WHEN WAS RACISM EVER FUNNY ?
4/10/07
The apologetic statement made by Don Imus about his racist remarks being comedy, was the most outrageously racist comment he has ever made. Racism is not and never has been funny. I have seen racial hatred kill people. I have seen racial hatred poison the minds of entire communities. I have seen racial hatred destroy entire nations. Why and how can anyone in their right minds think that racism is funny? Is slavery funny? Is the Holocaust funny? Is bigotry funny? Are racial riots funny? Are lynchings funny? Are murders of civil rights leaders funny? Is Aparthied funny? Is racial or sexual discrimation funny? Is Don Imus funny ?
When I was in college I had two black friends; who taught me what it was to endure racism. To be a racist at 8 years old can be cured through proper knowledge and wisdom, but racism if not caught and corrected early is incurable. It becomes a permanent part of one’s character. It is a habit of fear and hatred, that creates the infected person’s entire outlook on life. It is a malignant cancer that consumes the soul until it destroys the entire character of a person.
I have seen and experienced racial hatred and violence. One of my friends was severly beaten by a group of white men, simply because he was black. I felt rage for vengence. I have defended friends verbally, physically and publicly, against a racist community and racist individuals. Their hatred was far too personal to be excused. Their threats were too real and deadly to be ignored.
I have experienced racism as a friend of a victim, and as a victim. I have taken physical blows and verbal assaults for my defense of my friends. I once pressed charges against a Mayor’s son and his friends. The local police laughed at me, and asked me why I wanted to make trouble. They asked me if I had started the fight. My friend who was badly hurt was afraid to go to the local police, and told me not to press charges. He was afraid of more trouble. He was grateful to be left alive, and took that as a warning. After speaking to the local police, I understood the warning as well. My friend’s wounds healed, but not his emotional scares. How could they ever heal? Mine never did. The memory of his bloodied face and body and the raw hatred in the eyes of the men who beat him has never left my memory. It has never left me; because I never wanted it to. I never wanted to forget that night. The men who beat my friend were never proscecuted. They howled their threats at me after the incident , on several occasions, as I crossed a street or saw them standing together, outside one of the local stores. They knew I would never forget their faces, they knew they were protected by the local police and the mayor. They also knew I had reported their crime.
The mayor’s son was psychotic, and he did attack me one night outside a bar. He pulled a knife on me and called me a Nigger lover and tried to stab me. He caught me off guard and jabbed his knife into the sleeve of my coat. I saw red . I grabbed him by his throat and slammed his head and side of his face against the brick building. It was a reflex. It was self defense. Three of his friends who had beaten up my black friend were with him. They had goaded him on. They saw he was hurt and were about to attack me, but backed off, as several bystanders stopped to watch. One of the three friends grabbed the Mayor’s son by his arm , pulling him away from me, and they ran off down the street. My jacket had a knife tear in it , but my arm wasn’t bleeding. One of the bystanders asked me if I was all right. I replied that I was and left. Nothing happened again after that night. I left college for a while at the end of that semester and enrolled in another school the following year. I never returned to that town. My black friends left school shortly after their fight, and I lost contact with them. That racist attack changed our lives, but not for the better.
Racism still exists in all it’s horrid forms. Don Imus promoting racism in the mainstream media is a crime. It is a hate crime, and an unforgivable offense to all Black Americans. It is an offense to all women, and to all people who carry the physical and emotional scares caused by racism. It is an insult to the memory of all; who have fought and died in defense of their own dignity and the dignity of all people. NBC and CBS and any other promoters of racial hatred should be held accountable for their racist actions. If Imus is allowed to continue to broadcast on the public airwaves, after his brief two week suspension,then NBC and CBS are admitting their corporate racism, and should be condemned and boycotted by all sponsors. Anyone who is committed to racial justice must take a stand, and boycott all advertisers, who promote their products on these networks. We must make it known that we will not tollerate racial hatred to be promoted by any corporation or media. If a stand against racism is not taken now by firing Don Imus, the networks, national media, and every racist in America will be granted a green light to continue the promotion of racial hatred.
Anyone who defends Don Imus is a racist. Anyone who is willing to appear on his program is a racist. Any politician or pundit who appears on the Imus program to defend him is a racist, and is insulting every man, woman and child in America. This must be the no cross zone of our national defense against institutional racism. This must become the great test of truth, that proves who is a racist and who is not. There can be no compromise with racial hatred. There can be no moral , ethical or rational acceptance of racial hatred. Remember Hitler’s racial hatred became government policy. Remember Hitler’s rise to power would have been impossible without corporate and media complicity. If the National Media ignores or excuses Don Imus, then they are complicit and condone racism. They and we must denounce racism for what it is, and condemn all who promote it. Anyone who publicly or privately berates or finds humor in racial humiliation, or who encourages or ignores a racist threat against a person or race of people, is a racist.
L.A. STEEL
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