Don Imus has made the news for the past few days. While some are calling for his resignation and termination, Don is quite probably enjoying a ratings boost.
I’m not calling for a resignation from Imus. I’m doing what I always do: I’m calling for you and me and the rest of society to stop honoring people for their ability to entertain us with low-brow humor, cheap shot insults, and the kind of language people should reserve for moments like traffic accidents and hitting a thumb with a hammer.
In the sermon yesterday, I reminded folks that Easter is when the dream begins to come true after the Nightmare of Good Friday. One of the nightmares I talked about is the nightmare of inequity and racism (and classism and so forth).
Guys like Imus have traction because we provide a living for him. No audience, no show.
The only way to get the trash talk off the air is to break the cycle at the audience level. Encourage your friends to patronize other means of entertainment. Challenge them to enjoy something that doesn’t create humor at the expense of another human being.
Time for Don to wake up to the reality of a changed world. But first, we have to change it.
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