The "B" word and disrespect
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Posted: March 27, 2002
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif. – offended!
At a recent meeting, Los Angeles Police Commission head Rick Caruso allegedly referred to Waters as a "bitch." Others attended the meeting, but no one confirmed or denied that Caruso made the remark.
Waters pronounced the remark "disrespectful," and urged Caruso's resignation. "If it's all right for the president of the police commission to refer to women in such a foul manner," she said, "he should never be in a position to make policy about disciplining police officers who use the same type of language."
Let's go to the videotape.
In a 1995 Los Angeles Times article by Waters, she offers a defense of rap music, despite its demeaning, graphic lyrics. "Do I like all rap music?" wrote Waters. "No, I do not. Do I like some of it? Yes, I do. I am moved by some of the stories told by rap artists such as Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog about their lives, their families, their mothers and their surroundings. It sometimes sounds like a cry for help." So Snoop Doggy Dog's CD "Doggystyle," with a cut called "For All My Niggaz and Bitches," actually serves as the artist's plaintive cry for group therapy.
What about the use of the "B" word by Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C.? On Jan. 18, 1990, authorities filmed the then-mayor of Washington, D.C, smoking crack and attempting to sleep with a woman. When confronted by the police, the angry, embarrassed mayor said of his female companion, "I'll be G--------. She set me up. The bitch!" After the disgraced mayor served jail time, he resurrected his career when elected to D.C. city council, before his triumphant re-election as mayor. Did Congresswoman Waters suggest that Barry's use of the "B" word indicated "disrespect" for women in general, for black women in particular? Indeed, after Barry's return to office, Waters and he worked together. If Waters condemned Barry and his remark, it didn't make news.
Did Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., demonstrate disrespect when, of the Republican party's takeover of Congress in 1994, Rangel said, "It's not 'spic' or 'nigger' any more. They say, 'Let's cut taxes'"?