by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I was in New York doing what I try to do best: show up for my little girls and support them in their endeavors. My daughter had a volleyball game at her university and I was pumped for the event. Although I do all I can to stay away from work when I am with my kids, I couldn't help but sneak away to appear on one of my favorite radio shows, "The Main Line" on 98.7 Kiss FM.
During the show, we discussed all the usual topics for a hot blooded Sunday afternoon: Politics, news, African American issues, Obama and more. Toward the end of the show, someone made mention of Robert Plant's appearance on The Today Show. My first thought was, "Who in the heck is Robert Plant and why does he matter?" It only took me a couple of seconds to figure out the answer to both of those questions.
Come on, I find it hard to believe Dr. Watkins didn't know who Robert Plant is, though such a claim does make for a nice passive-aggressive swipe, a swipe not wholly undeserved.
ReplyDeleteThere really is no excuse in 2010 to make such a racial slur, even if one isn’t an American. Ignorance is no excuse in this day and age. People throughout the industrialized world are fully aware of the offensiveness of such derision.
If one is aware of a slur well enough to use it, one also knows damn well not to, regardless of his or her personal bigotry.
And let’s not forget the irony of hypocrisy in harboring such racism in the first place considering – as he himself has admitted – he’s built a career ripping off the very artists he’s deriding. Shame on Plant.