Who Let the Dog Out?

Another white man busted for making racially insensitive remarks about black people, another opportunity for white people to defend another one of their own. Too many good people think like the Dog to think that there’s anything wrong with his racial tirade. Too many good, non racist white people feel that all black people want to do is wait until some white person slips up and accidentally use the word nigger in a sentence six times, takes them to court, and seize all their worldly assets. Why? Probably because more white people are being exposed as the racist they happen to be these days. Too many people are saying something retarded like,

He’s not exactly racist. He’s just worried about looking like a racist. If you listen carefully he only uses nigger six times. A white person would have to use the nigger word at least a dozen times in a single sentence before it starts to look suspicious. Well I’m confused because now I don’t know what to call them. This is a gray area that we need to use to start a dialog that will help heel our wounds and help quell the racial overtones of America. It’s not like he was hanging a noose or anything.

But this article isn’t about Dog. Yeah he’s a racist. But what the hell, some white celebrity is being busted for their blatant racism on a daily basis these days. What else is in the news? The bigger problem I’m having with this story is the fact that all these black television news anchors who act like they’re just reporting on the weather when these stories of racism are constantly popping out the woodwork.

The people on CNN are good for this. Tony Harris reports stories of nooses and interviews the people who are most closely associated to the event as if he, as a black man, just doesn’t understand what the fuss is all about. Maybe he doesn’t understand because he’s trying so hard to detach himself from the black community. I watched Mr. Harris do his story on one of the recent noose hangings and he’s interviewing the target of this heinous act and he’s asking a question like, So tell me, you find a noose hanging from the ceiling fan in your personal office, why make a big deal of it?

Don Lemon is another black anchor who acts like he doesn’t have a clue as to why people in the black community would get upset over something so overtly racist. He is interviewing a panel of guess and they’re talking about the racially offensive comments from Dog “Did I Say That?” the Bounty Hunter and he starts the discussion with a question to one of the black panelist, Why is this so offensive? The black panelist, I can’t remember who it was, should have turned the question back on him and say, Excuse me Mr. Lemon but you look black, why do you think it’s offensive?

These black anchors will tell a story about offensive acts of racism with such a professional detachment. But the next story will be about a cat that suffered from cancer and how some Boy Scout troop in Beverly Hills adopted the cat and came up with the money to pay the vet bill by washing the cars of all the millionaires in their neighborhood. The Boy Scout story would be told with such feeling and obvious body language of compassion that our heart strings cannot help but be touched. The black anchor will start rubbing his temples as if he’s under so much anguish when he reports that the I-5 interchange in Oakland, California has suffered yet another accident that threatens the smooth flow of traffic in the area for an entire afternoon. If these stories can be told with such compassion and feeling, what’s the problem with showing a little compassion to the black community when we suffer the indignity of having another noose thrown in our faces?

Just like every news anchor show visible signs of compassion for the cute little puppy that fell down the well, it should be natural for black anchors to show some kind of physical reaction at having to report another racist act. When the black anchor doesn’t react it reinforces the notion that this might not be as offensive as the black community would like for it to appear. If the black anchor is able to disengage and keep this in perspective why can’t more black people do it?

The black anchor’s disassociation actually helps to minimize the outrage from the black community. It will give other black people pause when they should be voicing their own outrage. Some people will see the lack of a reaction from the black role model on the television set and will fail to react to the story at all. Even the white anchor’s voice will drop a bit with the seriousness of racism. But the black anchor? He or she might as well be reporting the weather.