Power 99/Clear Channel, it’s 2011 for God’s sake!
We’ve come a long way. We have done a ton of learning and at least that much sensitivity training toward each other.
Since the Civil Rights Act, since the Equal Rights Amendment (thank you Betty Ford and safe passage), since Student Rights, since Stonewall and Gay Rights, since the Americans with Disabilities Act, since etc., we have come a long, long way to acceptance of or at least respect for the diversity that is the human experience. Well, at least most of us have.
C’mon. Today we all know the bigoted slurs, the hate-talk, the words that just aren’t tolerated. If you don’t know, ignorance is a legitimate excuse. For real, there are folks whom I know and love (mostly older) who were raised a certain way and stayed in that old mindset.
But then again there are those bigoted bigots who know how inappropriate hate slurs are but insist, for whatever personal reasons, to spew them in their everyday lives. They are the folks who make us cringe on public transportation, in malls, restaurants, on the street. They believe that the words “woman,” “girl” and “female” all begin with “B.”
Then again there are those like Jonesy on Clear Channel/Power 99. She is a truly bigoted bigot, licensed by Clear Channel to pollute the peoples’ airwaves for advertising revenue.
Recently on her morning show, Jonesy ranted about gays, white and black.
It was appalling broadcasting filled with hate speak and hate code. I tuned into a “conversation” between her and a caller. As Jonesy ended the call, she used the word “faggot.” I heard it. Others [heard it] as well.
I contacted the station to complain about the rant, the hate speak and slur. I got a response that there was no use of the word “faggot” on the corporate recording of the broadcast. OK. So be it. He said/she said. But what really is the point?
Clear Channel, which owns WUSL/Power 99 and scores of media outlets in the USA, missed the whole point, entirely and completely. Clear Channel/Power 99 even replayed portions of Jonesy’s rant on subsequent shows.
You see, Jonesy clearly knows she would be in serious “lose my job again” soup if she used a hate slur like “faggot” on the public airwaves. So instead she hates in code.
Jonesy proudly spoke in Pig Latin: She uses “ag-got-fee-ugga,” and she uses it over and over.
With a clear mind and full will, she knows that she can’t say “faggot,” so with Clear Channel’s approval, she regularly uses hate code, a dead language, to spew her bigotry.
That’s the point, Clear Channel. Hate in any language is hate.
Asa Khalif
Founding president, Racial Unity USA