Mr. Don Imus, a Mr. Michael Richards is on the phone...

[lincolnduncan]

Don Imus was fired from CBS today, a day after MSNBC decided to drop their television simulcast

Comments

[jalfrdprufrocky]

Thanks to the viral effect of the Internet, it seems like an awful lot of celebrities are getting into trouble these days for saying something off-hand that is viewed as discriminatory or racist. Maybe Jesse Jackson was just lucky in that the "Hymie" speech he made took place in 1984. Do any of the people that Jackson attacks ever bring that incident up as a counter-attack?

I wrote this history paper back in Middle School where I made a statement along the lines of "everybody is racist/discriminatory against someone." My teacher marked it up with the comment, "do you really believe this is true?" I think many of us would be surprised at what we'd reveal about ourselves if pushed to that point where we were stressed enough or inebriated and uninhibited enough to express our thoughts without censoring them.

[lincolnduncan]

Actually, I did see the "Hymie" counterargument used once, but that's once in about twenty or thirty different columns, letters, etc. It is an interesting point you make, but Ross Perot's "You people" in 1992 was also before the Internet became huge, and that sunk him (not to mention made him nearly ineffective in 1996).

I know everybody is discriminatory against someone, as long as you don't limit it to race. It could also be gender, sexual orientation, religion, political views, and so on. That was pretty perceptive for a middle schooler. :-)