Were Rush’s Slurs Against Black America Not Cancellation Worthy? - by Kirsten West Savali

I received an extremely interesting email this morning pertaining to the train-wreck that is Rush Limbaugh:
Hi,


Rush Limbaugh’s radio show is a part of the Clear Channel lineup. Let’s send a message to them that no longer can they allow Rush Limbaugh the opportunity to spew hateful and sometimes derogatory comments. Sign the petition and help get this done.
That’s why I signed a petition to Communications / Media Relations: and Communications/Media Relations, which says:
Sandraa Fluke, a law student at Georgetown University who was advocating for health insurance plans to cover the cost of contraception, became the target of a series of attacks by Limbaugh. Besides calling her a “slut,” he also called her a “prostitute,” said that he wanted her to make sex tapes and post them online, and speculated that she only had a problem paying for contraception because she was having “so much sex.”
We who support Ms. Fluke, find that this is a serious offense enacted by Mr. Limbaugh and we ask that his radio show be terminated.”
Will you sign this petition? Click here:

Thanks!

Now, I wholeheartedly agree. Limbaugh is a waste of air space and an embodiment of the hateful rhetoric and dangerous unsubstantiated “facts” that divide the United States and vilify sub-sets of the population.
There is just one small problem here though:
Where is all of this outrage when Limbaugh relentlessly attacks Black America? Yes, Black America, as a monolith. When he throws out generic, racist stereotypes to define all Black people, who protested? More importantly, how many advertisers jumped ship?

Not one.
Where was the outrage when he called first lady Michelle Obama “uppity” and supported her being booed at a Nascar event? Where was the boycott when he suggested that she was overweight, unattractive and hypocritical for advocating for healthy living when “she obviously doesn’t follow her own dietary advice.”
Why weren’t sponsors and listeners and Republicans angry when he referred to the 44th President of the United States of America as a “bi-racial oreo?” Where were the emails and petitions when he depicted him as a burglar breaking into the home of a wealthy white man?
Advertisers had no problem selling beds and flowers between monologues by recurring character, Bo Snerdley, who touts that he is certified to speak on Black issues because he has a “heavy dose of pure, unadulterated organic slave blood” before proceeding to speak with perfect diction then shifting to “ebonics” so the “hood” can understand him?
What about when Limbaugh told a Black woman caller to “take the bone out her nose and call him back?”
Or how about when he said that the NFL looked like a shoot-out between the Bloods and the Crips without guns?
Or when he said that Black people are only “12 percent of the population, [so] who the hell cares?”
The list goes on and on, but the recurring theme is that jokes and insults about Black Americans are perfectly acceptable, but when you start calling people “sluts” we have a problem.
Something is seriously wrong with that picture.
And no, it’s not the fact that a white savior more cliché than anything that could have been conceptualized in “Cadillac Records” or “The Help” didn’t swoop in and save Black America from big, bad Rush. The dual issues staring us in the face are immense and telling of the psychological damage we’ve experienced in this country:
1.) We have allowed ourselves to become so apathetic and marginalized that no one takes us seriously in leading roles outside of villains, crackheads, gang-bangers and baby mamas. We’re always called in for the assist like the good ole’ Black supporting casts of yore.
2.) We’re so used to being beaten and whipped from the plantation to the polls to the airwaves, that we just take the blows and keep going – because they bounce off the scars.
Statistics are thrown our way on affirmative action, on Black-on-Black crime, on Black children born out of wedlock, on incarceration, healthcare and education disparities, yet, when it gets down to the get down, there are no rallies planned on our behalf – unless it surrounds a government sanctioned murder (Troy Davis) in one the most backwards, racist states in the Union.
I have seen more Black folks posting FB statuses and Twitter updates screaming “down with Rush” over his Fluke comments than I ever have about anything he’s said previously. Just as his apology reeks of political and corporate strong-arming, so too does this pseudo-outrage on Ms. Fluke’s behalf.
Sadly, as November 2012 draws near and Obama has backpedaled on his firm pro-choice stance of 2008, he even issued a political phone call to Ms. Fluke – which he made sure was reported – to say that Rush’s comments were “reprehensible” and that thoughts of his daughters motivate him to make the call:
“One of the things I want them to do as they get older is engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on. I want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way. And I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens,” he said at a White House news conference Tuesday.
Apparently, attacks on his wife and mother of his children weren’t enough to make him speak out, but when a politically advantageous phone-call presents itself, he chose to ride it ‘til the wheels fall off.
Again, this is not saying that we shouldn’t be engaged in the call for Limbaugh’s cancelation, nor am I saying that we should turn a blind eye to the degradation of others. What I am saying is we have reached a pivotal point in history where we have to start pooling our collective economic and political power and use it to progress our own communities and self-interests, while expecting the same level of outrage and engagement from other members of society when atrocities are committed against us in the name of freedom of speech.

When Roland Martin made his little stupid Twitter jokes, many of us, myself included, supported GLAAD, when issues about women’s subjugation arise, many of us support NOW. As Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network recreate our march from Selma to Montgomery to commemorate “Bloody Sunday” 1965, we also extend our arms to the Latino community as they fight the inhumane anti-immigration laws that amount to nothing more than a requirement to present “freedom papers” — yet tensions between our two communities remain at an all-time high.

We have to be careful. We have to be careful that we don’t keep bending our knees and using our strength to uplift others without expecting any reciprocity. We have to be careful that we don’t assimilate to the point where everyone else’s problems become our own, but when the issues are Black-specific, we find ourselves standing alone.
Rush Limbaugh is scheduled to be inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians in May. Joining him in receiving this honor will be Dred Scott. During Scott’s trial in 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that ” negroes had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.”
Not surprisingly, Rush Limbaugh’s views over 150 years later are not much different:
“I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that in 2009 and I don’t recall a peep from sponsors.
Do you?
Bottom line:
We need to stop piggybacking on everyone else’s grievances as a way of getting restitution for our own, because it’s not coming.
More importantly, we have to stop asking who’s going to fight for us, if we’re not willing to fight for ourselves.

--Kirsten West Savali


“We need to stop piggybacking on everyone else’s grievances as a way of getting restitution for our own, because it’s not coming.”
That was one of the realest statements ever made. I agree with this article.

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