I’ve never much liked Don Imus. I find him neither engaging, nor funny, nor particularly insightful. To me, he brings all of the negatives of a grumpy old man to the table, with none of the positives. Despite my feelings, the market doesn’t lie, and he’s one of the most popular radio talk show hosts in the country.
You might have heard he’s in trouble. On his show last week, he referred to the Rutgers women’s basketball team, which is predominantly black, as “nappy-headed hos.”
Classy, eh? Makes you want to go have a beer with the guy, doesn’t it? I mean, of course they are. After all, how hard could it be to qualify for a varsity I-A basketball team?
To be fair, Imus did apologize. Two days after the broadcast, he issued the following statement:
I want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team, which lost to Tennessee in the NCAA championship game on Tuesday. It was completely inappropriate and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry.
Certainly there is a lot to say about the situation. Many words have been written and will be written about
- whether a right-leaning host would even still be on the air by this point;
- whether kowtowing to a disingenuous, opportunistic gasbag on his radio show yesterday was a good thing to do;
- whether Imus is sincere in his apology;
- whether political correctness has gone too far;
etc. There are interesting things to say in each of those arenas, but I wasn’t motivated to write about it until the team reacted publicly today.
Quoting Heather Zurich, sophomore forward for the team:
Our moment was taken away: our moment to celebrate our success, our moment to realize how far we had come, both on and off the court, as young women. We were stripped of this moment by degrading comments made by Mr. Imus last Wednesday. What hurts the most about this situation is that Mr. Imus knows not one of us personally.
Heather, with your last sentence you’re all over exactly what should make it hurt less. This is not informed commentary from a parent, friend, or advisor; it’s some asshole who’s never met you being tacky. If your “moment (is) taken away,” it’s because you are giving it away. Why are you empowering some jerk with the ability to destroy your accomplishments (or at least your sense of your accomplishments)?
Now you are young, and I’m sure there have been a lot of important-looking and sounding people with tape recorders and cameras in tow practically begging you to gnash and weep for them. That’s a non-trivial factor here.
But understand this: your current situation, in which a country is abuzz with the source of your offense and your reaction is on the international wire, bears no resemblance to anything you are likely to encounter in the proverbial “real world.” There are jerks everywhere. If you run from them, you’ll eventually collapse from exhaustion. If you take them seriously, you’ll be miserable all the time. Nobody will care but you.
This jerk was racist. The next one might be sexist. The one after that might be dismissive of your abilities. To be sure, it is reasonable and just to act against some behaviors (such as when your employment is affected). But most of the time it’s going to be you, the jerk, and your reaction. It is up to you how much power he has. If you give him a lot, then he’ll have a lot. So don’t.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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When someone says “WE used poor judgement” on “OUR” program then “THEY” are not taking responsibility for their own words.
I didn’t even know his name before this week. What a jerk!
Oh, yeah. Like I said, there’s plenty to pick at. At least the statement said “sorry” instead of “sorry you were offended,” right?
Maybe I’m being too easy on him, but we’re talking about a middle-aged white guy — very likely some cracker ignorantly parroting a hip-hop soundbite and a strong case of specks and beams.
Why was his remark racist? Are there no white hos?
Women’s basketball is exceedingly boring and needs this sort of ballyhoo to attract any attention — and I enjoy watching golf on television!
I think the nappy-headed part of it was pretty racist. And just plain mean. Did those girls do something to him?
I wish the rest of the media would butt out though. Those girls don’t need cameras or mics in their faces all day just because some jerk said something nasty.
Personally, I don’t understand why people give words such power. It really irritates my in-laws that my kids say “darn it” and “heck”. Who CARES???? Like Bo said, it can only affect you if you let it. Just take the high road and walk away.
A girl I dated in college (you knew her too) had the most beautiful curly hair, but she couldn’t stand to be called nappy-headed. When I was younger, I knew another white girl whom even the black girls called nappy-head.
To be clear, I’m not defending his comment, but I question whether this particular characterization fits.
A deep insight of Vipassana is to question whether one intentionally puts himself in negative situations so as to claim the high ground, e.g., the unappreciated spouse, the poker player who complains about bad calls, the little guy just trying to get by, etc.
Then there’s the bogus Marxist undergirding: it’s race plus, you know, The Power Structures, man. Just today, Russ Nelson wrote about his treatment of Karl Marx’s grave.
I very seriously question any concept that rests on Marxist falsehoods and quackery, certainly when one becomes a cheap label to be applied in shoot-first-questions-later manner.
For the sake of emphasis: partiality is a sin. We have to also remember that charity is a virtue.
*** cracking open a cold one so I can sit back and digest this ***
Don’t get me started on the socialist state.
Smells like manufactured outrage to me. I have no doubt that the girls were offended when someone asked how they felt about someone calling them nappy headed ho’s. I’d be offended too. The thing is though that Imus wasn’t directing his comment at them. He’s a shock jock and he creates his audience share by making offensive comments, that’s what he gets paid to do. I’ll bet Howard Stern has said things many times more offensive than what Imus said. I guess Sharpton must figure Imus is an easy target. I’m pretty sure that if Sharpton tried that with Stern, Stern would tell him to kiss his derrière.
Bob230