It's not shocking to see how the corporate masters of people like Ann Coulter and Don Imus to insist in selling them as valuable assets. They prop up and pay bigots because they represent millions of dollars. Hate is the road most travelled.
Hate is easy to exploit, it's an emotion that replicates faster than love thanks to the addictive qualities of adrenaline. Capitalism is based on the mining of adrenaline through the celebration of hate, the use of addictive substances in food, the exploitation of fear.
The big companies behind the likes of Rush Limbaugh will make sure their well-oiled money machines keep on raking in the benjamins. What is shocking to this cynic heart is to see how civil rights advocates fall for the money crap when it comes to gauging the worthiness of a cause.
It's still astounding to me to hear and read people on the left rationalize keeping racists and mysogynists by the measure of money they generate or popularity they have. More than once I've seen people on TV or read emails of people who said "why bother" when it comes to calling for Imus' oust.
And you know this is not just on big media outlets --FireDogLake is the perfect example of the racist pox on the lefty blogosphere being defended by many because of their popularity and for the amount of money they've raised for democrats.
Sigh.
Don Imus' money machine should be unplugged in much the same way Ann Coulter's and Rush Limbaugh's. Here's what Chris Rabb has to say about that [1] :
We (and not just Blackfolk) are so easily distracted from the systemic problems that cause the high shock value examples of bigotry that turn our stomachs. We are indeed sickened, but apparently infirmed too much to go after the real culprits: the conglomerate-dominated media who chuckle while outraged civil rights groups and concerned citizens play what amounts to a racial justice version of the popular old-school arcade game, Whac-A-Mole [2].
So, how do we win at racial justice Whac-A-Mole? One group may think the answer lies in speed. Others say build a bigger mallet. Afro-Netizen [3] thinks we all just need to pull the game away from the wall and cut the damn power cord! Or is this too squarely hitting the real issue on the head?
How do you pull the chord?
It's easy for Staples Inc, Procter & Gamble and Bigelow Tea to pull the plug on the Imus show for a very simple reason. The cynical consumer affairs scriptwriter in me sees the benefit to their move : We are in the 2nd advertising quarter and payment for ad cycles have not gone out. If they were companies not getting a good deal for this ad cycle, it's a no-brainer to use the moment as a free publicity stunt --loss of paid airtime will never have the same impact as tying their product with the aura of righteousness and having that ethical purity replicated through good word-of-mouth.
Boycotting pressure on corporate sponsors is a way to get things to change. Yet another way to deal with these issues is looking at the dearth of blackness in big media companies.
Now, Imus thinks that getting a black face on his show will ward "the racisms" off his show. Of course, that black face could be someone like the very popular minstrel Flavor Flav. Is that really what we are talking about?
No. It's not the show that needs diversity. Taking a hard look at the governance boards across the business spectrum in this country is the way to go.
Forget about Imus' show perse. Take a hard look at the mind-boggling media conglomerate he represents : MSNBC, Newsweek [4], NBC [5], MSN [6], Microsoft [7], General Electric [8], CBS Radio [9], CBS [10]. Now take a look at some of those executive boards : Here's the almost non-existence information on the MSNBC board [11]. Here's a look at the NBC board [12]. Here's a look at the Microsoft board [13].
Can you feel the diversityness? There is one, count ONE black man out of close to 30+ executives. He is a former Hardvard business school professor, and his name is James I. Cash Jr., Ph.D.
When dealing with the issue of diversity (or lack thereof), we should zoom in on the board rooms, not just the shows. Change has to start at the executive level, among the people who set the high earnings bar for the bottom line.
The other step, as not-easy as corporate restructuring, is creating investments initiative for the new media networks the Digital Ethnorati are forming online. We need to focus on the good that is being left out by the politico-media complex. We need to focus on the POC-owned micro-media companies that are emerging online and through digital technology.
We need to bring focus on places like Afronetizen [14], The Unapologetic Mexican [15], Black Commentator [16], Prometheus6 [17], Vivir Latino [18], Negrophile [19], Racialicious [20], Angry Asian Man [21], BrownFemiPower [22], Crunk & Disorderly [23] and so many others who have the potential to become channels in a poweful new media network.
Investing in the new media networks that are forming online through blogs is not an easy proposition but it's one that needs to happen. We need to stop putting our money on products, media outlets and celebrities who fail us.
The future is right here, right now, on blogs like this one. Will you help me and others like me to build it? Do you have the will?
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