My take on the Dr. Laura controversy

Before last week I had no idea what Dr. Laura Schlessinger was actually a doctor of, I just assumed she was a doctor in the same way Dr. Phil or Dr. Pepper was. Now I know she is a doctor af asinine logic and fake martyrdom. If you haven’t heard, the esteemed Dr. Laura was asked a question by a caller to her show and instead of using her platform to help as her call in line supposedly does, she uses it to open a pandora’s box that she can’t close. Here is the conversation in it’s entirety.

CALLER: Is it OK to say that word? Is it ever OK to say that word?
DR. LAURA: It depends how it's said. Black guys talking to each other seem to think it's ok.
CALLER: But you're not black, they're not black, my husband is white.
DR. LAURA: Oh, I see, so a word is restricted to race. Got it. Can't do much about that.
CALLER: I can't believe someone like you is on the radio spewing out the n***** word, and I hope everybody heard it.
DR. LAURA: I didn't spew out the n***** word!
CALLER: You said "n*****, n*****, n*****" and I hope everybody heard it.
DR. LAURA: Yes they did, and I'll say it again: n*****, n*****, n***** is what you hear on HBO.
[Crosstalk]
DR. LAURA: Why don't you let me finish a sentence? Don't take things out of context. Don't NAACP me, leave them in context.

The question the caller had was how should she convey to her white husband it offends her when he and his friends us the word nigger. What Dr. Laura did was use her platform to in my opinion maybe justify her own previously unaired use of the word. And when the caller who is clearly offended by the word from the get go is offended once more, she besmirches the name of an organization that has done a lot of good for the African American community and uses the flawed logic of “well if they can do it, I can do it.”

The debate over whether or not to use the word is a complicated one. I have been called out of my name before using the epithet in question and it Is downright dehumanizing. But I can see the point of those who say if you are going to try and degrade us, we will take the power out of the word by making it our own. But to go off on a tangent such as the one she did shows there was some residual bubbling under the surface for her. I’m not saying she’s a racist but perhaps an internal battle brewed inside her as to whether or not she should be allowed to say the word.
I also took offense to her just assuming all black guys refer to each with that same greeting. I tend to use the name of black friends instead of the Boyz in the the Hood era greetings in which she has unfairly put on all young men of color. Yes the statistics are sad regarding my demographic but the assumption we are all the same is unfair and cheapens the hard work we have done to become functioning members of society.

If her intent was to bring attention to the n-word debate, mission accomplished. But then she made an appearance on Larry King Live and one comment in particular after her announcement to leave her show at the end of her contract rubbed me the wrong way.

"The reason is I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I'm sort of done with that."

Oh I get it! You are being denied your right to free speech. Wait…you were allowed to go on your rant. The first amendment does not mean you are exempt from any backlash that your statements may cause. My right as an American is to voice my disapproval with how you got your point across. It is anyone whose eyes may come across this to disagree with me on any forum the choose. That is the beauty of America. You can’t have your right to free speech and deny the people who disagree with you their right. That’s not how it works.

If I had my way the word would not be banished as if it were some leper, it would be learned about. The pain the word has caused must be remembered because if we don’t learn from our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty (Sometimes)

Professional athlete A goes to an upscale resort in a quaint ski town. Over the course of his time there he is sure to draw the attention of a few people, including more than one interested lady. The lady joins him in his room and a few days later there is an accusation of sexual assault. Now Professional athlete B also goes to a quaint ski town, and he also meets a few interested ladies, and like athlete A, he too is joined in his room and is subsequently accused of sexual assault. If you said that they would receive the same amount of attention, you would be wrong. Athlete A is Kobe Bryant, and Athlete B is Ben Rothliesberger.

For weeks we saw nothing but the trial, the press conferences, carefully worded statements from Bryant and his legal team assuring the public and the American legal system that the only thing he was guilty of was adultery. Yet no matter what arena he stepped into he was greeted with chants of ‘rapist’ as if the idea of innocent until proven guilty were just words. When the details of the case were revealed and Kobe was eventually exonerated the damage had been done. He had been painted as a sexual deviant and nothing was going to change that despite the fact the promiscuous girl who claimed this got away with character assassination.

Not to be outdone Big Ben decided step into the world of “he said, she said.” What do the news outlets that were so quick to jump on Kobe do? Nothing. Maybe they really were awaiting more details before reporting. Perhaps a lesson had been learned from the public witch burning that was the Kobe Bryant trial. I mean there were reasons to be skeptical. The victim did not press charges instead she went straight for a civil suit seeking a minimum of $490,000 plus punitive damages. These don’t appear to be the actions of one who had been violated. I decided to give them a pass.

Now comes word that for the second time in less than a year Big Ben Rapelesberger has struck again. Now what strikes me as odd is that no one appears to be talking about this. I don’t want to be the on to do this but I can’t help but notice that Ben is a white athlete whereas Kobe is a black athlete and maybe this has something to do with the perceived guilt and innocence and the ensuing news coverage. Constantly on ESPN and other sports outlets we see black athletes such as Ochocinco, Terrell Owens, and others constantly vilified as though they were public enemy number one and white athletes call passionate or have a childlike love for the game. Am I suggesting that there is a massive conspiracy against black athletes? No. But it does make one wonder why this is.

I don’t know the answer to this extremely complicated situation, but it would be nice not to have to go through another separate but equal conversation in this time. Because the coverage of the two races of athletes has been separate, but it damn sure isn’t equal, this I do know.

Disrespectful Banter

During the course of my day I get asked alot of general questions, ranging from sports to politics. Now when asked these I generally have no problem answering these questions, but when politics is on the table without fail someone asks "are you voting for Barack Obama because he is black?" Now I can guarantee none of my white friends have been asked are they voting for someone due to the fact they are white. I find this question to be offensive, because it insinuates that I am unable to make a decision based on the facts. That I have to look at a guy's skin color to make a choice. If that was the case i would never vote because as we all know Obama is the first legit candidate of color. I take my voting very seriously and look into each candidate. I owe too much to those who came before me to ignore the issues. But ok, here are a few reasons. The McCain campaign lies too much for me. Example, in a new ad an excerpt of Obama speaking showed this: "says our troops in Afghanistan are "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians." In reality it was taken from a speech a year ago where he said: "We've got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there." Ok, want a another? You got it. How can I vote for a man who chooses a woman who doesn't even know who is leading our troops in Afghanistan. Really Gov. Palin? Gen. Mclellan said that? You sure it wasn't Gen. McKiernan. And I have many more reasons why I am not voting for John McCain so if you ask me if I am voting for the Senator from Illinois because he is black you might just get a bipartisan bitch slap from the old Chocolate Puma.

Bob Johnson is a Giant Douchebag.

The Clinton campaign is really beginning to annoy me. This so called campaign that they are running is flat out disgusting. Their latest tactic has been to get one of their biggest black supporters to attack Barack Obama...again. If you don't remember, in January Bob Johnson, the creator of BET, made a passive aggressive swipe at Obama's admitted experimentation with drugs which he tried to cover up and say he was referring to the community outreach work that Obama was active in during the beginning of his career. Now Bob Johnson has come out and said that he agreed with the racist and flat out wrong assertions of Geraldine Ferraro. He has been quoted as saying, "What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called `Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not... ."

Well Bob, when Obama announced that he was running for the presidency Hillary Clinton lead with 52% of the black vote, and the lead increased to 60% by March according to a CNN poll. Over the course of 2007, he worked hard and eventually took over the lead. It was not just handed to him. As a young black man, I find it insulting that a man of Johnson's position would say something this idiotic. In America, there is NO advantage to being a black man. And to say that the only reason that Obama is where he is because of his race just completely ignores all of the hard work that he has done academically, socially, and politically. No one is saying anything about Clinton doing as well as she has because she is a rich white woman and believe me that is much more of an advantage than being a black man.

When the topic of race has been brought up, it has not been the Obama campaign, it had been the Clinton camp. It says to me that the Clintons don't believe in this day and age, that a black man just can't possibly win an election on his own merit and skill. It has to be due to his race. And that my friend is the most insulting and disgusting thing of all. I am not saying vote for Obama because he is black, if you disagree with his beliefs and policies by all means vote for someone else. But if you don't vote for him, don't say because he is black. That is just as bad.

If Obama does not win the nomination, I don't know who I will vote for, but I can give you my personal guarantee that it won't be Hillary Clinton.

At this point I'd put Frankenberry in office before Hillary.