Tuesday, August 24, 2010

holy smokes.

if one wondered why dr. laura is off the air, wonder no more. denten brought this audio to my attention today. dr. laura has had a few nuggets of wisdom during her time, but i've never really liked her. i think it has to do with an air of self-righteousness that she carries. this particular conversation is amazing. not in a good way. I tried to embed, but it's not working. if you've got five minutes, click HERE. there is a transcript of the call, but listening to the audio is pretty powerful. tip: if you have children in the room, please plug in earbuds. it takes a minute for the audio to load, be patient.

never, never, never is it ok for a white woman to use the n-word. it's just not. if for no other reason than simple respect. unfortunately, respect was one thing she did not show any of for her caller.

excuse me now. there is handwriting, art projects and music class to attend to... however, if you have thoughts to share, I'd love to hear them!

7 comments:

Leslie said...

I actually listen. . . well, I guess it's listenED, to Dr. Laura on occasion. More to hear people's problems than to hear her answer (is that mean?). Yes, she did have some nuggets of wisdom, but like you, I was SHOCKED to hear about her using the n-word. I HATE that word! I don't care which race uses it, it's an ugly word. I thought she handled that situation all wrong, and I'm dissapointed.

kimmalee said...

Wow that got way out of hand. A friend of mine in Austin is a huge fan of Dr. Laura and recently introduced me to her show. I've listened on occasion the last month or so. She has some good points but she can also be kind of intimidating and her straightforward manner is definitely off-putting. The same friend also gave me a copy of her book , "In Praise of Stay at Home Moms" which I'm in the middle of right now. I like it for the most part. It's empowering and I enjoy her defense of what I do and reasons why what I do is so important.
That clip was shocking. Not only did she handle it wrong, but then she kept defending her misconduct. What a terrible thing to say. Even given her reputation as a woman who speaks her mind no matter what, that was entirely out of line!

Cammi said...

First of all I do not like the use of that word either... and that right there is bad enough in itself, but she yells at this lady for not letting her finish a sentence, yet the WHOLE TIME she is cutting her off and talking over her and not listening to her argument or her side of the conversation. Dr Laura had her mind made up right when that call started and there was no changing it, that lady may as well have just hung up and let her talk to herself... unbelievable

Deirdre Eagar said...

But she brings up a good point - why is there such a double standard when it comes to the black minority in this country? Get the chip off your shoulder is spot on. Get over it and get on with life. (This is Wade though - not Deirdre)

The Silly Witch said...

Ah, Dr. Laura. Well, she's not my choice of listening right now. NPR gives me more what a need. While this situation was totally handled wrong, no denying, I'm into forgivness. She's speaking on the fly and while the use of the N-word is inappropriate for a white person at any time, it was especially poor judgment to say it during a radio broadcast to a person feeling vulnerable because of her race.

Nevertheless, Dr. Laura has often helped me see things from a different perspective so I can clearly see them for myself (example: The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands). I think she has great compassion all those people who's lives are messed up so badly that they feel that they need to call her show. Sometimes she's the only one who will give it to them straight. I really think she was trying to help the lady see things from her husband's family's perspective. It was a big-time backfire, but those were comments SO typical of Dr. Laura.

Scrap Happy said...

Dr. Laura is not my favorite at all either. But I do not have a problem with what she said or how she handled the caller. I'm not crass enough to ever use the "n" word, but blacks have no right to use it freely and then get offended when whites use it - Give me a break. (And Laura didn't even "call" her that word, she used it as an example!) There absolutely IS a double standard as to how blacks vs. whites can speak. Ridiculous. The fact that someone even cares what "blacks" think versus what "whites" think is absurd. How far have we come as a country if we're still stereotyping people's thoughts and actions according to skin color?? UGH. I'm SO FREAKIN' SICK OF HEARING ABOUT RACE!

Joni said...

I couldn't get the audio to work, but I read the transcript and it seemed as though she didn't let this woman speak at all. I mean at least let her finish a thought and get her point across BEFORE you start laying into her. I thought Dr. Laura was out of line. If you HAVE to say words like that, do it in the privacy of your own home, not on the radio to a woman who is already upset. We all know that the N-word offends people, this isn't news. Whether you are directing it towards someone or just saying it, we all know by now that it is not ok to say. Anyway, I think that call was handled poorly.