Cody
Williams
A Nappy Headed Revolution
by Cody Williams
The question “who left their pubic hair on my coke?” uttered by a then soon to be appointed Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, is partly the reason there are 16 women in the US Senate and a female front runner for the presidential nomination of a major political party. Once made public that affront to Anita Hill galvanized American women enough to flex their collective muscle and put more of them in politically powerful positions than any other event in the history of our republic.
Now, motivated by equal indignation at Don Imus calling a Rutgers University women’s basketball Cinderella team a bunch of “nappy headed hos” women just may have the impetus needed to break the two hundred year white male monopoly on executive power in the White House.
What the Anita Hill vs Clarence Thomas Senate confirmation hearings showed American women was that if men can be that foolish and still are appointed to the highest court in the land then women too are just as qualified for any job we hold. Clearly Thomas is not the least astute constitutional analyst ever to sit on that bench, but some how, until Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Conner, we had been led to think it was the exclusive purview of men.
So, a team of women collegiate basketball players scrapple their way to play in a national championship between biology 101, physics 210 and American Lit classes, the second most accomplished team in the nation and the highly revered drive-by radio host slams them as being nothing more than “nappy headed hos.” And he, someone who had never played in a national championship nor earned a college degree.
The Imus show got its clout from the political and media heavy hitters who liked to yuck it up on air with the cantankerous host. The good ole boys from Sen. John McCain to Meet the Press host Tim Russert appeared regularly on his show. Now, any association with the I-Man is tainted.
Women and naturally nappy headed men everywhere are enraged, and rightfully so. What right has he to call them ‘hos’, or equally insulting, degrade the natural texture of our hair?
Hilary Rodman Clinton is scheduled to speak at Rutgers University on Monday. The queen of day-time television, Oprah Winfrey, preempted her regular schedule and invited the young women to share their pain in front of a nation scratching its head in puzzlement. Accomplished media personalities, almost exclusively white, like Anderson Cooper and Joe Scarborough asked over and over again, what was the big deal? Isn’t it common for blacks to refer to their women in this manner?
Is calling for Imus’s head on the silver platter of political correctness a double standard, they asked? I suggest they use the platform provided to them by their employer to insult a large segment of the American public and see if they are not fired. The only double standard would have been if Imus were not fired.
And no, all black men do not refer to black women in that manner. But what about gangster rappers and Snoop Doggy Dog they ask repeatedly. “Is he a racist?” CNN’s John Roberts asked. They are quick to point out that Don Imus is a “good charitable man” and not at all like Seinfeld actor, Michael Richards.
True, Michael Richards sprouting hateful racist venom at African Americans in that West Hollywood comedy club had different intent than the aging white and increasingly irrelevant Don Imus yuking it up on his morning radio show trying to be hip and contemporary by using ghetto slang to bolster his street credibility. After all, street credibility is a prized commodity in a world in which mass appeal rules. The popularity of Hip-Hop, a culture not only born on ghetto street corners but bred in the cell blocks of incarceration, sells all types of products, from athletic shoes to cell phones to computer processing chips. Madison Avenue even partnered business icon Lee A. Iacocca with rapper Snoop Doggy Dog in TV ads aimed to revive the ailing Chrysler Corporation.
As a symbol Snoop Dog represents everything many African Americans try desperately to exorcise from our common image: drugs, crime, inarticulateness and a gangster mentality. Whites can have him. Their fascination in him is akin to the popularity of Jack Benny’s man servant, Rochester. Humiliatingly comical.
Imus should have been fired. And Snoop Dog should be retired. Young people of all races are incorporating gangster rap’s vernacular into the mainstream of American culture. This language of the hood and the cell block is what young folks speak, and those like Imus copy them while trying desperately to stay ‘hip’ and relevant, trying to appear connected to a changing world, a hardening world.
In the end the Don Imuses of the world, like all aging stars, stumble and fall trying keep up with the times and don’t regain their footing. He’ll go inelegantly out of the spotlight which has defined him. Some just go with less dignity than others. But, I’m of the opinion that this gaffe has less to do with racist intent and more to do with racial imitation. Just an old white guy ‘tryna’ be hip. And white boys ‘tryna’ come off as being hip have always been as risky as a high wire balancing act.
As in the case of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill, with foolish white men like Don Imus and those who defend him and corporate pitch men the likes of Lee Iacocca and Sumner Redstone wanting the nation to follow the lead of gangster rap and run around acting and talking like Snoop Dog and Busta Rhymes, American women once again should feel emboldened enough now to break through one of the last two remaining strong holds of male dominance in America, the presidency. With gangster rap being the other, maybe they will leave that to be dominated by men who want to act like a snoop dog.
© www.codywilliams.com 2007
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