Once again America is assuaging it's collective guilt in an avalanche of feeling over the audacity of Don Imus. Not that we Canadians have any reason to feel smug. There is more than enough racial intolerance to go around.
Imus' words are just more in the long list of social indecencies that are a regular occurence. To turf him off the air makes some people feel better. Why? Because a scapegoat is better than admitting complicity in the continuing racial war. And yes, it does come from the African-Americans too - with their angry rap that denigrates (no pun intended) their own women.
There is a fundamental difference here. The difference reminds me of the response from non-Jews defending themselves againstg charges of golf and country club discrimination. They will, instead of admitting their racism, charge Jews with discriminating because we have sometimes formed our own club. But I digress.
Black Anerica is a minority under siege. It does no one service to attack their rappers who have found a welcoming constituency among their own people. That there is ignorance, poverty, drug-dealing, and desperation is not open to question. Those elements are all part of what is now a permanent underclass.
Yes, members of that group - "people of colour" - have risen above the conditions that lived in - to become lawyers and doctors and scientists asnd political thinkers.
But, and this is often admitted by the people themselves, in their rush to move up they have often turned their backs on their origins. Glad to be finally released from the bondage of illiteracy and poverty, they thrive.
But all that is just a sop for all of us.
Poor Don Imus. He takes the blame for reflecting the thousands of unspoken epithets that crowd our everyday world. Better Don than us. He is our sacrificial lamb.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
No happiness ion the "Happy Dance."
TV News loves two things above all else: dire weather warnings, and happy lottery winners. The rest - Iraq, global warming, federal elections - all just window dressing.
We are besotted with the "Happy Dance" that we see at least every ten minutes during prime time. The government is so cpaptive to the revenue from lotteries (and to a lesser extent - casinos) that it can't rein in its exuberant ad campaigns.
The tragedy is, that with lotteries already being a "tax on the stupid" they (the government and its ad agencies) continue to sell us the fiction of instant relief from the drudgery of work. From the man whose kids surprise him while he is at work with "happy retirement Dad," to the doting parents who hand out luxury cottages to their astonished children - there is no limit to the duplicity of the enticements.
In retail selling there are many jurisdictions who have truth in borrowing laws that oblige advertisers to spell out exactly what a loan will cost. We however, lag behind.
We have no trouble putting health warnings on cigarettes, but we are utterly AWOL when it comes to putting disclaimers on lottery commercials. Oh yes, from time to time TV news people will bring in some academic to spell out the monstrous odds of winning. But then they'll throw in a "streeter," a random interview with a lottery ticket buyer who mouths the idiocy: "You can't win if you don't buy a ticket."
What is deeply flawed in this distortion of social policy, is that we have given cachet to gambling. We have enriched out culture with the notion that you too can be rich beyond belief without working.
Who buys? Aside from the well-heeled who spend loose change on tickets, there are the hopeless, the helpless and the gullible.
Our taxes pay for those commecials. The losers don't do a happy dance, but like lemmings looking for cliff to jump off, they are back next time putting rent money into lottery tickets.
Nothing can stop the gambling mania that has enveloped our society - an obsession that has created an entire generation of new risk-takers. But the risk-taking is mindless. The hope for reward infinitesmal. The kid who wants to be a world-class poker player is the new hero.
Wasn't this supposedto be the century of the "nerd?" - the intellectual who actually knows how to think and to convert that brain-power into revenue? Instead, many of the nerds are learning to count cards so they can break the bank at the blackjack tables. What's most sad is that we exalt and elevate these people for their "skills."
Anyone for tennis?
We are besotted with the "Happy Dance" that we see at least every ten minutes during prime time. The government is so cpaptive to the revenue from lotteries (and to a lesser extent - casinos) that it can't rein in its exuberant ad campaigns.
The tragedy is, that with lotteries already being a "tax on the stupid" they (the government and its ad agencies) continue to sell us the fiction of instant relief from the drudgery of work. From the man whose kids surprise him while he is at work with "happy retirement Dad," to the doting parents who hand out luxury cottages to their astonished children - there is no limit to the duplicity of the enticements.
In retail selling there are many jurisdictions who have truth in borrowing laws that oblige advertisers to spell out exactly what a loan will cost. We however, lag behind.
We have no trouble putting health warnings on cigarettes, but we are utterly AWOL when it comes to putting disclaimers on lottery commercials. Oh yes, from time to time TV news people will bring in some academic to spell out the monstrous odds of winning. But then they'll throw in a "streeter," a random interview with a lottery ticket buyer who mouths the idiocy: "You can't win if you don't buy a ticket."
What is deeply flawed in this distortion of social policy, is that we have given cachet to gambling. We have enriched out culture with the notion that you too can be rich beyond belief without working.
Who buys? Aside from the well-heeled who spend loose change on tickets, there are the hopeless, the helpless and the gullible.
Our taxes pay for those commecials. The losers don't do a happy dance, but like lemmings looking for cliff to jump off, they are back next time putting rent money into lottery tickets.
Nothing can stop the gambling mania that has enveloped our society - an obsession that has created an entire generation of new risk-takers. But the risk-taking is mindless. The hope for reward infinitesmal. The kid who wants to be a world-class poker player is the new hero.
Wasn't this supposedto be the century of the "nerd?" - the intellectual who actually knows how to think and to convert that brain-power into revenue? Instead, many of the nerds are learning to count cards so they can break the bank at the blackjack tables. What's most sad is that we exalt and elevate these people for their "skills."
Anyone for tennis?
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