Imus Got His Trash Talk Pass Yanked, Now Yank it for Blacks Who Talk The Same

"Can U Control Yo 'H.'" The video commercial of the high priest of gangster rap Snoop Doggy Dogg demands on his CD "R&G: (Rhythm and Gangsta)." Then Dr. Dre in the cut "Housewife" on his 2001 CD "Dr Dre 2001," says, "Naw 'h' is short for honey." Next rappers Beanie Sigel says, "Watch Your 'Bs'" on his def Jam release, and 50 Cent commands, "'B' choose with me" on his 2003 top ten track P.I.M.P.

That's just a light sampling of how gangster rappers, some black filmmakers, and comedians routinely reduce young black women to "stuff," "Bs," "H's" and "MFs." Their contempt reinforces the slut image of black women and sends the message that violence, mistreatment, and verbal abuse of black women are socially acceptable.

Despite lawsuits, protests and boycotts by women's groups, gangster-themed films and rap music continue to soar in popularity. Hollywood and the record companies rake in small fortunes off of them, and so do the rappers.

Now enter shock jock Don Imus. He's the latest white guy to be transformed into a racially and gender incorrect punching bag for his Michael Richardsesque racial and gender tirade against a group of young black women. He, of course, has been verbally mugged, battered, abused, and momentarily dumped from his radio and TV show.

Imus has genuflected, no groveled, to the Reverend Al Sharpton, civil rights leaders, the Rutgers women's basketball team, begging forgiveness. Imus certainly deserves the kick in the shins that he's getting. In his very public self-flagellation, even he admitted that he rocketed way past the line of what even by the raunchy and low road standards of shock jockism is considered acceptable.

But again, Imus, as a white man that spewed racial bile, is the softest of soft targets. The same can't be said for the black rap shock jocks. They made Imus possible. They gave him the rappers bad housekeeping seal of approval to bash and trash black women.

In many ways, their artistic degradation has had even more damaging consequences for young black women. Homicide now ranks as one of the leading causes of deaths of young black females. A black woman is far more likely to be raped than a white woman and slightly more likely to be the victim of domestic violence than a white woman.

Their assailants are not white racist cops or Klan nightriders but other black males. The media often magnifies and sensationalizes crimes by black men against white women, but ignores or downplays crimes against black women. The verbal demeaning of black women has made them the scapegoats for many of the crisis social problems in American society.

What's even more galling is that some blacks cite a litany of excuses, such as poverty, broken homes, and abuse, to excuse the sexual abuse and violence of top black male artists. These explanations for the misdeeds of rappers and singers are phony and self-serving. The ones who have landed hard in a court docket are anything but hard-core, dysfunctional, poverty types. P. Diddy, who predated R. Kelly as the poster boy for music malevolence is college educated and hails from a middle-class home, typified the fraud that these artists are up-from-the-ghetto, self-made men.

The daunting puzzle then remains why so many blacks storm the barricades in fury against a Richards or an Imus but are stone silent, or utter only the feeblest of protests when blacks bash and trash? Or even worse, tacitly condone their verbal abuse?

There are two reasons for that. Blacks have been the ancient target of racial stereotypes, negative typecasting, and mockery. This has made them hypersensitive to any real or perceived racial slight from whites. That's totally understandable, and civil rights leaders are right to call the legion of other white celebrities, politicians and public figures that get caught with their racial pants hanging down on the carpet for their racial gaffes, slips, or outright verbal broadsides.