LOL!

It's true that NBC has to keep its advertisers happy. I kept hearing it said that GM was the big threat. I'll cross them off the list if I decide to buy a new vehicle some far away day.

Spert- hiring based on race is racism at its finest. you got screwed. Seems like there was some firefighters in Mobile a few years back that sued for reverse discrimination & won.

In reality it's all aboiut the ratings, and Imus' ratings weren't good enough for him to withstand this.

Ever listen to the old syndicated Howard Stern Show? He regualrly had Daniel Carver, the KKK guy, on and let him run rampant with a lot worse than what Imus said about the Rutgers team. But Howard had top ratings and if anything at all happened he may have paid a fine and soldiered on.

I do wonder how Stern kept Sharpton and Jesse Jackson off his ass? Maybe he has something on them? Or maybe they just knew they didn't want to start with him...

He goofed, but should he have lost his job? I don't know about that. I'm NO Imus fan, but taking someone's livelihood is an extreme punishment for a few ugly words.

Ken, your book, "What White People Are Allowed to Say" will only be about 1 paragraph long and consist of phrases such as, "I'm sorry" "Whitey is evil" etc. Those phrases (and their variants) are the only discourse on race allowed to white people.

Putz I won't quote you extensively since Lerxcat just did above, but after saying basically that we wouldn't have white/black race problems were it not for the slave trade 150 years ago you say,

"I wasn't saying that we owe anyone anything nor should we have guilt, I'm just stating that because shit has gone down the way it has, that's the way the state of affairs is."

You then say that we should realize that of course black people can say all kinds of things that would be racist if a white person were to say them.

I'm not trying to nitpick but you DO realize that the statement that "something is racist SOLELY due to the color of the speaker" is ITSELF a racist statement!!!

THIS is indicative of the problem. Now, if I'm around my friends we will say things to each other that would offend strangers. "What's up beotch" or something to that effect. Pretty much everyone I know is like this. Around friends we say things we wouldn't to strangers. So, if some black guys says it doesn't offend him when his friends call him the n'word, I can UNDERSTAND that. I have a problem when someone says, "It is ok for a perfect stranger to call me the n'word as long as he is the proper skin color". THAT is BY DEFINITION racist.

Racism - to judge others based on their race

So, if I were a woman's basketball player at Rutger's I would be just as offended if Don Imus or Fifty Cent (I don't KNOW either of them. They aren't my friends) called me a "knappy-headed ho".

This "let's keep a scorecard for the wrongs of fifty plus years ago and some people can say anything if they are "black" enough" standard is UNWORKABLE.
Who can say what? Did you have to come from slaves to have been "historically oppressed" enough to say anything with impunity? What about recent (last fifty years) immigrants from Africa? What if you are black but your ancestors owned slaves? Where does it stop?

Call me crazy but it seems a lot more rational, workable and in the spirit of the civil rights movement to treat ALL people the same and a statement's "racism" has nothing to do with the color of the speaker!!!

My only guess is Stern being Jewish. I mean the NAACP was founded by Jews.

HAHAHA You want to blame white people for slavery? Well maybe if the blacks were not enslaving and selling each other to the whites who subsequently brought slaves to the new world we wouldn't be having this discussion. Slavery is on the only African insitution the United States ever embraced. Slavery still exists in Africa to this day, but no one wants to talk about that. Why? Probably because it's not whitey keeping someone down.

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End the occupation from Iraq to Palestine!*Does not include Tibet, Hong Kong, Lebanon, or anyone else under Communist or Islamic subjugation. They need to stop bitching.

I didn't say they were solely responsible, but they had a pretty big hand in it. You can't absolve "whitey" because their people were willing to sell their own. When does human decency kick in? Oh that's right, "whitey" didn't consider them human, they considered them wild animals. Read my post, don't read into my post. I was just saying there has been a chain of events that has led us to this place, nothing more.

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metal health will drive you mad!!!
www.myspace.com/bestleftunsaid

if you want to talk about racism and oppression, do some research on the way the irish were treated when they first began immigrating to america, youd be amazed

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jesus had a great publicist

America was built on the oppression of others, from the Natives to the Chinese. And the Irish...and the Italians...and the Mexicans...

__________________
metal health will drive you mad!!!
www.myspace.com/bestleftunsaid

Putzdaddy, the other side of your statement, convieniently left out, is that America has provided more opportunity for prosperity and freedom to more people (immigrants included) than any nation in the history of the world (several of which have existed far longer).

Now granted, racism exists. Whitey doesn't have a monopoly on racism. EVERY single RACE that has ever walked planet earth has exhibited racism at one time or another. And yes, racism is bad.

So.... what do we do about it?

On one side we have people (Putz seems to be leaning this way but I stand ready to be corrected, Putz) who maintain that we must excuse racism based on the race (and historical oppression of that race) of the speaker. Thus, when a white guy says the n'word he's a racist but when a black speaker makes the exact same comment to the exact same person under the exact same circumstances he is not. Now of course you then have problems such as "who is black (read historically oppressed) enough to have the "I'm not a racist" card when spouting racist comments.

For example, Barak Obama. Mr. Obama is half white (his mother) and his father was Kenyan. Mr. Obama has NO CONNECTION with the civil rights struggle or its leadership and thus black people are questioning if he's black enough. Is Obama "black enough" to qualify for his "I'm not a racist" card?

Also problematic with this "let's be racist to make up for past racism" solution is the question of how long? Slavery ended 150 years ago. The civil rights movement was 40 years ago. Do we continue this policy FOREVER? When does it end?

Another possible solution endorsed by myself and Martin Luther King is that we judge people based on their character not their skin color. A racist statement is what it is regardless of the race of the speaker. This standard has the advantage of being WORKABLE. We don't have to ask who qualifies or how long. We treat people based on their words and actions. If Don Imus or Fifty Cent calls a black girl a "knappy headed ho'" THAT is a racist statement and both should be condemned.

King's solution has merit, but doesn't work in the real world. I feel that everyone is racist to an extent. It's only natural to feel comfortable around your own kind. So when someone white/black/etc utters anything relating to another race, it will be scrutinized and not trusted. Just like someone on this board said "it's ok if I bag on Pres. Bush, but not Chavez"

The only thing I see is that white people have been told how evil they are for slavery etc.. over the years that theres no reaction to any insults, just yeah we deserve that.