Language and American Culture

I must admit I was outraged when Imus justified his remarks about the Rutgers Women's Basketball team with the Black community uses that language. I was even more disgusted when many members of the press jumped on that bandwagon and started discussing the double standards applied to certain types of speech.

I do not defend the use of words like "'hos", "bitches", etc. in any type of music, but I thought the deflection of the conversation to double standards was, at best, racist. Why? Because it allows us to ignore the ordinary incidents of sexism in everyday life and decide that it's only Black people that have problems with sexism.

What ordinary incidents of sexism? I read an article in the New York Times about working class women who had babies and their employers would not provide them with an area to pump breastmilk so they had to stop nursing their children. I think this is an act of sexism. Everytime I see a woman wearing a t-shirt with a logo saying "Porn Star", this is an act of sexism (who are we pleasing here . . . I suspect not themselves). What about the fact that there are few women as partners of law firms. Do we call that the "glass ceiling"? Another example of sexism. Donald Trump won't change his own son's diapers? Sexism.

What other stories do women tell about their lives? I haven't even gotten personal. So before we start accusing rap music of debasing our standards, let's look at the basic stuff in front of our faces.