The Ride Home

Like I've said before, I count myself lucky to be one of the few people to listen to Howard Stern both to and from work.

Today he had Pimp Magic Don Juan as a guest, and man, is that guy funny. Somehow he's able to rhyme nearly everything he says. Some guy called up and asked to be a pimp apprentice. Don Juan cut right to the chase, "You have a girlfriend." "Yeah." "Would you let your buddy sleep with her?" "No, no." "Ah, then, you just failed the pimp test. What's the point of going through all the work, when deep down, you don't have it in you?" genius. Howard asked him whether he's needed to ever beat someone up, a ho or a john, he said that that's what the police are for - he's been paying taxes since 1974. Amazing.

During commercials, I turn over to NPR, and today Joe Horn and Emeka Hutchinson (???? I think I have the names wrong, they are basically black intellectuals, as far as I could tell) and they were talking about Cosby. The Hutchinson guy was criticizing Cosby for not putting qualifiers in his statements and thereby excluding the good accomplishments of African-American kids. Fine, whatever. Could you find a more boring point to make on public radio? It seems pretty much accepted that Cosby's point is legitimate and especially legitimate coming from him.

For me, a young hapa man, what he said just came across as common sense - and calling attention to people taking responsibility for themselves, their children, and their community shouldn't be a shock to anyone. And I find anyone threatened by such a statement reveals themselves as being a subscriber to victim-glorification...a deep form of self-loathing and hatred towards the world by ones own refusal to help themselves.

There's a time when things are wrong and we all, not race-specific, need to stand up to those things, together, and say what's wrong with them. The best example of that in recent history is the Civil Rights movement. Today, this formal issue seems to be what we call "gay marriage," but really isn't about marriage at all. It's simply about gay's having rights to pass along inheritances, share mortgages, jointly pay taxes, and get the general rights afforded to those hetero adults. To construe it into an issue of "marriage" is just cover for those to express their homophobia. And believe, I know, cause I've got some of that myself. But at least I recognize that I shouldn't act on my homophobia and hide my homophobia by pretending I believe in the sanctity of "marriage." That's the biggest crock of all.

It's important to be careful how we look at and treat Muslims in these divisive times. For the most part, I'm pretty proud how the average joe American understands that most Muslims are just like everyone else and that radical segments of their populations give them a bad name. We haven't seen the wave of violence and injustice towards Muslims by Americans, that Muslim governments and far leftists would have predicted. Granted, there may be issues with Guantanimo and undoubtedly, over time, when we are safe and able to reflect on what we did there, some unjust things will come out. But it's no where near the Japanese internment, or the Indian wars, or slavery, or other ugly marks in our countries past.

But there is also a time to hold people to a standard we hold to ourselves. That is part of respecting another as a human being, with autonomy, able to make a choice. Treating someone as a MAN. You know what I mean?

And that's what Cosby is saying - "Quit your bitching and sack up. Read a fricking book. Take the world by the balls. Take your opportunities and use them." These words, like all smart things, aren't just for the immediate audience (in this case blacks folks). All young folks and parents can use the same advice. As can the Arab governments and the would-be terrorists and the parents in the Muslim world. I have not a single problem with Muslims in general. One of closest friends growing up is Muslim. My first boss at work for three years was Muslim. I freaking like Muslims. I hate Muslim fundamentalists and I hate most Arab governments. They're a bunch of fricking assholes. And it has nothing to do with their religion or my biases or anything. When you're a dick - that's it, you're a dick. If a kid is stupid and unmotivated, black, white, asian, latino, muslim, he's stupid and unmotivated. Why is it hard for people to take in? People want to talk about nuance and context and disclaimers and qualifiers, when there's this world out there with potential if you can just open your eyes a little bit and be ready to deal with failures and success.

I hope this whole PC movement is feeling threatened, cause it's gotten way out of hand and we have smart people bashing it - Cosby, Howard Stern, Pimp Magic Don Juan, and much of the blogosphere. Word.