Imus: how to judge a racist

What should one make of American shock jock Don Imus? He is in every kind of trouble for describing a predominately black women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos".

Over here, of course, we had the Ron Atkinson incident. The former football manager's commentary career was over after he called Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly a "lazy nigger" while, unbeknown to him, the mike was still on.

When incidents like this occur, I reach for Malcolm Gladwell's seminal post on racist comments.

Gladwell uses three criteria for judging dubious comments.

First, content:

What is said clearly makes a difference. I think, for example, that hate speech is more hateful the more specific it is. To call someone a nigger is not as a bad as arguing that black people have lower intelligence than whites. To make a targeted claim is worse than calling a name. Similarly, I think it matters how much a stereotype deviates from a legitimate generalisation.  For instance, (and this is, admittedly, not a great example) I think it's worse for someone to say that Jews are money-grubbers than it is to make a joke about how Orthodox Jews have large families.

Atkinson's lazy niggers comment clearly falls at this fence. But Imus? Nappy-headed isn't really the problem, but "hos" is. Depending, of course, whether he was using a silly piece of slang or actually accusing them of being whores. Which brings one on to Gladwell's second point.

Intention:

Was the remark intended to wound, or intended to perpetuate some social wrong? Was it malicious? I remember sitting in church, as a child, while our Presbyterian minister made jokes about how "cheap" Presbyterians were. If non-Presbyterians make that joke, it might be offensive. But a Presbyterian making jokes about Presbyterians with the intention of making Presbyterians laugh is fine, because there is a complete absence of malice in the comment. I think that Richard Pryor or Dave Chappelle's use of the word "nigger," or the Jewish jokes told by Jewish comics fall into the same category.

Atkinson's remark was not intended to be heard at all, but it was certainly meant as an insult. Again it falls.

With Imus it is, once again, a bit more complicated. He clearly intends to shock, but I don't think he wanted to wound. Nevertheless, it was at the very least, monumentally idiotic of him not to realise that a white man picking on black women would offend.

Then there is Gladwell's third criterion - conviction

Does the statement represent the individual's considered opinion? This to me is the trickiest of the three criterion. In Blink, I wrote a great deal about unconscious racism - how powerful and how prevalent it is. All of us, in our unconscious, harbour prejudicial thoughts. (If you don't believe me, I urge you to take the tests at www. i-a-t.org.) What is of greatest concern, I think, are not instances where those kinds of buried feelings leak out, but cases where hate speech appears to have been the product of considered, conscious deliberation.

Unlike Atkinson, Imus knew he was being heard by his public but the remarks were not considered ones. Do they represent the real Imus? Who knows.

Ironically, given the example used by Gladwell earlier, Imus recently referred to a music groups "Jewish management" as "money-grubbing". He is obviously not a paragon of racial awareness. But it does not appear that he has a long record of anti-black remarks.

So, using Gladwell's criteria Imus's comments would seem to come at the milder end of the spectrum. To do nothing would be wrong given his insensitive stupidity. But an inordinate fuss isn't right either.

CBS's two week suspension seems about right.

Comments

[David Anthony]

Are black rappers racist for using the same language? It doesn't fall into the same category of, say, a Richard Pryor.

[Evorgleb]

I still have mixed feelings over the whole Imus ordeal. Part of me believes he's getting what he deserves and the other part of me thinks its really that big of a deal. If you haven't seen it already, you should check out this story over at Highbrid Nation. The guy who wrote it worked at WFAN with Imus and gives some interesting insight into whether the man is really a racist or not. You all should check it out if you get a chance.

[IRJMilne]

I still don't agree with the treatment of Atkinson on his comment. Just as with Patrick Mercer, the army, football, these environments inherently tend to be a dash harsh and bullying. Stupid liberals always misunderstand the intent of these sorts of comments anyway. They can be quite offensive and impolite, but I am sceptical of all allegations of racism based entirely on words rather than actions.

"Nappy headed hos", meanwhile, well, I don't see what it has to do with black people specifically; I think it's quite a nasty thing to say and I'd suspend him from my radio station if I owned one, but I'd expect more politeness on a radio station I owned than is conventionally found in the mainstream media.

I see a lot of these cases as I saw the Incitement to Religous Hatred Bill. You could prosecute people under Incitement to Murder, otherwise, let off, not nice but that's all. In these racism cases, it's either impolite or maliciously nasty, or neither, in which case let off.

I wouldn't talk about "niggers" because it's not a word I was brought up with. But making people feel harassed about things that they've been brought up to see as perfectly normal will always just tend to make them resentful. The kind of thing that builds BNP support. "Hos" seems nastier to me; but maybe that's just my reaction to a vulgar modern word?

[John Hanna]

When Imus attacked particular people in the past with racist and or homophobic comments, these attacks were against public figures and the audience was able to make a specific judgment as to relevance.

Of course, he went over the line in attacking black women in general so the comment is blatantly racist. These young women were attacked gratuitously and and had no means of defence and in fact, are now known to be unassuming role models for perhaps what we might want our daughters to be and who strived against the odds of racism to get there!

Imus is a racist pig..and now has lost his job completely. A happy day!

[David McGregor]

IRJMilne, perhaps you should refrain from commenting on things of which you clearly no little (nor bothered to look up). "nappy-headed" is a reference to the tightly curled hair of some people of African descent. *That's* what it has to do with black people specifically.

[IRJMilne]

David McGregor - I replied on Atkinson and point of theory and felt compelled to mention this Imus person since it was the main subject of the post. Well, what I said stands as far as I'm concerned - it sounds sort of nasty but from what I read here I think the first part of the description inaccurate and the latter insulting but merely an abusive neologism rather than a racist slur.

On the other hand, the post before yours suggests this man had previous. My contention is that what he has said here does not alone prove he is racist, even if you go so far as to say he's a fairly nasty person.

[Pat Mueller]

In addition to calling the young women "nappy-headed ho's" he also proceeded to call them "jigaboos." Is that enough of a racial slur? I would say that calling someone a nigger or a jigaboo makes you a racist, but that's just me.

[John Richards]

So, racism's is a black and white issue? I think not!!Try Darfur,try India, with it's "caste" system.As for slavery apologists,who kept it going for hundreds of years?,and still do...the Arabs.So as a "whitey" I say stop being selective and choosing us,you "white middle-class media "trash".Write about the rest of the World, who endorse racism,and do something about them.Malaysia,where "all" business's have to be 51% owned by Malays,not the indigenous Chinese population.As for Indonesia...well Aceh province,New Guinea, ex East Timor etc.
Food for thought,and that's just a sample of "racists" who aren't brought to book,by the white middle class media.
Wilberforce as a "hero",don't make me laugh.Just an early replica of Bob Geldorf,jumps on a bandwagon."Hey Bob,how about giving away some of your £22 million to charity?"No chance.
Have a bad day!!

[Angela]

Wow. "Hate Speech"? Is this anything like Orwellian "thought crime" and "Newspeak"? So what if someone makes a racist joke! Believe it or not there are reasons to be racist, people are not all the same, many supposedly "racist" claims are scientifically accurate, and even if none of the above is true---why, in this day and age, are people not allowed to have their own opinions? If a black person hates me and calls me a cracker--do you think I really care--even if he calls me a white ho, it doesn't matter to me at all, it is his right to hate me for whatever reason he wants, just as long as he doesn't intend on doing me any harm. We all think thoughts deep down that could by some liberal somewhere be construed as "racist" anyway (unless you are completely delusional), suppressing them from being said aloud is an oppression of freedom of speech. "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"--Patrick Henry