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In response: letter to the editor

The Met needs to take on bigger issues
What is wrong with the Met? It takes no stand on any issues – it has no opinions – and it’s so politically correct!

I am a 56-year-old black woman and a student. I have been discriminated against the majority of my life, as a woman and as a black. I work part time as an equal-employment counselor and I still see the discrimination among races, national origin and gender.

Before Dr. King there were my parents, (and a world full of “my parents”), who fought hard just to be called colored, then fought hard just to be called Negro. We fought hard to be called black.

Now we have Don Imus, who has been on the radio longer than dirt, and yet he almost got away with foulness against women. First the tattoos that could have gone against the whole team (eight black and two white), the “hos” which still could have gone against the whole team, but he narrowed his speech down to “nappy-headed” and “jiggaboos,” which brought the focus to the black women on the team. 

The women on the team handled themselves with grace and dignity – a characteristic that white people are so surprised to see we, as a people, exhibit.

I’m not against free speech, but Imus is not a poet, a journalist, a creative writer, a rapper, etc. He’s a radio personality who uses words in a creative manner, sells radio time, products and tries to be humorous. But he is not humorous – he is a misogynist, a racist creep, an insensitive lout and a congenital idiot. How’s that for free speech?

Imus refers to one of the nation’s best reporters, Gwen Ifill, as “the cleaning lady,” New York Times sports reporter Bill Rhoden as a “quota hire,” tennis player Amelie Mauresmo as “a big old lesbo,” and tennis player Venus Williams as an “animal.”

Why didn’t the most prominent women in this country – Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Condoleezza Rice – take on Imus? Instead, we have an Oprah show in which the panel discussion is a joke.

The only reason Imus was fired is that the backers were pulling their ads – it always comes down to money and politics. I read somewhere that Imus got a $45 million severance package.

Why is there nothing in the Met about this? Why does a black person have to bring up the subject? Are you just too timid? Don’t be scared white people. Don’t be scared people! Speak up!

As young adults you are a very powerful group and you don’t have to wait for my generation to die off before you make your opinions known! Women, if someone calls you any of the names you hear on CDs or in person, it is not a compliment – and tell them so!
– Viola B. Nathan • nathanv@mscd.edu