... Is it really a tragedy to our community what Don Imus said?! Okay, yes they were disparaging remarks but aren’t we doing more disparaging damage b
y focusing so much of our attention, resources, and lip from our “black leadership” by failing to address more tragic issues like why in the hell so many of our black men are in jail? (At the end of 2000, 791,600 black men were behind bars.) THAT’s a tragedy. In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school. THAT’S a tragedy. The graduation rate of black men is lower than that of any group. Only 35 percent of black male enrollees graduated within six years from N.C.A.A. Division I colleges, compared with 59 percent of white males, 46 percent of Hispanic men, 41 percent of American Indian males and 45 percent of the black women who entered the same year. THAT’S a tragedy. Hurricane Katrina was a tragedy. Not Don Imus. Rush Limbaugh vilifies liberals; Howard Stern exploits women. All these people spew some pretty ill sh—, but their worst diatribes don’t directly affect me and neither did Don Imus. Rising gas prices, a declining work ethic amongst our youth and a nephew who is about to graduate from 8th grade but doesn’t know his time tables. These are the things that affect me. So it’s deplorable that we are spending more time worrying about Don Imus than we are about addressing the real nappy headed ho-like tragedies happening in our communities today.