Black Women: First Dissed, Now Disappeared
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Posted by Jill Nelson April 10th, 2007 |
It’s astounding that in the media conversation surrounding Don Imus’ characterization of the 10 members of Rutger’s women’s basketball team as “nappy headed ho’s,” Black women - other than those Imus imagines - are virtually invisible. Even when we’re the ones being dissed and dogged, when it comes to analyzing the situation, no one much gives a damn what we have to say.
(In the interest of full disclosure, MSNBC’s Hardball did try and book me, and I’ll be on Uprising with Sonali Kolhatkar on KPFK radio Thursday, 11 am Eastern time. I’m also included on an Institute for Public Accuracy press release out today(4/11).)
It was great to finally hear from Rutger’s coach C. Vivian Stringer and the women on the team at whom Imus’ comments were directed. They’ve generously agreed to meet privately with Imus at an undisclosed time and location and hear him out. (Now that’s one meeting I’d love to take!) Still, there’s an absence of the analysis and contextualization that can only come from African American and other women of color who are journalists, scholars, activists, and thinkers less directly but no less powerfully impacted by these events.
To deny a larger community of Black women voice is to perpetrate the pretense that what happened is aberrant and anecdotal. That all Don Imus need do for absolution is apologize to the coach and her team, privately, and presto! chango! problem solved. What’s really needed are women of color to place what occurred into the context of the larger system of sexism, racism, misogyny and contempt for women that pervades the culture.
It’s the same old “race trumps gender” game that we’ve played too long in black America, a spin that surely doesn’t work for those of us who are black, brown and have vaginas. I appreciate the concern for Black women on the part of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and other Black men, but I’d feel a lot better if they gave up some of the face time and didn’t suck up all the air in the green room. Last night on ABC it was Spike Lee and WVON radio host Roland Martin. Earlier in the day, CNN featured NOW president Kim Gandy, Michael Eric Dyson, and again, Roland Martin. You’d think NOW’s Gandy could’ve suggested a Black woman feminist to address the issue, and it was disturbing that Martin pointed out the issue was sexism more than racism, challenged white feminists to speak up, which they are, but apparently felt no contradiction in speaking for black women. Don’t these people know any feminists of color whom they could suggest might be better suited to speak to the topic than themselves?
With few exceptions, among them baseball great Cal Ripkin Jr., who canceled his scheduled appearance on Imus’ show, it seems many of the good old white media and political boys are going into Voertrekker mode and circling the wagons around Don on this one. Attempts to mitigate and minimize Imus’ remarks by saying he was just trying to make a joke, repeating what he hears in the black community, simply mis-spoke, or suggesting that criticizing him is evidence of a “double standard,” or that he’s apologized so get over it, are disingenious, offensive, and reek of opportunism and the arrogance of white male privilege.
CNN reported on the presidential candidates’ response. No black women there: Shirley Chisholm’s deceased, and Carol Moseley Braun isn’t running this year. Not surprisingly, Clinton and Obama condemned, while Giuliani and McCain forgave and made it clear they’d be happy to ease on down the road to an appearance on Imus in the Morning.
It was a pleasure watching the spectacle of former Clinton employee and democratic strategist Paul Begala tie himself up in greasy knots braying about “forgiveness” and a “double standard” while debating republican strategist Amy Holmes. Begala clearly failed in his efforts to talk over and intimidate Holmes, a former speechwriter for Bill Frist and former staffer for the staunchly anti-feminist Indepedent Women’s Forum, who called Imus’ behavior “unacceptable” and said he should be deserted by his sponsors and fired. It was great for once to be able to agree with Holmes. Imus’ sexist and racist comments clearly trumped her usually deafening right wing mantras. Best of all was NewsHour anchor Gwen Ifill’s eloquent and on point op-ed in the New York Times. Ifill’s not the cleaning lady Imus once called her, but she surely mopped the floor up with him.
Still, so far it’s still a jive pseudo-apology game, as Imus’ comment April 10 - after apologizing a few times, appearing on Al Sharpton’s radio show, and receiving a two week suspension - that “I’m not going to play forever” made clear. You can toss that scraggly mane if you want, Don, but pressure continues to mount, sorry ain’t enough, and your failed “joke” is beginning to affect the corporations’ money.
The good news is that sponsors are beginning to fly the coop, led by Staples, Bigelow Tea, and Proctor and Gamble . Hopefully others - Cadillac, Jos. A Banks, Random House, Simon and Schuster - will follow. Next thing you know, the sound drowning out those chickens fluttering home to roost may be the sound of rats deserting a sinking ship.
(Readers can email Dan Mason, president of CBS radio at dan.mason@cbsradio.com, Chuck Bortnick, president of Imus’s ststion, WFAN radio in New York, at cbortnick@wfan.com; Peter Kosann, president and chief executive officer at the company which syndicates Imus, Westwood One peterj_kosann@westwoodone.com; and Dan Abrams, general manager at MSNBC, dan.abrams@msnbc.com, which simulcasts Imus. And it wouldn’t hurt to thank the sponsors who’ve pulled out for actually doing the right thing.)
At the end of a long day it was left to 360’s Anderson Cooper on CNN to bring on a progressive sister, Whoopi Goldberg, who characterized the affair as “disheartening…It’s like,” Goldberg said, “Five steps forward and twelve steps back.” Yep, and once again black women are left to bring up the rear, eating the dust of the patriarchs, well intentioned and otherwise, who’ve bogarted the lead.
April 11th, 2007 17:56
The the absence of Black women commentators is disturbing. It’s as if Black women can be the object of ridicule, but not the advocates who challenge such ridicule.
Your comment after the first paragraph did make me wonder if many black women, who are frequently asked to do double duty, have turned down some requests for interviews. Many women of color in academia are frequently expected to have high levels of service, so there is a tendency to be overbooked and overburdened.
April 11th, 2007 19:55
Thanks for this. Of course, I guess I knew intuitively there were Black women out here getting ostracized in this process - this “dialogue” - and I think in my time constraints I’ve done a poor job of seeking those voices out.
I’m linking to this now as people are monitoring my page for changes.
Thanks to Jill Nelson for your cogent writing.
Terry
www.terryhowcott.com
April 11th, 2007 19:57
P.S.
Sorry, the link is http://terryhowcott.com/greenspace.asp?id=765
Thanks,
T.
April 11th, 2007 22:00
I appreciate you bringing to our attention that no Black women other than Goldberg were interviewed regarding this latest insult. I hadn’t given it enough attention. Black women need go to the front ground and be heard respectfully. I am angry and once again fed up with white racism. I have experienced it many, many times and in many, many ways - I am not exception. I believe we all should give ourselves metals of honor at the end of each day - because when we go into the public everyday we experience, more or less, racism and sexism. We will stay in the struggle and maintain our dignity - as I was told - “we come from a long line of Queens, Kings - our African heritage cannot be taken from us.”
April 12th, 2007 10:13
Jill thank you for this insightful commentary. There are a few African-American feminine voices speaking out but like myself, they carry no media clout. The sad truth of today’s America is that unlees you are in the image of a Halle Berry, Beyonce, Alicia Keyes or Suzanne Malveaux much of black & white society views the African American woman as invisible or a “nappy-headed ho”.
There are exceptions of course like Donna Brazille, Angela Bassett and of course Oprah. But when you balance their positive images against all of the “Big Mama” & “Norbit” movies, the music industry and the broadcast media images the darker-skinned African American woman is typecast.
It is hard to imagine that Gladys Knight or Roberta Flack would get a recording contract today. Would Cicely Tyson have an acting career? And where would a Barbara Jordan go?
April 12th, 2007 15:26
Wonderful commentary. And wonderful interview on Uprising as well. Thank you!
April 13th, 2007 08:11
Well put!!! For the media to act as though there are not black women in this country that would have valuable things to say about the Imus issue and others is ridiculous. Thank you for saying what we’ve all been thinking!
April 13th, 2007 12:34
Note to readers and those who leave comments:
As per our Terms Of Use (http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?page_id=88), this comments forum is meant to be a venue for productive discussion. While difference of opinion is expected and supported, we will not allow racial slurs, gender-based slurs or similarly offensive speech or hate speech. I have deleted comments in this space that included ethnic slurs, and will continue to do so.
April 13th, 2007 12:44
[…] A must-read. Also at HuffPo. […]
April 13th, 2007 14:04
Jill, thank you for this commentary. I’ve been wondering through this whole thing where the black female commentators are too.
April 14th, 2007 20:52
Black women will need to go out into her own trenches of the city in which she resides and begin to have a dialogue with the residents who exist in her nook of the world. She will need to seek others like herself who will be willing to meet in various locations throughout her city to address what we want people to know about who we are, what we are, and where we are going, and our overall view of what we will tolerate and will not tolerate from any other group of people, including our own black men.
A movement, a grassroot campaign, I am not certain what to call this, but I am opened to suggestions. We have to be heard. We do not need a celebrity or well known individual to speak for us. Our voices as one in numbers will be loud enough and will address the call that is on all of our lives for this moment in our history. Change will happen. A monumental day stands before us, where we will set the stage for a great transformation to occur regarding the stamina and the strength of a black woman, yet you will be able to know her vulnerabilities because of her gentle spirit. This same spirit has fed, trained, and nurtured many that reside in our country today. It is time for that woman to be recognized and for people to know that the spirit that was in her lives on in us today. The mother of civilization, the BLACK WOMAN.
April 15th, 2007 22:23
[…] Part of the reason this whole thing has gotten so irritating (I swear there was an entire Dateline devoted to Imus tonight) is because it’s all talking white heads bobbing back and forth (snore). I mean, did anyone see Meet the Press?! Why aren’t more women, especially black women, in on this conversation??? […]
April 16th, 2007 10:32
It was very ironic that this incident occurred while the Duke LaCrosse Players were being cleared of any wrong doing. This morning on Good Morning America, one of the LaCrosse Players was being lauded as a “hero.” The back to back stories on Imus and LaCrosse Players by some of the media seemed to suggest that black women just may be “ho’s”
April 16th, 2007 15:53
Black Women Are Not
B**** and Garden Tools, with all this drama going on about what some ignant old white man said. Black men have got to stand up and be like “AWWWWW Hell Nah…no he did not just say that”. It is time out for ANYBODY feeling like they can disrespect Black Women. Black Women have enough problems off the bat to deal with in regards to being marginalized by society as not as beautiful as —- or they can’t do—-. So they don’t need Black men i.e. punks like Snoop Dog and any other rapper or comedian/entertainer exploiting black women by degrading them in music or entertainment to make a buck. We can only be as strong as how we treat our women. We are judged by how we treat our women. And I got to man up and admit brothers as a whole have not stepped up to the plate in regards to esteeming the Black Woman. I am not just talking about the patronizing clever word play in some spoken word poets oratory, but by deed and action. We need to make a conscience effort to defend the honor of the Black woman. In other cultures they would go to war over disrespecting their women. Now brothers be like “Whatever” and then they go back to making it “rain” in the club. No disdain or righteous anger. How Can Black women feel secure and safe in society when their own men line up to degrade them in public media forums and private situations? What that white dude (I will not give him any props by naming him by name) said only exacerbates a prevalent problem that pervades black culture, the marginalization of Black women to just sex objects. Men who disrespect women or feel the need to because they say “Well she just after the money”, are cowards and not real men. Deep down they are insecure in their manhood and since they cannot fully be a man they will not accept or deal with a black woman on equal terms. They decide to verbally bring them down to where they are..(Because they see themselves as a Dog or a N—-, that is another topic for discussion). THERE IS NEVER AN EXCUSE to call a woman a B or a Garden Tool. You should be man enough to take her under your wing and cover her, give strength to the weaker vessel, you should never expose her flaws and take advantage of them. Why? Because this is somebody’s sister, mother or future wife. The birth canal for the black race. How you gonna disrespect the womb in whence you came. Brothers, real men need to man up and put in check any of these cowards that want to feel the need to disrespect women. It is not an option. I am sick of the entire culture of pimpin’, stripping etc etc where there is a justification of exploitation of the women. BE A MAN; make your money with the sweat of your own work. We sell out our women for profit no different than we sold our selves out for profit in the slave trade. If we are to get to the next level as a people we got to treat our women better PERIOD.
Real Men Stand Up
April 17th, 2007 01:41
Mrs.Nelson,
Good day to you. Here’s my beef.
I’ve been following the story since the comments were first uttered. I WAS a 17 year veteran of the Imus in the Morning show. Over the years I was offended many times for direct slurs as well as indirect slurs. Also, my ethnic background is blended, plus I was raised to understand the pain others may feel.He was wrong and should’ve apologized. But…
If the comments uttered by Mr. Imus were so universally painful and offensive, then why do we allow prominant/famous Black people to utter the same words with no offense taken? In your last paragraph you referred to Whoopi Goldberg as a “progressive sister”. Why then is her company named ‘One Ho Productions’?
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0081445/#productionX20company
Why aren’t we protesting Atlantic Records? Some artists signed to this label include Tracy Chapman, Gnarls Barkley, Yolanda Adams, Missy Elliot, Musiq Soulchild,Vanessa Williams, the late Gerald Levert, oh yes and Pretty Ricky and NAPPY ROOTS. The last two groups are obviously in a different realm than the others. http://www.nappyroots.com/
Why aren’t we protesting Dr. Carolivia Herron? Her contraversal book Nappy Hair has been making waves(no pun intended) for ten years.
http://www.carolivia.org/nappyhair/contro.html
Personally, I actually appreciate her book.
This week I logged into BlackPlanet and found that on the webpages of the women alone, 335 refer to men or other women as n—–s, 43 pages use the term b—-s, 111 use some form of the word whore and one of the most popular songs among the young women is “Da Baddest B—h”.
All I’m asking is that before expending all of our energy “teaching them a lesson”, maybe we should “teach ourselves a lesson”.
E.D.U.C.A.T.E. and L.E.A.R.N.
End
Divisive
Useless
Comments
And
Teach
Equality
and
Let’s
End
All
Racism
Now
April 17th, 2007 08:21
Duane,
This post is Jill Nelson’s second post about the Imus affair — her first post very specifically references misogyny in hip hop and in larger culture as well, and makes the case that we need to attack the structural roots of racism and sexism. Read her first post.
April 17th, 2007 12:45
Dear Administrator:
You chose to respond to my comments for Jill Nelson by assuming that I had not read her first comment. That was a mistake. I had read her comment and responded to it as well as this one.
In ‘making the case that we need to attack the structural roots of racism and sexism’, you should begin by either addressing the content of my response, whether by supporting it or denouncing it, or you should present a defense for the comments made by Jill Nelson in this article. You chose to promote Mrs. Nelson’s comments in another article and ignore my points made regarding this one. In boxing they call that “bobbing and weaving”.
Hiding behind the title Administrator, with no more than a vague reference to your age, is at best a shoddy attempt to be mysterious and honestly, pretty cowardly. Review the websites that I posted and ‘in your own words’ create some “productive discussion”. If you believe your opinion and want to express it that much, wear the title Administrator like a badge of courage not a swastika patch.
April 17th, 2007 13:27
Duane,
In Jill’s first post, she addressed sexism and racism in corporate-sponsored hip-hop culture, which is why I suggested that you read that post.
The reason I assumed you had not read her first post is because you wrote, “If the comments uttered by Mr. Imus were so universally painful and offensive, then why do we allow prominant/famous Black people to utter the same words with no offense taken?” It makes little sense for you to imply that Jill lets anyone off the hook for racism and sexism, as in her first post she makes it very clear that she does take offense at misogynistic and racist degradation of women of color throughout corporate media, regardless of who it is doing the degrading.
As for the “administrator” title, it’s automatic unless I remember to go in and edit the comment to reflect my name. I’ll do that now. Jennifer Pozner, by the way - I manage this blog.
By the way, even if I wasn’t Jewish — which I am — I would not appreciate your offensive reference to swastikas, equating me with Nazis simply because I signed a comment as the administrator of this blog. If you really want to, as you said in your comment, “End Divisive Useless Comments And Teach Equality,” perhaps you shouldn’t call people Nazis. Just a thought.
April 17th, 2007 20:37
Thank you so much. The fire in your belly is refreshing. I added the swastika coment after 10 mins. or so of serious soul searching, wondering if the term that I considered using would be too offensive or just spark the conversation that we should be having. It did give you pause, I’m sure, but please understand that I was just making a point. That point is that the balance beam between Freedom of Speech an being insulting is as thin as dental floss. If you, as The Administrator of this blog don’t find offense in Jill Nelson’s comment in this article, specifically the phrase “…it seems many of the good old white media and political boys are going in to Voortrekker mode…”. Comments like this one referring to CBS and MSNBC executives as well as some of Don Imus’ regular guests, compares them to a small group of farmers that managed to kill almost 3000 Zulu Warriors in South Africa. Ref. “The Battle of Blood River”.
My “swastika” comment was as offensive as her “Voortrekker” comment which was equally offensive as the “nappy headed ho’s” comment. It ends when we feel offended by any offensive comments not just the ones directed at people of color or women.
My two beautiful daughters, both gifts from God, are 25% Jewish. Their Great Grandmother was in the concentration camps and suffered as others did. I apologize for using a slur as an example, just to prove a point. It’s not in my heart to offend. Forgive me, please.
Women in Media & News is a perfect place for me to learn about how women think and feel in regards to a variety of topics, but it should not be a sanctuary for commentators that spew vile and hateful conversation disguised as meaningful dialogue.
August 14th, 2007 14:49
[…] Long-time, loud-and-proud bigot Don Imus was fired from his national radio gig after a controversy swirled in response to his calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “some nappy-headed hos” last spring. […]
June 11th, 2008 21:34
[…] When radio personality Don Imus made his infamous attack on the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, NCWO’s intersectional assemblage of institutional players proved its strength in keeping the heat on the media — not just on Imus’s bosses, but on the talk shows covering the controversy, most of which initially covered the incident solely as a race story, discussing it on panels composed completely of men. The Women’s Coalition for Dignity and Diversity in the Media, led by the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, maintained pressure on television radio producers until the cable TV and radio producers began booking more women on their panels, results that have sustained themselves through the presidential primary season. So much for the failure of intersectionality in advancing the interests of women. […]