COMMENTARY: Facing the problem of our present past Chester Jones, Apr 23, 2007
Chester Jones
By Chester Jones Special Contributor
"For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me." (Psalms 51:3)
The problem of our present past, as the psalmist David says, is ever before us. The problem of 'America's original sin,' racism, keeps showing up in our Church and society.
The focus now is on the reprehensible statement made by Don Imus about the players from the Rutgers University women's basketball team. Mr. Imus' broadcast on MSNBC and CBS Radio, in which he called the Rutgers' players "nappy-headed hos" clearly crosses the line on freedom of speech.
No one has the right to attack our young black women. What would possess Mr. Imus to think this was an amusing way to describe the Rutgers University women's basketball team? Why would it occur to him to say such a thing, even in private conversation, much less to millions of listeners on CBS Radio and the MSNBC cable network? The simple answer would be racism, the problem of our present past.
Sin of racism
Mr. Imus has repeatedly apologized, saying he was sorry, that he did a bad thing, that he knew better and yet said it anyway. To deliberately go against what you know to be right is a sin; in this case, of white racism. To attack these young women so viciously, who have worked so hard to represent their university in the NCAA finals in basketball, takes our breath away. What these young women have accomplished is quite an achievement.
Most of these young women, because of their race, are already working against imposed, unmerited, undeserved and unearned deficits. In many ways they have been deprived of equal opportunities because of discrimination perpetrated against women, and especially against black women, in this country.
How do you compensate these young women who have suffered from such insulting racial remarks broadcast on a nationwide radio and television show sponsored by a major television network? Mr. Imus has taken the first step by meeting with the young women and their families to start the process of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Where do we go from here? How best do we move the discussion forward so that we keep our speech free, but protect our young people from the pernicious effects of hatred and a racist history?
The firing of Don Imus will not stop him from being a racist, but racial sensitivity training would help him recognize that every human being is a person created in the image of God.
Forgiveness is a prelude to reconciliation, but we need to recognize that reconciliation does not necessarily follow forgiveness. Black women are the most forgiving people in the world, but one thing history has taught them is to learn how to live with pain, to keep them from going insane.
Consciousness raising
The radio shock-jock has confessed he spoke out of an impulsive feeling at the time instead of affirming these young women from Rutgers University, most of whom are freshmen, and who had done the almost impossible to reach the basketball finals. Mr. Imus has said that he is "not a bad person, but a good person who did a bad thing." He has been fired by his corporate sponsors, and his career may indeed be over.
Mr. Imus, in a sense, did us a favor by raising the consciousness level of words that hurt, whether they are said by a black rap artist or a famous radio and television shock jock. We cannot have it both ways.
If it is wrong for Mr. Imus, it is wrong for our young hip-hop artists who feel that they have to put down and degrade black women to sell records. The sad fact is some in the black community have started to embrace some of this language.
We know Mr. Imus has a history of racially insensitive statements, from his comment on the marriage of William Cohen and Janet Langhart as a case of "jungle fever," to his remark that Serena and Venus Williams' photographs belonged in National Geographic and not Playboy. Yet this man also sponsors sick kids of all races at a cancer-support group on his ranch. And he was one of the first to call for the firing of the generals at Walter Reed Hospital after learning about the horrendous conditions our injured troops were living in.
Perhaps he is a good man who does bad and stupid things. My sense is that his comments come from his past, that place of personal history we all have, much of which is hidden from our consciousness. It is a result of racism that is buried within us yet still gets dredged up from time to time.
It is a problem of our present past.
The Rev. Jones is the top executive at the General Commission on Race and Religion for the United Methodist Church.
Chester Jones
 12-09.gif)
