One thing has really been bugging me about the coverage of this whole Don Imus thing - everyone keeps talking about how racist a comment it was, but almost no one has mentioned that it was also very sexist. Now, I haven't been following the coverage very closely, because, frankly, there are far more important things happening in the world. But to a certain extent it's unavoidable if you listen to the radio or watch TV at all (I do far more of the former than the latter), and I've only heard one source - and I'm happy to say it's National Public Radio - note that the phrase "nappy-headed ho" is disparaging not only to African-Americans but also to women.
This is not splitting hairs, and it's certainly not to minimize the obvious racism in the statement. But too many people ignore sexism or insist that it no longer exists, and when one of the the most popular radio personalities in America uses the word "ho" people seem to care only about the phrase that preceded it.
If he'd just called them ho's*, would there be this outcry? I don't doubt that the Rutgers women, who have handled this whole thing incredibly well, would have still been angry and expressed their frustration. But would there be this same outcry from so many others? I really wonder.
*There is just no way to write that word so that it's grammatically correct. I tried.
No comments:
Post a Comment