Prejudices still alive in our society
By: Judy Shepps Battle
The dust finally is starting to settle after last weeks media frenzy surrounding radio personality Don Imus and the Rutgers womens basketball team.
The final score? Decency: 1; Don Imus: 0.
Don Imus has been fired twice. The women on the team have shown themselves to be poised and articulate. And Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer has emerged as both a standard bearer for civil rights and a fierce lioness protecting her cubs.
This has been a painful but proud time for me as a Rutgers alumna and former faculty member.
It hurts that racism, sexism and homophobia are so alive in our society and that such hate continues to injure the innocent. Yet I am ever so proud of how this young Rutgers team responded with graceful strength and dignity.
Coach Stringer hopes that the team can now put this horrible incident behind them. I share her wish that these young women are allowed to resume their careers as student-athletes without a distracting media spotlight.
But before the rest of us move on, however, it is important to acknowledge lessons learned from this event, and to address what has to change so that incidents like this will not be repeated.
Entertainment Values
If nothing else, we have ýPage=010 Column=001 OK,0016.00þ
learned that the basest of values racism, misogyny and homophobia are embedded in what many consider as entertainment in this country, which means these values are internalized within all of us.
Prejudice clearly is profitable. Because it is, I am sure of three things: Imus will resurface on satellite radio, other shock-
jocks will not change their scripts one bit and the rap genre of the music industry famous for its slurs will not lose a penny of sales over this incident.
The firing of one person does not change social values. People change social values by consistently saying a loud no way to people, places and things that are injurious to others.
Economic Power
We also have learned that when television sponsors are worried about losing consumer support, remedial action can be swift. The withdrawal of financial backing by significant corporations was the final nail in the Imus radio and television coffin.
What is not clear is why ýPage=010 Column=002 OK,0002.05þ
these sponsors reacted so forcefully to his offensive remark. Surely, Imus was their cash cow with a wide consumer audience. Did the boards of directors simply calculate that the free advertising associated with withdrawing from the Imus shows was priceless? Were they genuinely fed up with a series of hate messages spewed out by this man? Or did they see their daughters and granddaughters as potential targets of shock-jocks?
It is important to understand the impact on corporate America and to harness this economic power to address all forms of prejudice and civil rights violations that still exist in our society.
Personal Potential
The final lesson is that the only values we can change are our own. It is within our hearts that the pulse of prejudice in this society keeps beating. And it is within our hearts that prejudice must be eliminated.
There is no one-size-fits-all formula for exorcising internalized racism, sexism and homophobia. We are all products of ýPage=010 Column=003 OK,0013.00þ
generational prejudices firmly entrenched in every area of society. It is our task, then, to neutralize these toxic values.
For me, value change begins with taking time to quietly reflect on my own prejudices and how I act out these negative values. It is then that I can make a conscious decision to change my behavior in everyday encounters.
Making these small efforts helps me to appreciate interpersonal similarities, and I then can bring this new consciousness to the family dinner table, to community meetings and, eventually, to the voting booth.
Lessons Learned
The slanderous words of Don Imus, coupled with the courageous response of Rutgers Scarlet Knights, place an unavoidable mirror before all of us. Crucial flaws in the American value system are visible to even the most myopic eyes.
We can turn away from this image, or we can begin to identify lessons learned and create personal and social plans for change. The choice is ours, and what we do or dont do will affect all future generations.
Judy Shepps Battle is a New Jersey resident, addictions specialist, consultant and freelance writer. She can be reached by e-
mail at [email protected]. Additional information on this and other topics can be found at her Web site at www.writeaction.com.
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