Racist of the Week

Don Imus is a racist.

When I first wrote the preceding sentence, it had an exclamation point, and was meant to read as hysteria. But he is. He has a history, I hear, of calling blacks apes and gorillas on his former radio program. Now he has called the women of the female basketball team at Rutgers, "nappy-headed hos." Before I'd heard that specific, I was all set to be sarcastic with the hypersensitive lying race-baiters, Sharpton and Jackson. They are absolute scum. I am frustrated and annoyed to have to concede that in this and only this one particular instant, the scummy race-baiting extortionist racist tag-team of Sharpton and Jackson are not, somehow, absolutely wrong the way they are about everything else. Scum.

Imus looks like an absolute freak. Really creepy. Like he's been through a fire. Just thought I'd point that out. But we can't help our faces. That cowboy hat, though. I have a history with cowboy hats, and unless you're on the range, or working in Idaho ... well, cityboys who affect country hats do not commend themselves to my approbation. All of that is mere superficiality, however.

The real point is not that Imus, like Sharpson and Jackton, is a racist. Lots of people are racists. Big deal. When the world is almost perfect, I'll start worrying about what people think in their secret hearts. Racist? So what. Racism that is a largely unspoken opinion is nobody's business. We must value in this nation the principle of free speech -- an observation so trite that it's almost embarrassing to say it. How much more, the principle of freedom of thought? The unspoken word I'm merely thinking of is "totalitarian."

When opinions are spoken, it is true that free speech is exercised. Great. But no speech is truly free. Nothing is free. Everything bears at least a hidden cost. And of course the mature among us know that there are no rights without opposite and equal responsibilities. It's as immutable a law as any enunciated by Newton. Imus had the right to be mindlessly insulting to innocent people. His bosses had the right to fire him for this. The aggrieved parties had the right to express their outrage. The race-whores have the right to prostitute themselves like the cheap whores they are. Isn't America beautiful.

There are two salient points here: civility and justice. To gratuitously pick on a team of collegiate athletes -- especially young women -- and insult them for no reason whatsoever -- that is beyond the pale. The Racist Sharpton has been known to be free with his remarks about "crackers" and "diamond merchants" -- that would be the Jews. Or maybe it was the Racist Jackson who said that. Nevermind. They are of a piece. Scum. Racist scum. The irony and hypocrisy of it, that these racist hypocrite race-baiting scum should be leading the mob against Imus -- it's ironic and hypocritical. But Imus should have been fired.

We do not stand by and allow women to be attacked, even verbally, for no reason. These young athletes do not deserve to be called whores. No public information supports the epithet. And as for "nappy-headed," it's just a rude way do describe a certain style of hair particular to blacks. Gratuitous and rude. Poor form. Not done. Bad show. The young women were not public figures. That lowlife rappers make megabucks doing exactly what Imus did is utterly irrelevant. First, the racist scum rappers puke out their hatred about all women. Imus puked about specific women, who were not public figures. Second ... well, there is no second. We hold rappers -- and black racist "community leaders" -- to no standard of conduct whatsoever. That we should hold Imus to some sort of standard is the kind of inconsistency that makes us not completely reprehensible ourselves. We need not apologize for the fact that we have the decency, however subdued, to insist that co-eds not be reviled -- for all that we do nothing meaningful about the poison of rappers and other black racists. One monster at a time.

As for racism, we have the right to be racist. Privately. But not publicly. Because the essence of racism is injustice. It took me a while to put my finger on that. Justice is not a private affair, so private racism doesn't count. It's just another form of bigotry, which is, generally, just ignorance. I am allowed to be ignorant. I am even allowed to be unfair. I'm not allowed to be unjust. That's what real racism is. What we hate so much about actual racism is the injustice of it.

Of course there are racial differences. Of course the Rutgers BB team is mostly black. Blacks are better at basketball. How dare I make that sweeping generalization? Twelve percent of the population is black; 88% of pro basketball players are black. Is it affirmative action? No. It's performance. Is it genetic? -- or cultural? I don't even care. West African blacks have a higher than average percentage of fast twitch muscle fiber. Makes for good strength athletes. East African blacks have a higher percentage of slow twitch muscle fiber. Makes for good endurance athletes -- marathoners. Is this racist? It's reality. Deal with it. Japanese have on average an IQ that is ten points higher. Deal with it. Europeans invented Western Civilization, from which we enjoy the fruits of medicine and science and technology. Deal with it. Reality is not racist, because reality isn't about justice or injustice, but about, uh, reality. There are differences. Am I a racist for knowing this? Are you?

Race is just extended family. We know this in breeds of dogs. Can we be honest enough to extend that clarity of expression to humanity? Racial differences in features are just family differences. My son looks like me. He carries himself like me. His body-type, his posture, his entire bearing is just like mine. I could see it when he was five. In a store I see parents with their three or four kids, and I just have to smile. Peas in a pod. It's most noticeable with red hair. I suppose it's noticeable with blond as well.

In any case, race is family. But the human race is family, so at any level past cousins it all becomes theoretical. There is nothing wrong with caring about your family. There is nothing wrong with identifying with those who look like yourself. And some matters do not require fairness. If two children are starving to death, and there's food only for one, I will feed my own child, and let the other one die. That's called duty. We have the general duty to protect all children, and the specific duty to protect our own. Biological laws trump social rules, and we should never argue with nature, human or mother.

So, Imus. What is his crime? It isn't that he is a racist. His power for injustice is slight. Mere opinion. His crime was his rudeness. He expressed a boorish opinion, a stupid opinion, that attacked young women who must, if anything, be worthy of general admiration. He was cheap and wantonly insulting, for no purpose whatsoever. We don't horsewhip cads anymore. Now we make due with firing them. Worst of all, Imus has caused the forces of evil to rejoice. Sharptongue and Jackoff. For this, if for nothing else, he deserves to be horsewhipped.


J