Nappy Headed Host Lances Boil of Bigotry that Feeds Corporate Crapola Machine

The nappy headed host-- geriatric and syndicated, cynical and simulcast-- wielded a weapon of words with no idea how pointed it was. He punctured the veneer of acceptability that coats professional media hatemongers and slipped in the putrid mess that was revealed.

That wound needs to be cleansed.

The bigoted phrase has slipped into the national lingo and is thrown around casually, carelessly, stupidly, repetitively. While the nation wiped the gore off video screens and water coolers, fingers were pointed, apologies were made and the tragic normalization of broadcast bigotry was recognized.

Yet it is not an individual syndicated slimeball or particular bigoted phrase that is at fault; it is not a single form of music or art that is the cause of a pervasive problem.

The pervasiveness is the problem.

The all powerful, hypersynergized, Uberconsolidated, 24/7 corporate media feeds on the personas, the clichés, the music, the creativity and chatter that is thrown around and thrown away, carelessly, stupidly, repetitively. The individual, the original, the genuine is embraced just long enough to be consumed, cloned, packaged, branded, marketed and demographicked to corporate consumer culture.

If you can call it culture. What we are left with is clichés and constant chuckleheaded controversies, distractions du jour and a zombified public; adults who don’t remember it wasn’t always like this and youth who don’t know anything different ever existed.

Convince people that all they want is crap-- Give the people what they want. Will the people realize that they and their culture are what is being cannibalized and sold back to them-- greenbacks traded for Soylent Green?

Accepting bigotry and mindless cliched attitudes and repeating them as if it’s “no big deal” is a mistake. It’s a very big deal. The consolidated corporate crapola delivery system depends on it.

:applause:

:toast: :thumbsup:

:wtf:

Your essay was like a poem, and I guess poetry just isn't for the masses. ;)

consumed, cloned, packaged, branded, marketed and demographicked to corporate consumer culture. :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi:

I think that I shall never see
A king as lovely as
Bushy

:spray:

"How fortunate for governments that people do not think." -- A. Hitler


How fortunate for corporate overlords that folks would rather clack the dots together than connect them. :bounce: :bounce:



Your reply fills the resounding silence. :pals:

She called undandy Don 'geriatric'. Is that descriptive or pejorative?
Imus is 66 to Clinton's 60 to Sharptons 53, but why should his age be mentioned at all? Is it surprising that 'geriatric' is not another word for 'venerable'. My 1962 dictionary defines 'hoary' as 'ancient or venerable' whereas my 1997 dictionary defines it as 'old and trite'. Does that show a change in attitudes? Two online dictionaries just say 'ancient'.

One trouble is that there is stirring of people willing and ready to deal with Imus, but very little mention of the larger picture, except in ignoble defense. Dealing with Imus does not change the larger picture. 'The Beat goes on'.

that spawned Limbot, John Gibson and David Gregory

and because Imus is OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER.





Hi hfojvt :spray:

K/R

What we are left with is clichés and constant chuckleheaded controversies, distractions du jour and a zombified public; adults who don’t remember it wasn’t always like this and youth who don’t know anything different ever existed.

:thumbsup:

:toast:

horrible scathing of tblue by Pitt, and nearly went back out the door. Thank goodness I didn't.

This is an absolute masterpiece of a rant, of expression, and of -- as was expressed up-thread -- poetry. A brilliant piece of writing and absolutely spot-on. Many accolades omega minimo. :applause: :applause: :applause:

P.S. If you read this Will, I commend you on your apology. Kurt will be sorely missed.

from another thread), but I am not tblue. She and I have similar names for DU, but we aren't the same person. I had not read that Will had gotten into it with her. I will go and find that thread and see what that was all about.

Could you point me to it with a link?

My daughter was feeling a little left out in Birmingham. So I found THIS essay, as well as Maddy's (another great one) - and have forwarded both.

Thanks, minimo - powerful words, and powerful images. :hug:

:hug:

Lovely read -spot on.

racist, sexist comments expand the range of what is considered allowable in polite company.

When I was growing up, among Whites it was considered normal, everyday speech to use the N-word. Sometimes it wasn't even intended in a bad way--it was just the word a lot of people used. But eventually, the word quite properly became forbidden in polite company. Now, most of us would be shocked if someone we knew casually dropped the N-word in conversation, because it just isn't done.

But by using racially (and sexually) abusive terms in the mainstream media, jerks like Imus domesticate the words and give them social cover so that for many they no longer seem so outrageous. And it is true that language shapes perception. Many decades ago, Benjamin Lee Whorf initiated the study of metalinguistics, the idea that what we can think depends to some degree on the categories our language provides, because language is a lens that shapes perception.

I very much agree that the use of such terms and of such degrading images of Black women in Black music, etc., is risky, because it also--though to a lesser degree, since it isn't the vehicle of the power structure--domesticates the language and the attitudes it embodies. It also gives cover to Whites who want to advance the melioration of formerly taboo language.

T'scha-- yaknowwhat?! These guys are in the envelope, the cocoon of mindless bigotry/violence that moves product in the US of A in the 21st Century!!!!!!!!!!! 11111

"But eventually, the word quite properly became forbidden in polite company. Now, most of us would be shocked if someone we knew casually dropped the N-word in conversation, because it just isn't done."


"But by using racially (and sexually) abusive terms in the mainstream media, jerks like Imus domesticate the words and give them social cover so that for many they no longer seem so outrageous...... I very much agree that the use of such terms and of such degrading images of Black women in Black music, etc., is risky, because it also--though to a lesser degree, since it isn't the vehicle of the power structure--domesticates the language and the attitudes it embodies."

Thank you for this post. Those terms and degrading images offend all women (and conscious men) not only women of color. And ya know what? Maybe it IS "the vehicle of the power." :wow:

thanks for all you do :yourock:

(at least an easy sell to many). So, if you're telling us to forget about racism on the airways, because there is a war out there, you didn't change the subject as much as you thought.
But thank you for your patronizing.

You've misunderstood the meaning, intent AND the tone.

If you don't mind rereading it, you might end up pointing your anger elsewhere. :hi:

It's not what you think.

Peace.

:bounce: :yourock:


Well, TC didn't come back to discuss it.... no offense but the POV was so skewed it was hard to believe :eyes: how he got there........

K and friggin R!!

:yourock:

has made hash out of some of y/our friends lately, hasn't it? :thumbsdown:



:hi: :hug:

:applause:

from dividing the American People along racial, ethnic, religious and regional lines only to turn on the individuals who push the envelope too far and threaten corporate profits, I totally agree.

Thanks for the thread omega minimo

Kicked and recommended

The boil has been lanced. And it's possible -- at this point/level of megamedia saturation -- that "pushing the envelope too far" may not even "threaten corporate profits"!!

So it is up to us. And if we agree on this fundamental level, it's up to us to find the way to not get trapped in the small skirmishes that this "divide and conquer" is intended to perpetuate. :patriot: :thumbsup:

"The all powerful, hypersynergized, Uberconsolidated, 24/7 corporate media feeds on the personas, the clichés, the music, the creativity and chatter that is thrown around and thrown away, carelessly, stupidly, repetitively. The individual, the original, the genuine is embraced just long enough to be consumed, cloned, packaged, branded, marketed and demographicked to corporate consumer culture."

Thank you for stating what happened to imus with such a profound analysis of our country's media "culture".

:bowsheadingratitude: :hi:


I took a shot at an open and nonspecific approach to the Big Picture-- sans buzzwords, like maybe the idea would come through......... There are predictable arguments and flamewars about various levels of an issue............. one that struck me was the fingerpointing at "rap music" and all the $$$$$ it generates. What passes for "rap music" at this point is (totally bigoted) corporate cookie cutter crap and yes, a lot of people make a lot of money off it. Just like plenty of other art forms that have been coopted by megacorporate media. Look at all the lame pop still milking the Nirvana template.........

So no-- since what most people think of as rap is a cliched parody of the authentic, original form-- I am not gonna focus on how "nappy hos" got injected into the mainstream and blame "rap music." Unless we wanna talk about "corporate crapified rap music." Hell, maybe Imus and other broadcast bigots SELL PRODUCT when they refer to the ugly imagery of media "culture."

Thank you for your response. The enthusiastic replies here are humbling and encouraging that more and more of us know what is really going on and what's really at stake.

:toast:

:thumbsup:

I wish I could write that that.

Today is the first day I started to think like this--Kind of a "What if?" What if the bigots who've been getting away with this crap over and over finally have to stop, or at least slow spewing their crap?

"What if the bigots who've been getting away with this crap over and over finally have to stop, or at least slow spewing their crap?"

Just cuz they're sellin' it don't mean we gotta buy it :pals:

of our minds. We pollute our food, our air, and our minds then wonder where all the self-hatred came from. One could say the black/white dichotomy is the uniquely American manifestation of dialectical materialism. In other capitalist societies that have learned to obfuscate their natural class antagonisms, it settles into the standard male/female, nativist/immigrant, indigenous/settler antipathies and, of course, being Americans, we also engage in all three. Marx spoke of the thesis/antithesis/synthesis; the bourgeoisie/proletariat finally merging to replace reduce?)Hegel's Absolute with Communism. Except the Marxists were wrong. They did not count on television. The ability of the concentrated media to insinuate, coerce and metamorphose has not only succeeded in political indoctrination but made stepchildren of Science and Art. So while the worker is hating himself for having to chop down the tree that used to feed him, he is "saved" by being convinced that the tree was merely impeding his view. Unfortunately Hegel wins the day: we are only freed from greed at death.

brindis_desala-- as ever, honor us, inflict your insights hereupon..........................

"We pollute our food, our air, and our minds then wonder where all the self-hatred came from."

A key to the possibility of being "freed from greed" before death and before the death of the planet Earth.


:hi:

Every channel has this putrid crud on it, so why bother?

Excellent piece omega!! :hug: :pals: :loveya:

PS - 10 PM last night on CNN, Tom Delay was on calling Imus the victim, and calling liberals the real criminals. Off *click*

I may want to see a ballgame or 2 this weekend, so I saved my TV from a shoe in the screen ;)

:spray: :hug:

Get out!

:patriot: