What
Liberal Double Standard?
by
Laurence A. Elder
Recently,
the President's panel on race held yet another Town Hall meeting.
This time things got a little hot. A white male stood up and loudly
and angrily defended "white rights." Security kicked him out of the
hall.
Commission chairman
John Hope Franklin said that the commission accepted dissent, but
dissent only with civility.
Huh?
I recently appeared
on CNBC's Charles Grodin Show, and debated the issue of hate crimes.
When I argued that blacks had more to fear from a black common street
thug than David Duke, the other panelists went ballistic. One suggested
I was in the "lap" of the white man, and questioned my motives. You're
saying these things to earn a living! You get money for turning your
back on your own people! So much for civility.
Recently, Spike
Lee, perhaps the most openly bigoted director in Hollywood, popped
back into the news. He criticized director Quentin Tarantino for his
"excessive" use of the word "nigger." "29 times in Pulp Fiction and
38 times in a new movie, Jackie Brown," said Spike Lee.
"Be warned," said
Spike. "The word 'nigger' isn't 'trendy,' and blacks are not amused."
Has Spike given this lecture to the comics on "Def Comedy Jam," or
to "gangsta" rapping recording artists? Who do you think uses the
"N"-word more, these guys or Quentin Tarantino? One popular rap group
calls itself "NWA." The "WA" stands for "with attitude." (Care to
speculate on what the "N" stands for?)
Isn't getting
a lecture on racial sensitivity from Spike Lee sort of like taking
tips on dating etiquette from Marv Albert? Remember a few years ago
when Spike Lee announced he wants to be interviewed only by black
reporters? Remember during the filming of Jungle Fever, and reports
of cast members complaining about Spike Lee's alleged abusive treatment
of white women? Remember after the release of Malcolm X, Lee implied
a racist conspiracy to miscalculate and lowball box-office receipts
of his movie?
And remember when
the Director, warmly and sensitively, explained his feeling toward
mixed race couples: "I give interracial couples a look. Daggers. They
get uncomfortable when they see me on the street." Hmmm. During the
O.J. Simpson case, the defense alleged that officer Mark Fuhrman,
for no reason, pulled over cars with interracial couples. So when
Mark Fuhrman expresses displeasure at interracial couples, he's racist.
Spike Lee does it--well, Spike must have had his reasons.
Now, of course,
people who apply double standards won't let anybody else try it. Remember
the international furor over the Iowa septuplets? Well, I got several
angry letters from blacks denouncing the media's "double standard."
You see, earlier this year a black Washington, D.C., couple gave birth
to six children, one stillborn. No house, no scholarships, no lifetime
supply of Pampers, no media. Racist media! Ignoring a black multiple
birth!
Never mind that
only five babies survived, and that even the black mayor of Washington,
D.C., failed to telephone them. Never mind that quintuplets no longer
shock us the way that seven surviving babies do. No! shout the hotheads,
the media cares more about white babies than black ones!
But media consistency
simply does not exist. Remember the British au pair trial? Court TV,
CNN, huge international interest, especially in the UK. But, a few
weeks after the au pair's conviction, Van Nuys, California prosecutors
tried Shirley Ree Smith, a black grandmother, on charges of shaking
to death her two-month-old grandchild. Same defense as with the au
pair. The child "re-bled from an old injury." The jury convicted her
of child endangerment, a penalty that carries a maximum of 25 years
behind bars.
No Court TV, no
CNN, no British fascination with this case. Why? Who knows. Perhaps
the au pair had two doctors as bosses. Then there was that British
versus Boston Irish angle thing going. Who knows? But Shirley Ree
Smith is black. Would the "media-is-racist" folks feel better had
Court TV descended on Ms. Smith and parked its camera trucks in front
of her house?
How about one
standard fits all. If Mark Fuhrman's a racist for attacking interracial
couples, so is Spike Lee. If, at a town hall meeting, we call a surly
white guy "uncivil," so are those who attack conservatives as "fascists."
If we demand media
attention to the black D.C. couple's "achievement" of giving birth
to six children, do we ask on behalf of black convicted grandmother
Shirley Ree Smith, "Where are the cameras?"