Meredith Vieira Asks Al Sharpton about Racial Double Standard

Meredith Vieira turned the tables on Rev. Al Sharpton this morning, blasting him for not doing enough to stop black rappers from using words like "ho" and "b**ch" in their lyrics while excoriating Don Imus for doing so.

Sharpton was on the "Today" show this morning to react to Imus’ firing by MSNBC, and the Rev. repeated his contention that Imus’ place on the "public" airwaves made him responsible, and ultimately culpable, for his "nappy-headed hos" remark. Vieira then challenged Sharpton, demanding to know why he didn’t hold hip-hop and rap artists more responsible for "spreading the message" of demeaning and abusive language, and accusing Sharpton of perpetuating a "double standard."

Sharpton explained that his organization, National Action Network, was working to get more rappers with "positive messages" onto the airwaves, but acknowledged that those rappers were not getting the same attention.

Each generation of youth have their own cultural language which is used by people throughout our society. Some, like Imus, use the same words as the youth without understanding the context, and so the meaning is not the same, and the reaction is different. Imus misused the words "nappy headed ho," and for this miscommunication he will lose his career.

Rappers know their language is negative, but because it fits the language of today’s youth they get a pass and keep selling CDs. The use of those words by rappers promotes violence, crime, and racial hatred. Despite this rappers are given a pass by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Crystal Meth is also popular among many youth. Should rappers by allowed to sell Crystal Meth? Of course not. It seems so obvious. What is equally obvious is that Sharpton and Jackson won’t criticize fellow blacks for doing the same thing as white men like Imus, and that is both an injustice, and a double standard. Don’t interpret this as defending Imus. The message is that hypocrites like Sharpton and Jackson that promote racial inequalities, and a double standard, promote racial hatred as much as rappers.

Both Sharpton and Jackson publicly convicted the Duke Lacrosse players of being guilty of raping a black stripper. The Lacrosse players have been declared INNOCENT. The stripper did have DNA of 5 men inside her vagina the night of the rape, but no DNA of any Lacrosse player was found. Right after the rape lie the stripper got pregnant, and has had the baby already. None of the DNA found in the stripper was from her boyfriend, and her boyfriend was not the father of the baby. Both Sharpton and Jackson need to apologize to these three white boys, and then Sharpton and Jackson should lose their jobs for racially lynching these boys despite the evidence proving their innocence. Sharpton and Jackson need to accept responsibility for their mistakes as well.