[Rhodes22-list] On Don Imus

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Brad,
 
Actually you realized part of the point I was trying to make - yeah, he  
missed the early part of the civil rights movement.  Take it a little  further: he 
also missed the middle parts of the civil rights movement, and he's  missed 
any recent parts of the civil rights movement.  To summarize:  he hasn't played 
a leadership role in the civil rights movement at all,  ever.
 
That's not to say he's a bad guy, rather it's to say that he's not speaking  
for anyone but himself and his views are agreeable to the publisher of his  
newspaper.  And I think that's a pretty fair statement.
 
I really don't know the guy at all, but I have read maybe 3 of his  columns.  
Seems to me he's hard over against Sharpton and Jackson at all  costs.  I'm 
sure he has his reason, he may even be right.  But as I  read his column 
regarding Imus and Sharpton it sure looked like he was being  more that a little 
disingenuous, and I would bet he lost a lot of credibility  with the black 
community.  His approach, as I recall, was to say that the  Imus matter wasn't an 
issue, the issue was rap language etc.  Now there is  no question that rap 
language etc are issues, but the timely matter at issue was  Imus, and I don't 
think there's a black family out there that doesn't understand  that, so I think 
the guys credibility is probably zip in the black  community.  In the white 
community his column is being floated as  "proof" that Imus is not an issue, that 
the real issue is something else (you  pick the topic, it'll change as it's 
discredited).
 
I don't know if the guy intended to write a column that said " the Imus  deal 
is OK, blacks shouldn't be upset", I really doubt that he would do that or  
that it was his intent,  but his column has been used that way and so he  has 
been party to that effort.  If his column has been mis-used he owes it  to the 
black community, and himself, to set the record straight.  
 
As to what charities he supports, that's got nothing to do with the content  
of his columns.  
 
He may or may not have a point regarding Sharpton or Jackson, but when he  
tries to divert attention from the denigration of a bunch of black  youth and 
their families he does the black community a disservice.  I'd bet  his newspaper 
publisher thinks the world of  him. 



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