Vol. 71/No. 18      May 7, 2007

Many working people, especially African Americans, were glad Imus was fired, and rightfully so. Comments by public figures that degrade women, or Blacks and other oppressed nationalities, are not a matter of free speech. Thanks to changes in social consciousness among millions in the United States under the impact of the mass civil rights battles and the women’s rights movement, such sexist and racist smears are not acceptable to broad layers of working people and others.

Workers have gained confidence when such attacks are pushed back, especially when it is through countermobilizations. For example, Chinese immigrants recently demonstrated to demand an apology from a New York TV station that broadcast a “news report” falsely claiming that a Chinese restaurant had served mouse meat. Such actions are in contrast with reactionary calls for laws banning “hate crimes” or racist or anti-Semitic statements—laws that capitalist governments can use to victimize working-class fighters.

Imus cultivated an image as an earthy “good old boy” known for “insult comedy,” spouting reactionary comments bordering on what was publicly tolerated. He let producer/sidekick Bernard McGuirk make the most offensive remarks against Blacks and others, letting himself off the hook. He also provided a venue to many public figures—such as Democratic senators Christopher Dodd and Barack Obama as well as Vice President Richard Cheney—with a knack for getting them to speak more candidly than other interviewers.

While not a rightist like radio host Rush Limbaugh—Imus said he voted for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 and criticized the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq—he called himself “the only registered Republican on the Upper West Side,” a middle-class liberal district in Manhattan. Last week’s Militant article inaccurately labeled Imus a liberal.

Sometimes Imus would push the limit, then issue an apology. This time, however, he crossed a line and didn’t get away with it. He became an embarrassment to capitalist politicians who had previously courted him to get exposure on his widely listened-to program. The Rutgers incident became an issue in bourgeois politics, marked today by the factional discourse between Democrats and Republicans. Its publicity led to widespread public outrage, although there were only a few small protest rallies. In the end, Imus became a liability to the owners of CBS Radio, as corporate sponsors began to pull out, and that’s why he was fired.

What about popular Black musicians who make demeaning references to women? Rutgers team member Essence Carson replied saying that while “rap, hip-hop, and music of that genre has desensitized America and this world” to such degrading language, “it doesn’t make it any more right for anyone to say it. Not only Mr. Imus… . It doesn’t make it right if you’re African American, Caucasian, Asian, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it’s wrong.” At the same time, there is nothing progressive about campaigns by capitalist politicians against rap lyrics, which often include calls for “defending moral values” and censorship laws.

Demeaning portrayals of women by the media and entertainment businesses are part of a deeper problem. The daily degradation of women is integral to capitalist society because women’s second-class status is profitable to the ruling billionaire families. It’s through mass struggles—from demonstrations against government attacks on a woman’s right to choose abortion or against racist brutality, to union struggles involving workers who are female or Black—that an effective course can be forged to defend the rights of women and oppressed nationalities. Such struggles can ultimately point to the need to eradicate the root of the problem—capitalism—and replace it with a socialist society, one based not on social inequality and its accompanying racism and sexism, but on solidarity and dignity.  
 
 
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