More fun with double standards.

Don Imus is an idiot. He thinks so. We all think so. So let's get that out of the way.

In the wake of the "nappyheaded hos" comment are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson leading the public relations charge to have the man fired. What peeves me is that these two black leaders are very selective about what offends them. When Don Imus makes a comment like he does, he should be fired. When Michael Richards goes on a tirade, he should be...I don't know, crucified. Whatever. I'm inclined to agree. But what about 50 cent? Or Jay Z? Al Sharpton has stated many times before that he doesn't particularly care for their use of the "n word" either, but the only time you hear him say so is when he's specifically asked about the double standard. There are no marches. There are no press conferences. Hell, there aren't even any press releases. If racial slurs like these are offensive to you, then it shouldn't only offend you when Don Imus or Michael Richards say it. Matter of fact, it should be more offensive when someone of your own race tosses the word around so flippantly.

What really gets me though is a comparison of Al Sharpton's reaction to Don Imus's comments and his reaction to Ralph Nader's racial slur from two years ago. Yeah--Nader. In all likelihood, you never even heard about it because the New York Daily News was practically the only paper that ran the story (the link to the original story is gone). Nader was commenting on campaigning in Georgia:

Speaking Wednesday night at a Washington fund-raiser to retire the debt from his 2004 presidential campaign, Nader complained that Democratic Party powerbrokers had kept him off the ballot in such Southern states as Georgia and Virginia - which reminded him of the oppressive Jim Crow laws that denied African-Americans equal rights.

"I felt like a [n-word]," remarked the 70-year-old white multimillionaire graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Not so much as a whimper from the black community. No marches. No protests. Al Sharpton basically just told Nader to refrain from use of the word in the future. From Sharpton:

"If Ed Koch had said what Ralph Nader said, we'd be marching," Sharpton noted. "This [scolding] doesn't rise to the level of a march. It rises to the level of a wrist slap."

Oh, okay. If Ed Koch said it, then it would be offensive. If it's your buddy Ralph, then no one need care.

Here's what this comes down to. I have no doubt that the n-word is offensive. I truly wish it were stricken from our vocabulary. But when I see Don Imus get the third degree and Ralph Nader get a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card, I conclude that the big huzzah is grounded less in changing behaviors and more political tactic. You can't just get mad about it when it's people that are your political enemies. Otherwise, the rest of us have no reason to take your anger seriously and the whole thing is self-defeating.