IMUS PRIMUS

(4/10/2007)

I gotta say it. I'm feeling really vindicated right now.

If you've read my essay, Offensive Words, you can appreciate why.

One of my favorite dudes (maybe I should say white people) is in some hot water for doing the very thing I spoke of.

And my position is supremely validated by the public response.

The real issue driving the Imus story is reciprocity. The hard fact is both simple and compelling. Imus (as a white male) has the power to verbally insult a member (in this case members) of a particular class (black females).

The problem lies securely ensconsed within the bowels of a very stern reality: the members of that class do not have the power to reciprocate. They can't strike back - in the same way.

Blacks (male or female) are simply not in possession of the reciprocal verbal abuses to heap upon whites. (As a white male, I can think of no verbiage that would offend me. Yes, I may be offended personally, but not as a member of a particular class.)

The only avenue of response available for the offended class members is a personal one. They are attacking Imus personally (and literally begging him to offer public deference to racial sensibilities, an idol of their own making, one that they insist upon strict obeisance to).

Attacking Imus personally is not a form of reciprocal action; it is not responding in kind. Imus did not attack the basketball players personally. He didn't even know them. His remarks were directed at their class, a class completely (even pathetically) unequipped with the equivalent verbal ammunition, ammunition that could constitute a form of fair and equal (and thus satisfactory) reciprocity. Such ammo, in fact, does not exist. White males (as white males) are immune to verbal insults.

But without question, the most important thing to note about the whole embarrassing matter is the way it reflects more negatively on the offended class than the offender. The offended parade their insecurities before the whole world, unabashedly proclaiming their refusal (or inability) to desist with nursing their absurd racial sensibilities. Yes, they proclaim to the world that they have not— alas—overcome. And they don't seem to have the ability to realize that they will not overcome until they learn to get over themselves.

Yeah, Imus might look bad, but the offended look a helluva lot worse.