Did you ever watch old Bugs Bunny cartoons? The ones that use every old racist stereotype for humor, like when Bugs goes to South America and people in loincloths with bones through their noses try to boil him in a big pot? Those things never really offended me, just because they seemed so quaint, so long gone in our society.
Then I read this. Don Imus has been fired, and that's probably a good thing - even if you don't think his most recent comments warranted it - because of his long history of racism and misogyny and general awfulness. Media Matters compiled an article called "It's Not Just Imus" that contains dozens of quotes from people like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Michael Smerconish (he's on the Big Talker, right?). The quotes are literally jaw-dropping, and it struck me immediately how sad it is that these men aren't considered radical or anachronistic at all. They're some of the most popular radio and cable television hosts in the country, and that's something of which we should be ashamed.
Here's a small sampling:
Savage called Arabs "non-humans" and "racist, fascist bigots"; asserted that Americans would like to "drop a nuclear weapon" on any Arab country; and that "these people" in the Middle East "need to be forcibly converted to Christianity" in order to "turn them into human beings."
During a discussion of the development of ethanol-fueled vehicles in Brazil, O'Reilly stated that "they still have people in Brazil running around with their little darts, hitting you in the head with the poisoned darts, with the loincloths."
Limbaugh proclaimed: My "cat's taught me more about women, than anything my whole life" because his pet cat "comes to me when she wants to be fed," and "[s]he's smart enough to know she can't feed herself. She's actually [a] very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn't have to do anything for it."
I'm not a prude, and I can take a joke, and I see nothing wrong with edgy or controversial programming, but I think it's clear that these men cross a line. There's a difference between challenging stereotypes by making jokes about them, a la Chappelle or Chris Rock or Larry the Cable Guy or Jeff Foxworthy, and consistently mocking anyone who isn't white and male. I guess we're still waiting for that final straw for all these guys, but there are some pretty overloaded camels around, it seems to me.
