Thursday, April 12, 2007

Black Radio Host Calls Volleyball Team Stringy-Haired B*tches


A furor erupted last week when black radio host Ron Immons referred to members of the Wilmington College Beach Volleyball Team as "stringy haired b*tches." The comments took place on-air, as millions listened to the popular morning show. Immons, joking with his fellow black producers and several guests, disparaged the Wilmington all-woman, mostly white, collegiate team—going as far as comparing their match against Cal State to the movies Once Upon a Time in America and The Godfather. "It's like the Hymies vs. the Guinea-wops," Immons producer joked.

Controversy Rages On- But is the Sex Industry and Mass Media to Blame?

At first defending his actions and refusing to apologise, Immons has recently done an about face, and today appeared on the white community action network FOX News channel to make amends to white community leaders. Immons called his comments "insensitive and ill-conceived," adding that "[i]t was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended." However, after being pressed by FOX hosts, Immons became irate, saying he was being held to a double standard.

"This phrase that I used didn't originate with me," Immons stated in his defense. "It originated in the white community. I'm not stupid. I've seen porn before. Pornography in America is a multi-billion dollar business. White men consume most of it. Most of it, not all, but most of it—stars white women. And in those films they use those kind of words…b*tch…slut…whore…all the time, towards other white women. I know that these young white women all through that society are demeaned and disparaged and disrespected by—by their own white men and that they are called that name, and I know that doesn't give me, obviously, any right to say it, but it doesn't give them any right to say it. That didn't give me a right to use it, but that's where it originated."

A frequent white community activist at FOX News had this to say in response:

"Just because white men use that term towards white women, doesn't mean everyone has a right to do so. It's wrong when white men do it. It's wrong when black men do it. And it was wrong when Immons did it."

Some in the white community however, aren't so sure.

"I've been called b*tch numerous times by other white men, at bars, or even during sex," one online white blogger Buffy137 said. "And I know where it comes from—the porn industry, the sex industry, our whole societal obsession with white women as sexual objects. You see it everywhere—beer commercials, movies, rock-stars with flashy women. I don't see how we can get mad when some black radio host says it, but we don't get mad when our own white men say it? We're just being hypocrites!"

Another anonymous white blogger, Megan36, however countered:

"Just because there are shortcomings in the white community doesn't mean someone in the black community can join in. I'm not a b*tch. I'm not some bimbo in a beer commercial, or a rock and roll video, or some online porn star. And neither were those women at Wilmington. If I want to perm my hair curly, that's my business. If I want to wear it natural and stringy, that's also my business. Using the porn and sex media industry is a cop out. Immons needs to be fired."

And today just that happened, as both advertisers and broadcasters dropped Immons. With a history of insensitive remarks on his show, many think this recent flap was considered as too much of a liability. But even with his dismissal, a controversy rages on in America, and especially within the white community, over the use of language in our culture.

© 2007 Your Ass Has Just Been Satired! Institute. All rights reserved

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