outrage when he called first lady Michelle Obama “uppity” and supported her being booed at a Nascar event? Where was the boycott when he suggested that she was overweight, unattractive and hypocritical for advocating for healthy living when “she obviously doesn’t follow her own dietary advice.”
Why weren’t sponsors and listeners and Republicans angry when he referred to the 44th President of the United States of America as a “bi-racial oreo?” Where were the emails and petitions when he depicted him as a burglar breaking into the home of a wealthy white man?
Advertisers had no problem selling beds and flowers between monologues by recurring character, Bo Snerdley, who touts that he is certified to speak on Black issues because he has a “heavy dose of pure, unadulterated organic slave blood” before proceeding to speak with perfect diction then shifting to “ebonics” so the “hood” can understand him?
What about when Limbaugh told a Black woman caller to “take the bone out her nose and call him back?”
Or how about when he said that the NFL looked like a shoot-out between the Bloods and the Crips without guns?
Or when he said that Black people are only “12 percent of the population, [so] who the hell cares?”
The list goes on and on, but the recurring theme is that jokes and insults about Black Americans are perfectly acceptable, but when you start calling people “sluts” we have a problem.
Something is seriously wrong with that picture.
And no, it’s not the fact that a white savior more cliché than anything that could have been conceptualized in “Cadillac Records” or “The Help” didn’t swoop in and save Black America from big, bad Rush. The dual issues staring us in the face are immense and telling of the psychological damage we’ve experienced in this country:
1.) We have allowed ourselves to become so apathetic and marginalized that no one takes us seriously in leading roles outside of villains, crackheads, gang-bangers and baby mamas. We’re always called in for the assist like the good ole’ Black supporting casts of yore.
2.) We’re so used to being beaten and whipped from the plantation to the polls to the airwaves, that we just take the blows and keep going – because they bounce off the scars.
Statistics are thrown our way on affirmative action, on Black-on-Black crime, on Black children born out of wedlock, on incarceration, healthcare and education disparities, yet, when it gets down to the get down, there are no rallies planned on our behalf – unless it surrounds a government sanctioned murder (Troy Davis) in one the most backwards, racist states in the Union.
I understand what the author is saying but the problem is that there is a significant amount of black people who are not invested in the community or do not see these assaults by people like Rush as an attack on them. There the ones quick to point out that “there are more important issues” or they just do not see it as a race issues, (they could be called n****a to their face and they would say “well black people say it too”), there is an air of complacency that is suffocating. Some of it can be blamed on a younger generation that has become unaware or insensitive to racial slights ironically as a result of the work preceding generation of blacks. Some of it can be blamed on immigrant blacks who have a different perspective on race that is not in tuned with racial sensitivities in America. Bottom line is not everyone is on the same page in the big book of race history in the United States and it has put a shadow on the united front stance. If other groups perceive us as disorganized and uninterested in our own well being why would they care about issues that effect us?
Tonton I have to agree with you..I believe people are so used to it(racism) that they no longer care..They don’t see the need to speak up for they don’t believe a change will come of it..Unfortunately time and time again history has shown to repeat itself..As we knock down one wall another is built back up more complex than the other..
I am not sure if I would label his comments attacks on Black America. While I agree the man has majors issues with women and minorities he can honestly say anything he wants about public figures like Barack Obama. However he does need to leave Obama’s family alone. They should not be attacked because he disagrees with Obama’s Politics.
I personally have never found myself offended by the ish this man sprews because I am not invested in the opinions of others. I do not care what some racist white man thinks of me. I have one life to live and I do not have time to worry about the opinion of strangers.
Very rarely do I get upset by others voicing an opinon…whether it is about someone black or not. My kneejerk reaction is not to jump up screaming and shouting because someone said something bad about someone black. While the world at large might see black people as monolithic I do not.
As for the georgetown student….she is white and she is female. Even if the masses did not come to her aid the feminist would and they hold alot of power in our country. That is the difference between them and us. Power does not just come from large numbers….It comes from shared ideology. Again that is the difference between them and us. With us too many want stay victims while others like myself hate feeling sorry for oursleves and move away from that failed ideology.
Let me change something about my opinion…
I do feel compelled to speak out against this nonsense when the target is black women, but otherwise I am not moved to any action. And I think this is largely due to the realization that the race does not have black women’s backs so I do not feel compelled to defend the race. I do not feel compelled to defend a group of people who for the most part are noticeably silent when the target is black women.
When black women are singled out I am ready to fight. When black men are singled out I am indifferent. When black people in general are singled out I am indifferent.
Hope that makes sense.
It makes a lot of sense and I agree with you, Toppin!
Toppin:
With regard to your second comment, I used to defend black men like my life depended on it, but in the last few years, I noticed I stopped. I have become increasingly indifferent to them as a group. Ninety-five percent of the men I love most in this world are black, but as a group, I cannot be bothered. I guess after years of falling on your sword for a group and the message from said group is ‘I will disrespect and despise you’, one needs to move on.
In a strange way, it saddens me to read this is a feeling shared by others.
“We have to be careful. We have to be careful that we don’t keep bending our knees and using our strength to uplift others without expecting any reciprocity. We have to be careful that we don’t assimilate to the point where everyone else’s problems become our own, but when the issues are Black-specific, we find ourselves standing alone.”
I think Black folks are just a tad bit late on this line of thinking…
“We need to stop piggybacking on everyone else’s grievances as a way of getting restitution for our own, because it’s not coming.
More importantly, we have to stop asking who’s going to fight for us, if we’re not willing to fight for ourselves.”
…And this is precisely the reason why I take issue with certain people trying to compare their struggles to the Civil Rights Movement. They are all gung ho in making their voices be heard, but when it comes to supporting actual issues that Black people face, ironically those same characters are nowhere to be found!