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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks,Tim. I can't imagine there's anything
more that needs to be said on subject Imus after reading
that.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>g</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=timlohr@yahoo.com href="mailto:timlohr@yahoo.com">Tim Lohrmann</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, April 13, 2007 10:39
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Jason Whitlock on
Imus</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV id=storyDate-Links><SPAN class=pubDate></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=pubDate>From the Kansas City Star</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=pubDate><A
href="http://www.kansascity.com/182/v-print/story/66339.html">http://www.kansascity.com/182/v-print/story/66339.html</A></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=pubDate></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=pubDate></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=pubDate>Posted on Wed, Apr. 11, 2007</SPAN> </DIV>
<H1 id=storyTitle>Imus isn’t the real bad guy</H1>
<H2 id=sub_headline>Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black
leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.</H2><SPAN id=byLine>By
JASON WHITLOCK</SPAN><BR><SPAN id=creditline>Columnist</SPAN>
<DIV id=storyBody>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Thank you, Don Imus. </DIV>
<DIV>You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.</DIV>
<DIV>You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend
that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the
most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally
televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to
respond to your poor attempt at humor.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we
can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude
ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than
eradicating our self-hatred.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The bigots win again.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock
jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers
basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or
Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and
hos.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have
the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk
killas.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our
youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and
overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in
this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive,
pro-drug dealing and violent.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait
for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of
repeating the things we say about ourselves.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make
racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed
as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black
people, and we all laugh out loud.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted
me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks
and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this
whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for
Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate
themselves and their agenda$.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.</DIV>
<DIV>Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on
Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental
rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her
players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian
Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team
had.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with
virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season.
Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered
the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized,
already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain
intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat
to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive
and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot
rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use
words much more powerful and much more destructive?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point
glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men
shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be
a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners
that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their
race if they do?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is
what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not
looking to be made a victim.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta
rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to
negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no
money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it
out.</DIV>
<H3><A href="mailto:jwhitlock@For">For</A> previous columns, go to
KansasCity.com</H3></DIV>
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