Al Sharpton is still around?

12:50 am, 8/20/07

Al Sharpton is still around?

Apparently, a week ago, A-Sharp brought his "community" to new heights of stupidity:

Yesterday, some 200 people took to Times Square at the behest of the Rev. Al, joining thousands across the country who braved heat and hair-killing humidity to protest three ugly little words.

Namely: "Nigga." "Bitch." And "Ho."

Great news, right? No, it's still the white man's fault:

But the target of this protest, I'm sorry to say, was not the rappers who throw out those words - and more - like candy corn on Halloween, numbing the public to smut and violence.

Nor was it the young men and even some women who, every day, can be heard loudly coarsening ordinary discourse to the point where I can barely walk the streets or ride the subways without fighting the urge to plug my 8-year-old daughter's ears.

No. Sharpton & Co. have found a way to blame white folks.

"Rappers say they're being pressured by the record companies" to use offensive language, said Jill Flowers of Brooklyn, who established the Web site abolishthenword.com.

I could be wrong here, but, man, I watched The Roast of Flavor Flav', OK? Who does Flowers think she's fooling with this? This crap is the "gangster" culture, and rappers are using that particular offensive language because African-Americans are buying more of it when they do. Conversely...

The target of her protest is not Snoop - or Scoop or Poop - but Sumner Redstone of Viacom.

"What we want to do is ask Mr. Redstone why he allows negative views of our women," said Flowers.

African-Americans buy more of it because rappers are using that particular offensive language. They won't buy albums that degrade women unless they like music that degrades women. Why do I buy Rush albums? It is because I like the message. If their lyrics were about assassinating Rudy Giuliani, it wouldn't be worth a dime for me.

R. Kelly did not urinate on a 14-year-old girl because a producer told him to, and people buy his albums anyway. White record producers did not trick idiotic supporters into comparing rapper "Mystikal"'s incredibly lenient six year prison sentence for raping a hairdresser to the institution of slavery, nor did they show up to trick black Illinois Democratic Party leaders into running a prostitution ring out of the East St. Louis city hall, nor do they have anything to do with "the community" lining up to defend Michael Vick's disgusting crimes.

Where's Bill Cosby when you need him?

Bill Cosby had just listened as five mothers who lost their teenage sons to gun violence told their tragic stories. He looked out over the audience.

"I hope none of you ever has to get that call," he said. "Those of you with children that age need to look at the walls in their rooms, see what they're writing, see what they're listening to. If you don't want to know that your child has a gun or knows how to get a gun, and if you don't want to believe that this could happen to your child, look up here."

No! Don't do that! Look at the record producers! Over there!

Back to this ridiculous mob, living proof of Blair's Law:

"We support our artists," said minister Kevin Muhammad, who wants to "deal a death blow to the [record companies'] chairmen."

"Black and brown women are being denigrated, while other races are being subjected to a higher standard," declared Tamika Mallory of the Rev. Al's decency initiative.

"Other races" aren't being "subjected" to anything: White people just haven't developed any musical genres that think raping women, selling crack and killing cops is particularly artistic, because by and large, we don't approve of those behaviors. Why does Tamika think some white parents get so upset when they find their children listening to this idiocy?

Oh, it's just because they're racist. I forgot. My mistake.

It's OK to pull your support for "your" artists, when they're wrong. Stop buying it, and it will go away: The record producers will make sure of that.