Don Imus

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by hooskins

Racism is still present in America, how should we deal with it?

To some extent, I believe it will always be present. Not everyone is or will be a well-adjusted,educated person who can accept people different from them in appearance and culture as an equal. Rather, there will likely always be some element of society that views those of a different race as inherently "worse" than themselves and the cultural group they themselves belong to. By doing so, these people will have both a scapegoat and built in "feel good" factor (i.e. - no matter how crappy things are at least I'm not a half-puerto rican/half indian mutt).

How do we deal with continued rascism? Time. I firmly believe that eventually, in maybe 4-5 generations, racism will be looked on as an anachronism. I think that, in general, it IS being dealt with. Continued condemnation of overt racism creates an atmosphere where children are exposed, at least publicly, to the notion that racism is wrong and that all people are entitled to respect. Generations of ingrained racism are not going to change in 20 or 30 years. The strides we, as a country, have made since the 1960's are significant. Overt racism is simply not permitted in public settings or by any governmental or other public institution.

Originally Posted by hooskins

Perhaps Imus should have lost his job, but he lost it for all the wrong reasons. He lost it because of money and image, rather than people consciously trying to deal with the issue..

To say he lost it b/c of money and image is similar to saying that the Civil War was about "states' rights" and not slavery. Yes - sponsers dropped out and cost his employers money and the sponsers dropped out b/c they did not want to be associated with the "image" Imus now carried b/c that would cost them money. BUT underlying the sponser's actions was the understanding that the public would not want to purchase products from companies that condoned the racist remarks.

Make no mistake about it - the ultimate reason for Imus cancellation was the public recognition that racism is wrong.

Originally Posted by hooskins

Obviously quite a bit of Americans are uneducated and do not have resources to understand the issues, so I personally think we need to do more to educate people all over the US, so there will be less "bigots". To me the alarming thing is people who are racist but have money and are educated. You would think going through education people will not develop racist views, but that isn't true.

Many of the "educated" people who are running our board rooms and businesses spent there first 20 or so years (say pre-1965ish) in a country that not only permitted racism but in a country where racism was the law of the land. Sure, they had to adapt to changing times, but on a very basic level some of these people were insulated from the popular tide that recognized the inherent unfairness and ultimate wrongness of racism.

In my opinion, it was only in the later 1980's and 90's that overt racism became truly unacceptable in the public forum. As the grandchildren and great grand children of these boomers grow up, fewer and fewer will be taught that racism, in any form is acceptable.