Watch out or you may be Imused
By John David Powell (04/25/07)
Imused (I-must) verb - To lose one’s job, or to be pilloried, for lack of racial sensitivity or political correctness.
Unless one is of Chinese ancestry or has a great interest in the racial hypocrisy that holds hostage our politically correct society, the indefinite suspension this week of the two nitwits who host “The Dog House with JV and Elvis” on WFNY-FM in New York City (www.923freefm.com/pages/13527.php) probably went unnoticed. The pair aired a six-minute prank phone call to a New York Chinese restaurant on April 5, which the station replayed on April 19. The call was filled with language that would make a (fill in the blank, or risk offending members of any occupation whose place of business may range from a street corner to the open seas) blush.
The New York Times (www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/business/media/24radiocnd.htm) and Radio Online (http://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/$rol.exe/headline_id=n16465) are two of several news and information sites that carried stories of the suspensions that followed protests from the Chinese community.
As an American of Chinese ancestry (my grandfather was an illegal immigrant who later owned a restaurant in Chicago and who became the treasurer for one of the city’s triads), I find myself torn between feeling 1) outrage toward cavalier attitudes regarding racial slurs and 2) disgust regarding selective political correctness vis-à-vis humor.
Last year, it was encouraging to see a challenge to Rosie O’Donnell’s Chinese insults, even if her comments did not garner much attention from her sycophants in the mainstream media. Given the lack of public outrage, one would surmise it is never okay to use the N word, but it is open season for the C word, especially if said on national television.
Here is what happened. Rosie did not appreciate the media obsession regarding actor Danny DeVito’s apparent on-air inebriety, and she voiced her displeasure on “The View.”
“The fact is that it's news all over the world. That you know, you can imagine in China it's like: 'Ching chong … ching chong. Danny DeVito, ching chong, chong, chong, chong. Drunk. 'The View.' Ching chong."
When confronted, she said she was doing it to be funny. In other words, Rosie’s cool, so shut up and get over it.
New York city council member John Liu told reporters O’Donnell’s remarks hit a raw nerve for many Chinese and Chinese Americans who grew up hearing those kinds of taunts. “We all know that it never ends at the taunts,” he said.
Rosie got away with her comments because they were pre-Imus. JV and Elvis took their hit, because the Organization of Chinese Americans (www.ocanational.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=207&Itemid=94) promised to follow Al Sharpton’s lead and stage protests of CBS Radio and boycotts of the station’s advertisers until the station “Imused” them.
“It is apparent that not only did JV and Elvis not learn anything from the Don Imus scandal, but CBS and CBS Radio decided that Asian Americans are easy prey for racist radio broadcasts,” said Vicki Shu Smolin, president of the OCA New York City chapter.
And that brings me to the second point: disgust regarding selective political correctness vis-à-vis humor.
No one was safe on the Imus program. The folks on the show referred disparagingly to the sports guy’s girth. The producer donned a FedEx envelope to pretend to be a Catholic archbishop as he unleashed a string of dirty jokes about paedophile priests. Imus referred to politicians and entertainers as morons and idiots. A comedian who regularly appeared on the show made fun of Imus’ age and called into question the I-Man’s sexual preferences. In short, they went out of their way to be politically incorrect in the name of humor.
Same is true for JV and Elvis. Don’t think that their Chinese act was their first on-air humor at someone’s expense. On March 27, the duo brought on a local, unsigned band, then “directed numerous vulgar anti-gay slurs at the band’s bassist,” as detailed in an alert put out by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (www.glaad.org/action/alerts_detail.php?id=3997). According to GLAAD, the station’s program director defended the comments as comedy, and refused to apologize.
Did the Big Apple’s Chinese chuckle over the gay remarks? Did the city’s gays giggle at the Chinese jokes? And throughout these and other incidents, where was Sharpton, the self-appointed chief of the politically correct police? Or, are Asian Americans easy prey for racist broadcasts, as the OCA’s Vicki Shu Smolin asked?
One part of me says “Right on, Vicki!” while another part of me asks, “Who has not told at joke at someone else’s expense?” If you have not, then you’re a better person than I am.
There is a fine line between jokes and taunts, between comedy and cruelty. And everyone of us, except possibly for the righteous and reverend Mr. Sharpton, has crossed that line. It is good, therefore, to hold a national discussion about humor, mankind’s true sixth sense.
And that reminds me of my wife’s favorite joke that begins, “Two Yankees walk into a bar . . .”
John David Powell
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