Double Standards Should be Outlawed
After enduring the Isiah Thomas for the past month, I’ve really had it with double standards. To all my black friends, I am telling you that the applications of double standards when analyzing the wrongs against blacks does nothing for the advancement of black causes.
It’s fine for Isiah Thomas to call a young, professional black woman a ho and a bitch. Does anybody remember Don Imus? Don Imus lost his job for using the word ho but Isiah Thomas represents one of the largest corporations in America while making millions of dollars because it’s fine for a black person to say that. Can anyone please explain to me why people such as Al Sharpton have been relatively quiet on this issue? Mr. Al “Double Standard” Sharpton should be marching right to the halls of Madison Square Garden to say enough is enough. What message are we giving the young black men in America? If you’re rich and powerful, it’s all right to call a black woman a ho and a bitch. Don Imus was also rich and powerful. Are the two different results good for race relations in America?
I could eat my shoe yesterday as I listened to Mr. Thomas’ impromptu press conference on the court house steps. “I didn’t do the things that she accused me of doing,” he said. Well sorry, but a jury of New York citizens came to the conclusion that you did Isiah.
As I’m writing this blog post, I can’t help but smile. MSG said they fired Ms. Sanders for incompetence. If that’s the case and MSG employs a policy of equal standards, then Mr. Thomas should be stoned at center court on Opening Night. The Knicks have the highest payroll in the league. Last year, they had the same record as the Charlotte Bobcats. In case you’re keeping score, Charlotte had the lowest payroll in the league last year.
So I have a solution for Mr. Dolan, the unequivocal worst executive in professional sports. Settle with Ms. Sanders for $7,000,000 and Isiah’s job. Don’t laugh, your record may improve.
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Written by Michael Vass
While I agree whole heartedly on the thought that Isiah Thomas, or any other Black man or man in general, should never use such terms in regard to any woman, your post goes into a couple of separate thoughts.
The first of which is
What exact double standards are you referring to? The implication is that there are several, or that there is a major theme of double standard that is repeated often.
If you mean the use of language, specifically certain derogatory terms, then there is no double standard. On the one hand you have large and growing groups that are upset that some words are used and have been integrated into the common language in America. The N-word, among others, is used by young Americans of all colors, without an understanding of its true meaning. That is a function of entertainment companies emphasizing and promoting a genre of music, nearly exclusively, for about 15 years in every medium available.
On the other hand there are the majority of adult Americans that would never use such language. There have been protests for the same 15 years, and articles and public statements, but until the Don Imus event they were ignored by the major news media.
Both of these things are not new, nor a double standard. Acts by individual public celebrities does not reflect the majority, other than the fact that the major media will focus huge amounts of time on an individual and present it as if it were a norm. No one notices the enormous number of professional sports players that don’t use profane words and slurs as common practice, do they?
You go on to say that what Mr. Thomas did was ok, obviously not as he lost a lawsuit. No one has found it to be ok. Just like Don Imus, a penalty was inflicted. But there are real and direct differences that should be noted.
In the Imus case, the victims were unknown (beyond those into women’s college basketball), non-public, college students that had provided no provocation and were verbally assaulted on national public airwaves with racial slurs. Both the wording and nature of the attack were wrong in every aspect, and the nation was angered, not just a specific group.
With Thomas we have different circumstances. The conversations (as best I understand from the little I know of the case) were primarily private ones. That does not make it better, just different. The use of slurs was still objectionable, but not a public declaration, and the people targeted had no idea what had been said about them. There is a question of exactly what was said, and the context of that conversation, that cannot be known. To an extent, this was a private conversation and that is not the same as a public declaration. That does not make it better, just different.
The reason most have been quiet about this Thomas case is that this was unknown until recently. How can you reprimand someone for something you don’t know was said? Imus has a history of being racist, or racially insensitive if you prefer. He put his statements out in the open. Thomas did not.
But when news of his deposition comments were made public, people did speak out on it.
The company that Imus, and Thomas work for have nothing to do with the coverage, comments, or repercussions of their actions. Their money had no influence on the worthiness (or lack thereof) of their words. The format in which the public became aware of this is. The comparison is flat because this is apples and oranges. Both are public figures, but one made accusations that the world heard, real-time, the other is accused and cannot be proven to have said things, and provided a deposition that approves a subjective question asked of him.
As for the question of what Black men are to take from this, I ask a bigger question. What are African Americans to take from the fact that music corporations have flooded the media with words and images that degrade women and insult a race for mere profit for over a decade?
I have yet to see an article, besides the ones I have written, in major news media that addresses companies like Viacom that have found and promoted language and actions that most would find objectionable in an average person. Viacom has put out the words used by Imus and Thomas for over a decade, along with nearly obscene images, and there has been barely a whisper said to them.
If you tell millions of young Americans (and international youth as well), this is ok because its on television, then you will have them act and speak in a similar manner eventually. And those with views that are already warped find a home for their voices. That is the real problem.