Ezra Klein on Don Imus and Scapegoating

Ezra Klein writes at Tapped:

SCAPEGOATS. Amidst an unexpected digression on anthropological studies of cross-cultural scapegoat sacrifice ceremonies — I'm telling you, Swampland is a genuinely unpredictable and enjoyable blog — Joe Klein says, "the atavistic intensity of our scapegoat sacrifices — Imus, perhaps Wolfowitz and Gonzalez to come — shouldn't be surprising."

No no no. Scapegoat: "One that is made to bear the blame of others." Imus is getting run out of town for something he personally said. Wolfowitz is on a death march because of patronage he personally allowed. Gonzales's days are (hopefully) numbered because of a politicization process he personally abetted. None of these people are being scapegoated. They're being roundly, rightly, criticized.

That said, I didn't know this: "The Jews civilized the process, making it metaphoric, turning the scapegoat, literally, into a goat — which wasn't nearly as much fun." Those Jews. So literal-minded.

Points taken about Gonzales and Wolfowitz.

But (let me phrase this carefully) for all that Imus's remarks were certainly unacceptable and worth firing him for their own sake, he is being scapegoated for them.

We see this Kabuki drama played out every few years. Someone goes too far talking about race on radio or television — it's almost always someone talking about sports — and people react. The pundits are shocked — shocked! — to discover such an egregious example of racism in the media. The sponsors pull ads. The offender loses his position. Justice is served! Racism is defeated! Now we can all go back to our regularly scheduled daily lives and treat the black kid in the store like a shoplifter, and hire the white guy because, you know, everybody thinks they'll get along with him.

Sometimes I wonder if that's the real reason ESPN hired Rush Limbaugh for color commentary on Monday Night Football in 2003: they knew it was time for the ritual sacrifice, and they wanted to protect their own.

(via Avedon Carol)