For Fuck's Sake, Say SOMETHING

What’s striking about the whole Imus fiasco is that not a single person, in my eyes, came out having even remotely done or said the right thing. Imus, white people, black people, Al/Jesse, the corporate big wigs, the dudes who had peddled their books on his show for years, the Rutgers coach, Snoop Dogg, etc etc. I’ll give a slight pass to the players, but I’ve already lamented how I feel they dropped the ball. AND absolutely no good has really come outta this; we’ve learned nothing, and does anyone feel like the gap between races has closed at all? Nyet. Hell, even 9/11 gave us a brief time of warm fuzzies, the world loving us. This episode? Nothing. And the timing of it, right between the death of Eddie Robinson and the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut, coupled with the Duke case teaching us that "innocent til proven guilty" is only another lie spoonfed to us ("please sir, may I have another?!") makes me wonder if there has been another collective psyche-damaging week like this in recent history. And this dream of completely rinsing rap of misogyny and violence is a pipe-dream distraction right now, so don’t even try that one on me...

And one man in particular let me down. The Gladness Rowdies will pounce on me, but Barack Obama jumping onto the “fire him!” bandwagon? Really? Where’s the fresh, new look on race relations, where’s this outside-the-box thinking borne from a lifetime of tolerance and worldliness? Where’s the “hope”, where’s the “optimism” he’s cast a spell on us with? Nowhere to be found. When it was his turn to speak up, nothing new, nothing thoughtful, just “yeah, fire him.” Doesn’t sound like the unprecedented, brand-new type of leader we’ve been sold on, does it?

Of course, the main problem is that right now, Obama is a politician who is running for president, and that takes precedence over all else. The funniest thing I’ve heard is a few people grumbling that why isn’t Obama taking over Sharpton’s role. Are you kidding me? Obama is running for president, which means for the next 18 months he can say absolutely nothing that isn’t bland, planned and....I’m at a loss for a third word that rhymes with "and", but you get my point. We’ve created a system where the person we elect to lead us is the person that raises the most money and says absolutely nothing that might ignite a spark of controversy or even thought. He and every other candidate has their hands in every misogynist/racist rapper’s pocketbook because dirty money and saying nothing trumps new ideas and taking a stand on ANYTHING. Not very inspiring, is it?

I like Obama. If my horse in the race Edwards drops out tomorrow I will turn to him as my guy. But I don’t wanna hear anymore about this “hope” and “optimism” and “new kind of leader” if he’s just gonna say the same old shit as everyone else so he can be grabbing fistfuls of dollars. Am I being unfairly harsh on him? Maybe. But only for expecting more from him, hoping for a higher standard. Which I’m tired of thinking is a crime when choosing the next President of the United States.