An Open letter to Mr. Tom Oliphant,
Mr. Oliphant, I am shocked and appalled that a journalist of your ilk would serve as an apologist for Don Imus after he called the young student athletes on Rutger’s women’s basketball term "nappy-headed hos." Mr. Imus also laughed as his producer, Bernard McGuirk, called these young women "hard-core hos" and made reference to "the Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes." These are not the kind of words that accidentally fall from the mouth of a fully moral person like a few bits of food might escape the mouth of a careless diner caught in a joke. These are words that bounce around in the heads of racists awaiting an occasion for expression.
I will not even speak of the history of racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia on this show. This one action is more than enough to justify the most stunning rebuke.
Mr Oliphant, I am almost equally shocked that you would use the term "solidarity" in your public defense of Mr. Imus. I am sure you realize fully the context and history of this term in social activism.
As a white woman from Alabama, I wonder if you are among those who generally consider my state racist and backward. If so, I put you on notice that you may NEVER again consider yourself morally superior. Down here, a white person who said such a thing on television would be fired immediately. Such a person would find absolutely no support from reputable journalists in Alabama.
I know the face of racism. I’ve seen it in the public square, in universities, in churches and synagogues, and at all manner of charitable events. It can, and often does, appear on the faces of well-respected individuals who are otherwise generous and fully engaged in philanthropy. As a responsible citizen of a state that must be and is actively engaged in the vigilant battle against all from of racism, I must tell you that Don Imus and Bernard McGuirk represent the face of racism in it’s most insidious and damaging form. When "good people" say things like this, it undermines human dignity in a way that the drunken ranting of an obnoxious fool never could.
This gives excuse to the others who will also speak of their philanthropy and religious dedication while they undermine the moral growth of another generation. It undermines the progress that has been made in building trust and the hope of a future in which "solidarity" brings together people of all colors and genders.
Racism must be purged from civilized society with a voice that is strong and true. A two-week suspension does not tell the young women of our nation that they must be and will be respected. It does not begin to mend the damage that has been done to these young women to their peers nationwide. We must earn their trust with action proving that racism will no longer be tolerated in this great nation. Racism must leave the public stage--not just for the next two weeks, or next two years, or the next two decades, but forever.
Mr. Oliphant, I fear you have sold you soul for the "solidarity" of money and fame. From Alabama, I call upon you to realize your shame and speak now to recover your dignity.
--
The publicly available email address is oliphant@globe.com. Please join my call upon this well-respected journalist to make an example and renounce his support for the tolerance of racism on the stage with the best of America's public policy narrative.
UPDATE: Elwood Dowd and MA Liberal have pointed out that Oliphant has retired from the Boston Globe so the email address may not work. My email has not bounced so, as many organizations allow, he may have maintained email privileges at his old address. I just don't know.