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O'siyo Brothers and Sisters!
In the space of exactly one week two Clear
Channel Radio stations have had to suspend talk show hosts due to public
pressure after the shows engaged in racially inflammatory comments
during the show. Understand first, there was no suspension until public
outcry forced it. Understand second, the station managers in both cases
claimed they were caught off-guard by the actions and comments of the
show hosts. In both cases, there had been previous outrage expressed by
the public at the antics of
these very same hosts.
To briefly recap:
April 9, 2008, WDCG, Raleigh, NC
Controversial on-air comments about American Indians on "Bob and the
Showgram" have gotten host Bob Dumas and his two co-hosts suspended
until Monday. This followed racially negative comments about Lumbee
throughout the morning show.
The WDCG 105.1 FM morning show was off the air today, and N.C.
Commission of Indian Affairs executive director Gregory Richardson
confirmed that G-105 general manager Dick Harlow informed him of the
suspension.
It is interesting to note that same show insulted Hispanics before the
suspensions; and a public apology on the station web site has already
been removed.
April 16, 2008, KBFX, Anchorage, AK
Station KBFX 100.5-FM "The Fox" suspended morning shock jocks Woody and
Wilcox for similarly racially insensitive comments about Native
Alaskans.
The morning drive-time hosts were bantering with a caller about whether
getting into a fender-bender at Minnesota Drive and Raspberry Road made
you a "real" Alaskan. What else made you a real Alaskan?
"Have you made love to the Yukon River and peed in a Native woman?" one
of the men said, according to Davis, turning an off-color axiom inside
out.
If there isn't a pattern of institutional minority intolerance pervading
Clear Channel, there is certainly wide latitude given for "humor" that
might appeal to the WASP. young, rude, male clods, whose mothers and
grandmothers apparently had more interesting things to do with their
time than cultivate human beings from their offspring, that appear to be
their target market. I guess their advertisers figure these guys have
more money than taste, and want them in their stores.
Says something about the advertisers, too...
I am a strong advocate for free speech. As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
offered in his often misquoted opinion in the United States Supreme
Court case Schenck v. United States in 1919..."The most stringent
protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire
in a theater and causing a panic..." also applies to racially motivated
comments bordering on hate that could incite disregard for the person of
that ethnicity.
Shutting down such offensive speech sends a clear message that racism
and sexism are not to be tolerated.
If Clear Channel cannot find the will to clean up the acts of their
hosts on their constituent radio stations maybe it is high time for the
FCC to return to the operation of enforcing policy and decorum on its
licensed airwaves.
Dohiyi Ani Oginalii
Gary Smith (*,*)
wotanging@bellsouth.net
P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org
Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A. ===w=w===
http://www.nanews.org
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CONTENTS LIST OF ARTICLES IN
VOLUME 16, ISSUE 017
FOR ARTICLES GOT TO
WOTANGING IKCHE-Native American News
Editorial Section: . On Air Racism
- Pope Benedict Acknowledges Native 'Injustices'
- Judge: Feds Failed To Help Salmon
- BIA To Consult More With Tribes On Decisions
- Ira Basis Of Tribal Government For Over 70 Years
- Last Minute, Board Signs Native Funding Request
- Native Intelligence
- Indian Ceremony Honors Slaughtered Bison
- Deal Could Limit Killing Of Park Bison
- Shoshone Woman Preserves Native Language
- Uproar Leads To Suspension Of "Woody And Wilcox"
- Parade Celebrates Culture
- Native Company Launches Wind Energy Project
- Editorial: Into A New Era For Indigenous Rights
- Jodi Rave: By Now Candidates Should Be Clear on Native Issues
- Yellow Bird: The Dreams That Draw Students Into Nursing
- Shunkamolah: Nostalgia: Indian Style
- Jodi Rave: UM To Break Ground On Native Center
- Jodi Rave: Indian Center Holds Groundbreaking
- Hodgson-Mccauley: No One To Blame But Ourselves
- Mass Graves Of Residential School Children
- Haudenosaunee Update From Hazel
- 90% Of Residential School Claims Processed
- Problems Plaguing Treaty Talks
- Don't Politicize Apology, Natives Say
- Chief Seeks Funding From Venezuela In Oil Fight
- Statement From Tina Keeper On Cecilia Begg
- Chiefs Jailed In Ontario For Protecting Resources
- Guilty Plea In Case Of Unrecognized Tribe
- Reciprocity Sought In Extradition Of Warrants
- Yankton Sioux Tribe Sues To Block Hog Farm
- Native Justice-- State Troopers At Scene Of Hog Farm Protest
-- Police Occupation In Yankton (Selma, Alabama - Bull Conner Lives
On In Yankton, SD)
- Rustywire: He Was Sitting At The Mall
- Del "Abe" Jones Poem: War, Five!
- Upcoming Events
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"A white man can arrest an Indian, but not the
reverse. It sickens me that we've been so passive as Indian people that
we allow this."`
---Rodney "Fish" Gervais, Blackfeet Councilman
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As
historian Patricia Nelson Limerick summarized in "The Legacy of
Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West...
"Set the blood quantum at one-quarter, hold to it as a rigid definition
of Indians, let intermarriage proceed as it had for centuries, and
eventually Indians will be defined out of existence. When that happens,
the federal government will be freed of its persistent 'Indian
problem.'"
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Once a language is lost, it is gone forever. Of the 300 original Native
languages in North America, only 175 exist today. * 125 of these are no
longer learned by children. * 55 are spoken by 1 to 6 elders; when they
die, their language will disappear. * Without action, only 20 languages
will survive the next 50 years. Source: Indigenous Language Institute
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