Obfuscating Racism: The Attempt to Blame the Victim

April 16th, 2007

By D. Yobachi Boswell

Two elder age white men, Don Imus and Benard McGuirk, attack without cause or provocation, young Black women as hardcore hos, nappy headed hos, and jiggaboos; and not only are they not racist, but a Black rapper named Snoop Dog made them do it.

In the Imus In The Morning situation we have a large sector of white society, along with a few of their usual talking-head Black token-apologist, who as is the unfortunate norm; are not only looking to excuse racism, but to point at Black people as the cause of the racist incident.

This is the all too familiar modus operandi put into action anytime the Black community stands up against a racial denigration or a racism based social policy. A large swath of the majority race dismiss the issue as not racist (usually because, “it was just a joke” or something of similar trite excuse) or point to some issue that is tangential at best, in regard to the Black or Hispanic people under attack. They then under some illogical line of reasoning proclaim that the irrelevant tangential issue absolves the racist act, because the Blacks/Hispanics made them do it or create the situation so that the racist act just could not be avoided.

Imus Is A Victim

Don Imus, having been raised in a culture of prevalent hip-hop music with these debasing lyrics, was involuntarily influenced…uh – oh, wait a minute! No he wasn’t. He was already a grown man long before Hip Hop music even came into existence, and was eligible for his AARP card before rap music hardly ever contained such terminologies as “ho”; and certainly far ahead of Snoop Dog’s appearence on the music scene.

Yet, somehow Calvin Broadus (Snoop) and other black men half Imus’ age, and younger, who operate in the sector of youth culture, caused the behavior of an elderly man with three and a half decades of media experience. This is an amazing feat.

    We have utter genius on our hands!

This is scientific breakthrough at least the equivalent of the DNA genome mapping. You mean to tell me; mostly poor, young, uneducated black men have devolved effective mine control techniques that can be transmitted via sound from a simple CD? WOW! As a rapper myself, I never new I had this amazing power. And too boot, it can be done without someone even listening to the music, as Imus is not a rap listener? Just – WOW!

Poor Imus. This rich, millionaire, white-male media veteran is simply a victim of the wily Negroes. Those niggers set him up!

When All Else Fails, Blame the Rappers

I wrote a piece last month called How To Be A Professional Victim. It highlights how to never be responsible for anything you do, and how to always blame something or someone else. Number 3 on the how to be a professional victim list is as follows:

3. Never be responsible for anything you do, or how you feel. Always blame the following: your momma, rap music, society, God, the basketball diaries, Marilyn Manson, and or your teachers.

Apparently the Imus apologist got hold of my victims manifesto and decide to employ number 3; although as much of a babbling lush as Imus acts like they could have gone for number 5 regarding blaming psychiatric drugs. But then again that would be beside the point here wouldn’t it; because the point here is to blame Black people for racist assaults against Black people. And what easier Black people to blame, than everybody’s go to scapegoat in society, the rappers?

Obfuscate, Obfuscate, Obfuscate

In the world of business, “location, location, location” is the all-important factor. In race politics, it’s obfuscation, obfuscation, obfuscation.

Obfuscate means to make confused, to obscure, to muddle the issue.

Shall we ever confront the still underlying racism in the country? Of course not: so would appear many a white persons answer. Whenever it comes up, just draw a red herring to argue instead of calling it what it is. Not only did those black rappers control Don Imus and Bernard McGuirk, who Imus told 60 Minutes was hired to “do the nigger jokes”, which we can see he did so well; but Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are also to blame for his downfall. And now somehow because of whom the messengers are, the message (it’s not acceptable to racistly and sexistly attack people and if you do you may have to deal with the repercussions in the market place) somehow is incorrect. In logical reasoning circles this old method of shooting the messenger is called ad hominem logical fallacy. One not llikingShaprton and Jackson can by no stretch of logic then make Imus and McGuirk’s comments justified.

Whether it is the affirmative action issue, where it’s now been shown that more white ethnic-based Scholarships exist than minority scholarships; or the likes of Michael Richards (aka Kramer from Seinfeld) belligerently calling black customers niggers for heckling him and then reminisced of the days those black hecklers would have been hung with a fork stuck up their “ass”; or this situation where some old white guys call some young black girls nappy headed hos and jiggaboos; Black people are always responsible for white action.

At leas that’s what many of the white persuasion proffer in order to never have to deal with and confront racism; and so that the veil of White Privilege in this country never has to be torn down. Cleary, most of those benefiting from White Privilege don’t want to see that. The faux appearance of liberty and justice for all is good enough for them; and they would rather continue racial animosity as long as they do not have to give up their favored position in society.



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About The Blog

  • D. Yobachi Boswell

  • Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.

    I created this site to give new voice to socio-political issues that are in need of thoughtful consideration and redress.

    Click the "More About The Blog" link for rest of this statement.

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