The Harvard Salient -- 12 March 2007

The Harvard Salient
20 April 2007

-Editorial-

The Al Sharpton Problem

Mr. Don Imus is not an estimable human being by any stretch of the imagination. While he has certainly done his fair share of good deeds—raising $40 million for charity and running a ranch for sick children, for example—his radio show was characterized by often truly bigoted remarks, as well as a constant stream of language and commentary hardly suitable for a nationally-syndicated talk radio show. We certainly do not wish to condone Imus’ comments regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team, but at the same time, we see little benefit to anyone in condemning them. In fact, the harsh response to these particular comments was really unwarranted and a sign of not only a politically-correct culture run amuck, but one of a great hypocrisy as well.

The rush to condemn Don Imus probably would not have received the attention it did had not the “Reverend” Al Sharpton led it with such vigor. We cannot help but to think that the women of the Rutgers basketball team would have hardly given even a passing notice to Imus’ comments had Sharpton not greatly exaggerated the controversy. How ironic it is that this man, who has himself been so often accused of using racist rhetoric, would launch such a fantastic witch-hunt—and surely, this was not his first.

What does it say about our society if Don Imus can be accused of being a racist, sexist bigot and fired from his radio program for using the phrase “nappy headed ho’s,” while rap and hip-hop artists continue to make their millions selling music with almost the exact same language?

Calvin Broadus (perhaps better known by the alias “Snoop Dogg”) offered us some insight by suggesting that for rap artists, “it’s a completely different scenario.” To Mr. Broadus, whereas the Rutgers team was a group of successful black women, his songs are merely about “ho’s that’s in the ’hood”[sic]. This commentary, as inane as it is, unfortunately typifies the prevailing attitudes not only of rap artists but of many African Americans and our society in general: it is all right for a black man to dehumanize his fellow “sisters,” yet if a white man does it, a dire offense has been committed. This double standard is hardly reminiscent of the “race blind” dream of the oft-praised civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

We assert that the dehumanizing of human beings ought to be unacceptable in all circumstances, with rules that apply to all people equally. Even more disturbing is the reality that while Don Imus’ comments were mostly in jest, rap artists take themselves in complete seriousness. If Mr. Sharpton had any moral sense at all, he would go head-on and relentlessly after “Snoop Dogg” and other similar music artists, both black and white—who are a total disgrace not only to African Americans but to humanity as a whole—and stop wasting energy on the useless endeavor of taking foolish yet innocuous jokesters like Don Imus seriously.

Unfortunately, the firing of Don Imus is only the latest in a series of recent well-publicized politically correct witch-hunts. The firing of our former president, Larry Summers, is one of which we members of the Harvard community were especially aware. Here, a man whom a strong majority of students supported right until the end was relentlessly attacked by politically-correct hacks in the Faculty and national media for making what in essence was not only a harmless comment, but unlike Don Imus’s, one that was not slapdash and actually rooted in legitimate scientific speculation. But since it seems that the only legitimate use of the behavioral sciences these days is to confirm the supposed total alikeness of human beings that the foundation of our liberal society rests so heavily upon, Summers had to go. But again we see hypocrisy: had a feminist professor made very similar comments about men, it is hard to believe that the fallout would have been nearly as severe, if it occurred at all.

We like to pretend that we live in a tolerant environment where people should not be afraid to state their opinion, but what these incidents tell us is that what we really have is a double standard.

Don Imus is an uncharitable and inconsiderate brute and his intolerable radio program should never have been disseminated in the first place. Yet, decency and social order are equally subverted when such sanctimonious hypocrites as Al Sharpton can masquerade unquestioningly as a moral paragon and the arbiter of our mores. The American public deserves a more civilized and dignified discourse than either Don Imus or Al Sharpton can provide. In truth, most of the filth that pollutes our culture should be cleansed from the air waves and especially removed from the reach of our children.

Only in a society in the final stages of decadence and decay can one unseemly buffoon be punished while another is granted immunity from all censure.

-The Editors