THE ROMAN CIRCUS

by Malik Isasis



















The conservative talking points have worked their way through the right wing echo chamber and into the corporate media, like I knew it would. It would appear that gangsta rap and hip hop is the reason Imus called the female basketball players “Nappy-headed hoes”; after all, where would a 70 year old white man learn such a phrase?

The corporate media’s coverage of Don Imus’ racist flap has caused more destruction than the bile that spilt out of Imus' mouth. The corporate media’s political operatives, their punditry, have dug in their heels and have begun defending Imus by blaming the culture of hip hop for misogyny in America, rather than looking into the systemic sickness in American culture known as white supremacy.

Take a look at the following exchange taken from an interview of Al Sharpton by Meredith Vieria of the Today’s Show; and watch out when she uses the word “sir” it usually means that a character assassination is in progress.

SHARPTON: It has to start with a standard of government-regulated broadcasting.

VIEIRA: Let's talk about accountability, sir. Because when you had Imus on your show on Monday you brought your daughter out at one point, and this really resonated with me because I have a daughter. And you asked him to look at your daughter and you said "this is not a ho. This is my daughter." A lot of people around the country understood what you were saying because so many young ladies and young men, every day on the airwaves are exposed to ugly language: to the n-word, to the b-word, to the word 'ho,' much of it originated in the black community with rap music, with hip-hop music, as you have acknowledged. What are you going to do now to immediately stop that filth that is coming over the airwaves in the way you've tried to stop Don Imus?

When Sharpton claimed that he and Jesse Jackson's group have been trying to deal with the issue, Vieira interjected: "But it's all over the place. What have you done?"

What is disturbing about the exchange is the greatness of Meredith’s ignorance. She incorrectly stated that the word “nigger” or as she referred to it “n-word”, “bitch” or as she referred to it “b-word” came from the “black community.”

The corporate media often tries and often succeed in normalizing oppression, that is, women and minorities are in the positions that they are in because of their ability. Writer Kendall Clark articulates it better, “If you can convince everyone, but especially members of the oppressed group itself, that the way things are is natural or inevitable or unavoidable, people will be less likely to challenge the way things are”

Misogyny is an American value—so is racism.

Here is another gem:

The real villains in the Don Imus bad nappy-hair day incident are the intellectually dishonest black leaders, journalists and celebrities who have shamelessly exploited the opportunity for political and personal gain.

How about this one from a so-called liberal:

And Al Sharpton says of his decision to not go on the Don Imus show, "(It) is not about courage to appear on his show. I could not tell people to don't watch him, don't listen to him, don't appear, and then go myself. I'm not in the business of creating an audience for him." Well that kind of thinking sure didn't stop Al from appearing on The O'Reilly Factor to talk about Hillary Clinton's plantation comments.

Doing What They Do Best

The corporate media has a history of discrediting and debasing black activists by portraying them as agitators, and a nuisance so that they can be easily dismissed and marginalized. They did this to Martin Luther King Jr.

There are no statute of limitations on black social activists for past mistakes, however, white politicians such as Trent Lott is able to become the new Minority Leader for the Republican Party in the Senate, four years after making an incendiary comment about racial segregation and former Republican House Leader Tom Delay who is able to write a book and make his rounds in the media and not be challenge for his political corruption.

The entrenchment of white supremacy allows for such intellectual incongruencies. Therefore, racism will remain a repressed emotion, deep in America’s sub consciousness where it will stay buried, manifesting and morphing into fear.

Harold Ford, Enemy of Black America

by Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report















The leopard never changes his spots. Such is the case with Harold Ford, Jr., the darling of the corporate media and the rightwing of the Democratic Party, who was rewarded for his fawning dedication to white supremacy with a corporate-financed appointment as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). The DLC was created in the mid-Eighties by white southern Democrats to suppress the growing power of Black voters in the South. In former Memphis congressman Harold Ford, they have found a champion - the quintessential enemy of African Americans, in blackface...read on.

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