Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.Well, CBS isn't exactly Congress.
In the world of entertainers, famous white entertainers must always remember that their stupidity is not protected by the 1st Amendment. Fuzzy Zoeller lost a pile of endorsement money. Now Don Imus is being skewered by the likes of Al Sharpton, that paragon of racial equanimity, and has had his show suspended for two weeks by CBS.
I think that there is a misconception among whites that the unsophisticated prattle often portrayed by Hollywood as common within racial/ethnic groups means it is okay for whites to parrot that kind of language or lack-of-thought process. This lapse in judgment by white celebrities is especially egregious because they should 1) know better and 2) have more class... did I say they should have more class? Even if there may be truth to the Hollywood version of intra-racial/ethnic vulgarisms, it should stay there... and it would still show a lack of class.When you have the public ear, use a variation of the old carpenter's law: think twice; say once.
That said, Don Imus' public persona does not necessarily reflect who he is and what he does.
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