What a phony setup this whole story is.
Let's get a few things out of the way first. I don't listen to Imus; the few times I've heard him, I've found him to be annoyingly self-congratulatory and gratuitously insulting. But he seems to reserve his venom for public figures, people whose careers put them in the line of fire. Nothing wrong with that, but I don't choose to listen.
This time is different. The girls on the Rutgers basketball team have done nothing more public than to play very good basketball. Calling them "nappy-headed ho's" stepped over the line. Not because it's racist, but because it's gratutitous. He should apologize to them, personally. Last I heard, he asked to do just that, but they don't want to see him, preferring, I guess, their own self-righteous anger.
But as far as everyone else being offended, I think a lot of people need to get over themselves. Rap is a sewer of vile language glorifying the beating, raping, even killing of black "bitches" and "ho's." This has been going on for years.
Yet today, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama are upset because Imus said "nappy-haired ho's." Where has their outrage been all these years over rap lyrics? Why doesn't Sharpton picket the record labels that produce this garbage? Why doesn't he call for boycotts of the "artists" involved? Why doesn't he demand a public apology every time some rapper goes off about "slappin' the bitch"?
The hypocrisy here stinks. Black men can deliberately, with malice aforethought, say the vilest things about black women, and nobody troubles himself to even shrug a shoulder. But a white guy allows some ugly words to get to his tongue while the judgement center of his brain is momentarily stuck in neutral, and he must be driven from polite society. Whatever qualifies as "polite society" these days.
Spare me the moral indignation until you can show that your outrage is not simple hypocritical moral posturing.
