Maxine Waters and the Racist Double Standard for Political Discourse

Rush Limbaugh: All black people should go to hell!

President Bush: "Martin Luther King was a hater with a potater!"

Such ribald rhetoric would be denounced immediately by the Mainstream Media. Of course, neither of these individuals have made such crass comments, although they would have a much harder time distancing themselves from such hateful rhetoric if attributed to them.

Consider these statements:

Kanye West: "President Bush doesn't care about Black people."

Congresswoman Maxine Waters: "And I think the Tea Party should go straight to hell!"

Why no vocal protect when the following pushed out their out hateful invective:
Because these speakers were black, pure and simple.

There is an insidious double-standard in the Mainstream Media, one which gives a pass to minorities who make scurrilous and slanderous remarks about public figures and political movements. Such comments would have hampered, if not ended the careers of a white celebrities. How many of us remember the nasty remarks Don Imus made on his radio talk show four years ago, or Michael Richards' eruption on stage at the Laugh Factory in response to two black hecklers?

Those men were excoriated publicly for their insensitive racist comments. Kanye West gets a pass, and Maxine Waters continues to flap her fresh mouth. Where is the justice in all of this?