Im'i's Spells Misogyny

Here is a letter I tried to send to The View regarding the Imus situation, but my computer wouldn't send it, so I sent it to NOW and I'm showing it here.


Dear Elisabeth,

I want to applaud you in your forthrightness and
courage to speak the truth concerning the Imus
situation! Usually when you speak, I cringe since I am
a liberal and you seem to be a conservative. But, I
have to tell you, you are right on this and Rosie and
the others are wrong!

I used to be a youth advisor at Washington Irving High
School for the YMCA's Teen Action program and there I
was taught how to give workshops to the teens. One
workshop I was shown was the Power chart. This
involved showing the students how powerful some groups
are and how powerless others are, depending on age,
gender, class, and race. I am a white woman so I have
certain power in this patriarchal system, but I also
have less power than a white man, but I have more than
a black woman. A black man has more power than a black
woman, but less than a white man. And on it goes. This
opened my eyes considerably.

Now I teach writing at a two-year college in Brooklyn
and have shown my students - thanks to the textbook -
Gloria Naylor's "Mommy, What Does the Word 'Nigger'
Mean?" as well as "Hate Radio" and more.

I have studied the role of our patriarchal system for
sometime. Women - all of us - are second class
citizens. White women have more power than black women
as well the other races under this system. Yes, things
are changing but not fast enough. White men - all of
them - are first class citizens. White men have more
power than black men as well as other races.

Black men as well as white men, can lean heavily
toward misogyny.

This is what the Imus issue is all about! It's not
just racism. It's misogyny. Yes, black men and most
men feel a real freedom to discredit women - under a
patriarchal society - and this is why it is so
IMPORTANT that Imus be the first to be fired for
misogyny. The way he said the Tennessee women were
"cute" and the Rutgers women, well you know.

It's misogyny!

Howard Stern, all of them are guilty of this! Society
is guilty of this.

I applaud you because you are touching on the issue.
It is not easy, but you had the courage to do it.
Rosie didn't. Joy didn't, and Barbara didn't.

When you bash the powerless, you must stand trial.
That is not freedom of speech, that is an 'ism'!

In Naylor's essay she writes that while some whites do
not say racist things, they are most likely thinking
it.

Thank you for speaking out.

Sincerely,

Sheela