What's up with Don Imus?

[Bigboy]

What's you all's take on what Don Imus said about the Rutgers Women's B-Ball team? He called these sister's "nappy headed ho's" and he probally feel that there is nothing wrong with his saying this!!!

[DOOMS]

I think it's been blown entirely out of proportion. He apologized (badly, awkwardly and weakly) and he's being suspended for two weeks (and of course he'll be fired or forced to resign the way folks are carrying on). I've heard so much worse come from so many more people I literally was unfazed by it.

I heard him on Al Sharpton's talk show yesterday and I listened in disbelief. Rev cause a riot over Tawana Brawley has the nerve to judge somebody else. Him and Jesse are supposed to be Reverends and instead of forgiving and counseling Imus' dumb behind they're fighting over who's gonna eat his carcass. That ain't what I read in my Bible. Meanwhile every video on BET calls black women much worse. The race-baiting reverends are nowhere to be found.

In my opinion it was a bad joke. Accept the pathetic attempt at an apology, let him serve his two weeks, let his employer know if he's out of line again we'll picket until he's gone, and don't listen to the program.

When I was a kid the local hicks called my sister and I niggers as we were playing in a neighbors yard. We ran home and told my father what happened. His response was "well, are you niggers?" It took me damn near 10 years to understand what he meant. But ultimately the only women on the Rutgers team who should feel truly degraded and offended to the level that's being portrayed are the ones that fit the description.

Ultimately Imus is a racist to the bone and probably doesn't even realize it. Is all this going to make him realize it or is it going to make him worse?

[AggieMike]

I went from being extremely offended to laughing at just how racist it was, I mean I can look at it from a pure broadcast standpoint and laugh hard! We just watched the clip on YouTube in Communication Law like 20 minutes ago (Don't ya love technology).

I played Devil's Advocate and argued that he was out of line but did you laugh?

Imus has been around for a long time and actually his sidekick started the whole thing. Had he stopped at Rutgers girls not being good looking (which few in the media would start a controversy over) then he would be OK...

Al Sharpton needs to sit down, he hurts more than helps. RUN JESSIE RUN!

[Gator]

I concur with you both. It seems we want to police white people but don't want to police our own community with the same passion/commitment. I went to a live comedy show and heard a lot worse. I'm not jumping on any bandwagons until we start to clean up our own house.

[Aggie77]

gator2 said:

I concur with you both. It seems we want to police white people but don't want to police our own community with the same passion/commitment. I went to a live comedy show and heard a lot worse. I'm not jumping on any bandwagons until we start to clean up our own house.

I actually agree with Gator on something, there is hope afterall.

Imus will not be fired!!! Anybody that listens/ed to his show knows that he and his guest have said worst over the past twenty plus years. They used to dog Maya Angelou out on a daily basis for awhile. In two weeks America will be on to the next media frenzy.

[krazykev]

Other Offensive Things Don Imus has said

On blacks:

"William Cohen, the Mandingo deal." (Former Defense Secretary Cohen's wife is African-American.)

"Wasn't in a woodpile, was he?" (Responding to news that former black militant H. Rap Brown, subsequently known as Abdullah Al-Amin, was found hiding in a shed in Alabama after exchanging gunfire with police. Imus is here alluding to the expression "nucca in the woodpile.")

"Knuckle-dragging moron." (Description of basketball player Patrick Ewing.)

"We all have 12-inch penises." (After being asked what he has in common with Nat Turner, Malcolm X, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Latrell Sprewell from the New York Knicks, and Al Sharpton.)

"Chest-thumping pimps." (Description of the New York Knicks.)

"A cleaning lady." (Reference to journalist Gwen Ifill, possibly out of pique that she wouldn't appear on his show. "I certainly don't know any black journalists who will," she wrote in the April 10 New York Times. The Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page used to appear, but after he made Imus pledge not to make offensive comments in the future, he was never asked back.)

On Jews:

"I remember when I first had [the Blind Boys of Alabama] on a few years ago, how the Jewish management at whatever, whoever we work for, CBS, or whatever it is, were bitching at me about it. […] I tried to put it in terms that these money-grubbing bastards could understand."

"Boner-nosed … beanie-wearing Jewboy." (Description of Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, a frequent guest.)

On women:

"That buck-tooth witch Satan, Hillary Clinton." […] "I never admitted it when I went down there and got in all that big jam, insulting Bill Clinton and his fat ugly wife, Satan. Did I? Did I ever say I was sorry for that?"

On Native Americans:

"The guy from F-Troop, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell." (This is a reference to the zany Indian characters on the 1960s TV sitcom F-Troop. They had names like "Roaring Chicken," "Crazy Cat," and "Chief Wild Eagle.")

On Japanese:

"Old Kabuki's in a coma and the market's going up. […] How old is the boy? The battery's running down on that boy." (Reference to Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who died the following week.)

On gays:

"I didn't know that Allan Bloom was coming in from the back end." (The homosexuality of the author of The Closing of the American Mind became widely known when Saul Bellow published Ravelstein, a novel whose protagonist was based on Bloom, who by then was deceased.)

"The enormously attractive [NBC political correspondent] Chip Reid, I can say without being accused of being some limp-wristed 'mo."

On the handicapped:

"Janet Reno's having a press conference. Ms. Reno, of course, has Parkinson's disease, has a noticeable tremor. […] I don't know how she gets that lipstick on (laughter) looking like a rodeo clown."

Every one of these statements came directly out of Imus' mouth on his program. That's striking because Imus usually leaves it to other show regulars (especially McGuirk, the aforementioned point man on "nucca" jokes) to say the most offensive stuff, with Imus feeding them straight lines. It's safer that way.

[sammiz]

It appears, we have serious problems with derogatory and racist words and statements in all of the ethnic communities in this western society. Not just blacks and whites. Everybody's talking about the problem now. Got any intelligent solutions to fixing this problem? Or can it be fixed.

[Aggie Monster]

Look, I've always thought he was a racist. The thing that kept me from hating him was that he was a racist towards everything "NOT Imus". He picks on blacks, chinese, japenese, hispanics, good looking whites, fat whites, etc, etc. Now is that being a racist or just being an a$$?

We all said the Blackman, chinese man, white man jokes growing up(The devil......melts in your mouth, not in.....LOL). Are we ALL racist. It's a sensitivity issue. You are not suppose to offend sensitive people. That's just Etiquet 101.

Now, if you get fired, loose money, or get your a$$ whooped then that's just what you get for not respecting Etiquet 101. I dont think it makes you a "stone cold racist" for offending someone.

[Aggie77]

Imus fired my NBC and CBS, no more “IMUS in the Morning” no more “I-Man” unbelievable. The advertisers packed up their suitcases of money. I would have never thought it would happen, boy was I wrong.

[DOOMS]

The second "the blunder twins" showed up I knew it was over. I acutally made fifty bucks on a bet that he'd get canned.