I don't know whether calling the Rutgers basketball ladies "nappy-headed hos" is a mean old white guy's racist slur or an artful parodic jest on the way black women are talked about by black men -- or at least by the ones on the record charts. After all, the only way mean old white folks know the expressions "nappy" or "ho" is because they heard 'em from hip young black folks. Indeed, one could argue it's a tribute to how non-racist America is that an elderly Caucasian would wish to talk like a gangsta rapper.
He's right. There are many contextual levels of meaning involved here and attempting to force this whole thing into the standard white racist/black victim template obscures, rather than clarifies the issues at stake.
It's a good rule of thumb in American scandals that, no matter how big an idiot someone is, the outrage over him will always be more idiotic.
Again he's right. As soon as the reflexive posturing starts sanity goes by the wayside.
And saddest of all were the Rutgers basketball gals themselves. Almost a century and a half after the abolition of slavery, 40 years after the civil rights era, a group of young black women who've achieved great success went on TV and teared up because of a cheap crack by an over-the-hill shock jock. As a female correspondent to the Powerline Web site commented:
"Here are these tough women on top of the world and they are so fragile that a remark knocks them down. Hey, why wouldn't they have said 'F--- you? Who the heck is this fool Imus? We are queens of national basketball and there is no stopping us now. We can be and do anything we choose to be or do. . . . We don't need Al Sharpton to protect us. . . . ' But no, they look devastated and say they are damaged irreparably.''
And once again Steyn shoots and scores. The whole point of the grievance industry is to convince people that they are mere victims, incapable of functioning in this cruel world without the constant protection and advice of the hustlers.
Read him here.
Meanwhile, George Will has a piece on Jackie Robinson, whose courage and determination helped to change the nation. He doesn't make it explicit, but the implicit contrast between this great man and the whining "victims" and cynical hustlers of today is striking.
Read it here.
