 shit for brains Wednesday, April 11, 2007 getting back at the blog after a few day respite from the line. been getting my shit ready for two shows which take off in a few days. The Art of Photography Show in San Diego, California and closer to my neck of the woods, Exhibition 280 over in Huntington, West Virginia. it's a big deal to me to be involved with this shows and getting prints ready and framing and all that goes on with the whole fine art thing can be taxing for a white trash muthercracker like me. i also got my article for the latest Light Leaks scribed as well as applying for a state arts fellowship...more on that...eventually. um, i guess i should comment on the latest cry of racism involving a 'celebrity' since, as someone who has been involved in talk radio in my past and someone who has been known to say offensive things in hope of a.) getting a laugh and b.) making a point about the power we give words, i have fairly strong opinions about the whole matter. first, let me say, don imus = bad radio. the last time anyone cared what imus had to say about anything was sometime in the early 80s. he is out of touch, old, white and rich. to use, as a defense, the whole 'rappers do it, comedians do it, oops!' thing is borderline retarded (sorry if that offends any mentally challenged fans of gotreadgo btw). yes, we get it, there is a double standard between what folks of different ethnicities say about their respective ethnicitiness. (that is a fucking mouthful!) should there be this double standard? no--but basic humanity, long standing wounds, various morays, actual racism and many other variables dictate that this double standard exist. is don imus a racist? who cares? he makes a living entertaining right-leaning sales reps who spend their mornings in their cars delivering units of mr. bubble, viagra and tongue depressors. you don't like don imus' radio show...find another one. don't buy product from folks who sponsor his stupid show. it is really easy to show how you feel about anything he says. stop listening. fuck the whole racist witchhunt, you are only empowering the real haters. imus is at least 3 times as old as any rapper who chortles about hoes, bitches or nappy heads, but does that mean he can't find that language humorous without being an actual racist? i think we can all agree as a nyc/dc based white radio personality he may have shit in his own lunch box by going down the path that he did. but the bigger question to me is how do we move beyond the hypocrisy of the whole debate without addressing the double standard? honestly, there may be a good argument out there that black culture and social commentary put forth by black artists, comedic, musical or social is meant for a primarily black audience, therefore, they have ownership of the words and meaning and for whatever reason, other races are not privy to the complex culture innuendo of the use of racially-charged language...i just haven't heard this good argument. do you honestly believe that the rutgers female basketball team was 'hurt' by anything that imus uttered? what was the hot button phrase of this two-part epitaph? 'nappy-headed' or 'hos?' would one part cause the same controversy as the other? i've heard the suits debating the whole stigma of 'nappy-headed' being a racial slur and 'hos' being strictly a black female putdown right up there with 'bitch' and what strikes me about all this discussion is the power that we are giving these words--only because a dried up old white guy used them. is racial-charged language only powerful when whites use it? no, if that were the case then black entertainers wouldn't bother. they (the words) are powerful laugh getters, social motivators and, obviously, hold more than a slight bit of entertainment value. hardly descriptors you might bandy around for something known as hate speech...yet hard to deny for anyone of any color that this kind of speech might be classified, and rightfully so in some cases, as hate speech. i offer you this. these statements have less to do with race at all, actually much more to do with class. 'nappy-headed' is more about poor blacks and even some whites who didn't comb their heads while 'hos' implies prostitutes. imus also mumbled about tattoos and prison in his attempt to make his audience laugh. btw, class jokes are always completely acceptable by all, any color...case in point. jeff foxworthy's whole 'you might be a redneck' schtick. though, innocuous, dumb and downright mostly unfunny, there is still an underlying theme of reliance on the wink, wink, nudge, nudge of underclass, southern white people being stupid, nuckle-draggin', procreators with washing machines on the porch of their trailers. universally 'okay' to make fun of this segment of the population, without any cries of racism, sexism or even the obvious, classism. you might say, 'but tread, blacks have a nasty history in the u.s. the scars run deep because of the racism.' i would agree wholeheartedly with your statement...then offer that low-income poor white folk have more in common with blacks and other minorities and their historical plights, than they do with middle and high class whites. would i get through to you or would my assessment be viewed merely as more racism from whitey as i try and diminish the effects of historical racism on blacks? my point, there is no easy answer, imus is an idiot, this current debacle does little to confirm what i already knew about him. racism still exists, we all to some extent, white, black, red or yellow still perpetuate it in varying degrees. we are never gonna address any of the 'isms' unless we address some of the ones we ignore daily. think for yourself. reach out to individuals and build on that and fuck all the global hyperbole from people who point fingers based on someone's verbal faux-pas. stop giving words power by whining and griping. our history sucks...let's keep moving. i'm an equal opportunity offender. it is so much safer that way. flush. holga. arista ultra.edu 400. 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