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DON IMUS VICTIM OF "GROUP THINK" April 13, 2007 Susan Bates

Last week I wrote about the outrageous comments made by Houston Mayor Pro Tem Mike Berry regarding his disgust because Native Americans are "given" so much land, casinos and other welfare benefits. Except for on the internet, I didn't hear anything about this. CNN or ABC News didn't give it much attention, if any. But who cares? Berry was just talking about a small minority of People with little political clout or spending power. Never mind that these People once owned this land and had maintained it in pristine condition for hundreds of thousands of years. Besides, if Indians are given too much respect, then people will have to face that pesky little issue of guilt, because of what was done to them, and at what continues to be done. And while many people abhor the past genocide, few want to take meaningful steps to correct it.. Meanwhile, Mike Berry still holds his positions of power in government and business. Don Imus, on the other hand, didn't fare as well this week. So what did Shock Jock Imus say that incurred the wrath of Blacks? He referred to a team of women athletes as "Nappy Headed Ho's." This is the kind of stupid talk one expects to hear come out of the mouths of "good old boys" hanging out in bars, or out of the mouths of men, like Don Imus, who have made a living saying rude things to people. This rude behavior is known as Sacred Clowning in some Traditional Circles. The Sacred Clowns are a valuable part of society because they poke fun at us and make us look at ourselves in real light so that we don't become too arrogant and take ourselves too seriously. Yes, it is disrespectful to call any woman a "Ho" who hasn't earned the title. And as far as "Nappy Headed", I've heard that term used by blacks most of my life. In fact, on humid days, my hair can be a little nappy, too. In rap music, I am told, blacks refer to their women as "Ho's" and it isn't thought of as a bad thing. I've heard black men call each other "nigger" in New Orleans and they were friends. But I doubt if a white man could get away with using the same term. It's a race thing. Indian People say things to each other that aren't well tolerated when said by people of other colors. A long time ago, Native People began to understand that the term ''squaw" could be construed as derogatory since it referred to women's genitalia in some tribal languages. Columns were written and, in some cases, offense was taken to changing the old, comfortable word. A teacher from Florida called me one day to tell me that she had used the squaw word to teach her 4th graders about Indians for 20 years and she wasn't about to learn a new word just to please a bunch of stupid Indians. She asked me what I thought of that. I told her that I had no objections to her calling me a "squaw" if she didn't have any objections to me calling her a c*** because they meant the same. She hung up on me.... suddenly. It baffles me that people whose ancestors came to this continent for freedom, are content to sit idly by while one freedom after another slips quietly away. This week we witnessed the further erosion of Freedom of Speech. It is a sad thing to think that what we can say, rightly or wrongly, can now be decided by men like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. <><><><><><<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> "Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care." ........Jimmy Buffett "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." .................Robert M. Hutchins

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