Dignity Defense in an Offensive World

A New York Times article covering a press conference held by the Rutgers women's basketball team today showed more defense than offense. While the headline "Rutgers Women Show Anger, but Agree to Meet Imus" brings back stereotypes of angry black women, the article itself spends more print on defending the worthiness of African American members of the team by highlighting grade point averages, community involvement and music playing abilities than on attacking offensive statements made by Imus...

Stringer noted that the team had a combined B-plus grade point average. “Let me put a human face on this,” she said. “These young ladies are valedictorians of their class, future doctors, musical prodigies and, yes, even Girl Scouts. They are all young ladies of class. They are distinctive, articulate.”

I find this defensive strategy strange when what really needs to happen is an attack on the racism that breeds the kinds of comments that Imus made. The statements made by the women on the team were not in denial of the names they had been called, they were a defense against all the things we believe about black women and in having to make that defense they prove that the racism and sexism behind Imus's words still exists.

On the other end we seem to be struggling with how to go about punishing Imus, and I would suggest that it is because we are missing the point. Imus and MSNBC may be easier targets for our upset, he can be fired, advertisers can withdraw (and are withdrawing) their ads. But how can you attack words? those were what we all found so offensive right? Again, we miss the point, it was the racism and the sexism that we found so offensive. Attacking, or erasing those is a much bigger job than can be done in the two weeks this incident will stay in the news cycle. More importantly it is a job we all have to do, we can't just point a finger at someone else's offensive language we have to look at ourselves, or education, our beliefs. By publishing an article in defense of the Rutgers team the New York Times was re-enforcing an offense by making an unnecessary defense. The space would have been better used defending the women by making an offense on racism and sexism.