From The Ramparts

Don Imus Is Symptomatic of AmeriKKKan Corporate Media

Don Imus Is Symptomatic of AmeriKKKan Corporate Media

“In a major urban market like New York City, “hate radio” unadorned, crude expressions of hatred of Blacks are a 24 hour seven days a week fare. The radio stations and hosts who broadcast such attitudes receive markedly higher ratings and are listened to by enormously larger audiences numbering in the millions, compared to their milder or even more liberal counterparts. Rush Limbaugh, nationally syndicated TV and radio personality who transparently disguises his Reaganite conservative views, anti-Black, anti-liberal attitudes as entertainment and political satire, speaks daily to an audience approaching 20 million, 70% of whom are middle to lower class Whites.” Amos N Wilson, Blueprint For Black Power A Moral Political Economic Imperative for the Twenty First Century Page 230

I didn’t participate in the flap over “shock jock” Don Imus’ comments about the Rutgers Women’s basketball team because I felt in the overall scheme of things given all that is going on in the world and his history it was no big deal. To me is Don Imus is being Don Imus, it was business as usual and for WFAN and CBS business up until all this fuss business was booming. (I saw on the Internet today two sponsors are pulling their ads off of Imus’ show). But when I saw the reaction from Black folks I was truly amazed. Why were Black folks were so upset over two crackers’ crass remarks about a group of African student athletes? How is it there is so much commotion over Imus’ remarks and such fury directed at his CBS MSNBC employers, but these same supposedly concerned Black folks give HBO, BET, MTV, VH1, Radio One and Clear Channel a free pass on their programming?! Programming which in my opinion is equally if not more offensive and degrading. How is it these reactionary Negroes are jumping on this one goofy white boy (and his producer) who have a long history of insensitivity and racism for which he gets paid quite handsomely but nothing is said about how Flava Flav and the TV “reality show" Flava of Love and similar cable shows debase black people?! How is it we can point fingers at Don Imus but ignore the crass, sleazy, duffus buffoonery that takes place on Black commercial radio every day? How is it no one is calling for a national boycott of Radio One or any of the commercial Hip Hop stations owned by whites that play “music” which routinely degrades African people, promotes violence, misogyny, espouses self-destructive behaviors and models anti-African values. What’s up with that? Are we that out of it we don’t see what’s going on right under our noses?
In AmeriKKKa and by extension the rest of the world the mass media is consolidated into the hand of a small elite. While some contend the primary function of the mass media is to provide advertisers a conduit and hook into the minds of consumers, I maintain the mass media is first and foremost a values transmitting and socialization tool. The mass media does in fact do both things, “The media constructs a message, disseminates it into society, and targets specific people in order to achieve an end result. The end result is ultimately meant to sell you something: either a product or service, or an ideology. As we’ll soon discover, the media is a business selling a product (the message), to a set of consumers (the audience). An example of the media’s intent to sell a product or service, is the commercials we watch between the segments of our favorite television shows. Those commercials have the intention of selling you a product or service. An example of the media’s intent to sell an ideology is the television show between the commercial segments. The television show appeals to your sensibilities and in turn it sells you a lifestyle. Of course, as with all things, extremes do exist in the media’s attempts to sell a product or ideology. When an extremely biased media source tries to sell you a political ideology, it is considered propaganda.” What is The Media? By UndestandMedia.com Staff http://www.understandmedia.com/art14.htm
From the vantage point of conscious Africans, the European media promotes an ideology of white supremacy and anti-Africaness. From that vantage point Don Imus and his ilk are typical and symptomatic of white media. That is why they are so popular, they do their jobs well. Don Imus is doing what he gets paid to do! We as liberation minded Africans should understand Don Imus is part and parcel to an overarching agenda of global white supremacy and anti-African psychological warfare and act accordingly. By that I mean we should not overreact to a situation like this. Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh et al are being themselves. They are making out like fat rats in a cheese factory whether we listen to them or not. The fact of the matter is, none of us should be listening to them or their black face counterparts in the first place if we are conscious and liberation minded! The role of the white mass media is to maintain the status quo and propagate global white supremacy. If you doubt what I’m saying search our radio dial, television and the Internet and see if you find any revolutionary white stations advocating the overthrow and destruction of the US fascist system? Even the most radical communist and socialists aren’t doing that! If you find one just one, let me know.
Don Imus was suspended for two weeks and as of today two sponsors have dropped the show. Big deal! For Imus, WFAN, MSNBC and in fact the whole world the beat goes on. Two weeks from now Imus will be back on the radio if not at WFAN somewhere else and all will be forgotten. But our plight in this country will remain unchanged. Africans will still be subject to anti-African propaganda much of is done by Black folks. So the question we have to ask and candidly answer is, what are we doing to liberate ourselves? What are we doing to decolonize our minds so a non-factor like Don Imus isn’t even on our radar screen? When will we stop overreacting and begin to tackle the really pressing issues facing us like how do we survive in a hostile (as Imus has so aptly demonstrated) anti-African environment. We have much more pressing issues to deal with than Don Imus. Let’s get busy on those.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 8:29 AM