Imus be an idiot . . .

[Donal]

An 80 year old AM talk host made offensive comments about a women's basketball team that lost the championship. How irrelevent can we get?

Honetly though, everybody needs to grow up and turn the sensetivity down a notch.

Imus made horrible comments about those girls. Not just because of the race issue or anything, but because they were viscious, personal attacks. He should have to appologize.

The girls need to get over it. They are grown women who have no issue with a national spotlight when being complimented. Take the good with the bad. The reports of them high-fiving when they heard of his suspension are pathetic.

Whiny white people crying about not being able to make racial jokes, shaddup. I still make them and don't appologize. People don't come after me over it because 1) its obviously a joke 2) I take as good as I give 3) I won't back down when confronted about it. If you need to feel better, go inquire about a mortgage.

Whiny white people trying to tell black people when to be outraged: bite me. Saying Rev Al speaks for black people is a racist comment. Its a generalization about a race. He was never elected to any office. He just shows up at events and inserts himself. Oh, and unless they just immigrated from Africa, they aren't African Americans, they are black.

Rev Al and all the black activists: I'll happily march on Imus' studio with you as long as the next stop is at Def Jam records, Hot 97 studios or any of the other places that play music that has black men calling black women "nappy headed hos" (probably where Imus picked it up) and things that are much worse. We'll throw in MTV studios if you want. Of course, we don't have to discuss why you are spending so much energy on this rather than the inequalities in justice, education and economics.

 

[TheJim]

Fine, Imus made a real apology. You still haven't explained why the Rutgers girls' refusal to meet with him means they "[prefer] ... their own self-righteous anger." I think this is a ill-considered remark on your part, and I'd give you a lot of credit if you were to retract it.

I am calling into question Imus real apology. I just caught a bit of the today show where he is now trying to blame rap culture for also calling women ho's and bitching about Al Sharpton not being a man for not going Imus's show. To me at least a real apology does not include profiting off your own mistake.

 

[Donal]

Because Imus owes the Rutgers Women's Basketball team an appology. Not Rev Al, who hammered him on the radio. And not all the black people in the US.

 

[hgc]

I am calling into question Imus real apology. I just caught a bit of the today show where he is now trying to blame rap culture for also calling women ho's and bitching about Al Sharpton not being a man for not going Imus's show. To me at least a real apology does not include profiting off your own mistake.

For the sake of my exchange with BP, I am willing to stipulate that it's a real apology. Since the contents of Imus' heart are unknowable to me, and perhaps to Imus himself, I'll not venture an opinion at this time about his sincerity. Of course I reserve the right to judge his sincerity based on other statements he makes in connection to this matter (as you have).

 

[hgc]

The girls need to get over it. They are grown women who have no issue with a national spotlight when being complimented. Take the good with the bad. The reports of them high-fiving when they heard of his suspension are pathetic.

They shouldn't be happy that the guy that insulted them got into trouble for it? You sure are busy telling a certain group of black people how to feel.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Which part of "closely twisted or curled" do you miserably fail to understand, Dustin?

Don't be so hard on Dustin. His 6th grade English class hasn't covered that material yet.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

When black rappers call black women "ho's" and "n*****s" and "tramps", where are Sharpton and Jackson? Do they demand that their records labels drop them? No? Instructive.

 

[TheJim]

For the sake of my exchange with BP, I am willing to stipulate that it's a real apology. Since the contents of Imus' heart are unknowable to me, and perhaps to Imus himself, I'll not venture an opinion at this time about his sincerity. Of course I reserve the right to judge his sincerity based on other statements he makes in connection to this matter (as you have).

My comment was not exactly aimed at you, but I just say that segment on the Today show moments before i posted and your message seemed like a good way to bring it up.

 

[TheJim]

I want to make a comment to everyone that keeps saying that Imus is irrelevant and just an entertainer. He is a prominent member of the press since his show is MSNBC and he has on politicians and reporters regularly. He did not say this in a mocking tone say ala John Stewart either.

 

[pgwenthold]

They shouldn't be happy that the guy that insulted them got into trouble for it? You sure are busy telling a certain group of black people how to feel.

There's that old saying about walking a mile in someone else's shoes. However, I came to the conclusion a few years ago that when it comes to black people, I can't even get their shoes on my feet in the first place. I cannot comprehend their perspective in the least.

However, more importantly, I recognize this fact, and therefore, don't try to pretend that I can. I certainly don't presume to tell black people how they should or shouldn't respond to racist remarks.

Two things:
1) Black Like Me was written at a different time. It would be interesting to try the experiment again today.
2) I'm curious how this issue is being discussed at the African-American discussion boards. Is it anything like how it is being discussed here?

 

[hgc]

My comment was not exactly aimed at you, but I just say that segment on the Today show moments before i posted and your message seemed like a good way to bring it up.

Your point is well taken too. I would ask Imus: was it the wrong thing to say, or not? If so, then why are you trying to drag a whole bunch of exculpatory evidence into the picture. Did you not know it was wrong before? Did you not know because this is common parlance in black culture? Seems to me, the more he tries to explain by pointing to other examples of this usage, the more he's trying to insulate himself from responsibility. He really would do himself a lot better service if he'd apologize and drop it. If he wants to keep his job, he'd be better off ignoring those people who demand he be fired, rather than trying to turn the potential hypocracy of their criticism into the issue. All it ends up looking like is that he's trying to deflect criticism, which is contrary to the terms of a genuine apology.

 

[Mephisto]

The list of things we can't say gets longer every year. One of these days the Friar's Club will be outlawed for violating thought police statutes.

You mean, "the list of things White people can't say on the air or in public regarding their racial stereotypes of minorities gets longer every year." Maybe it's because minorities are getting tired of it?

This whole "yes we sit around making fun of John's Nappy Hurr but if you do its racist" stuff is getting tiresome. The ability to arbitrarily decide what is racist and ruin someone's career scares me.

I don't think it was arbitrarily decided simply because you didn't know of its existence as a racist remark. As for ruining someone's career, how often do African-American, Hispanic, Jewish or Asian public personalities make these kind of mistakes? Maybe they're just more "in-tune" to what actually constitutes racism.

 

[hgc]

The ability to arbitrarily decide what is racist and ruin someone's career scares me.

If it's merely arbitrary, then why is Imus so profusely apologetic? Doesn't he know he's being railroaded?

 

[corplinx]

You mean, "the list of things White people can't say on the air or in public regarding their racial stereotypes of minorities gets longer every year." Maybe it's because minorities are getting tired of it?

I halfway expected this kind of response (because your posting style is pretty predictable and rarely deviates). Let me just mentor you a little.

White people don't go around calling black people nappy headed as a slur!

Making fun of someone's nappiness is a black thing! Its part of the black on black hazing process.

There isn't some backlash going on about white people calling blacks nappy headed and the blacks finally doing something about it.

This whole thing is ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊.

 

[corplinx]

If it's merely arbitrary, then why is Imus so profusely apologetic? Doesn't he know he's being railroaded?

When someone gets smacked with the racist label, they tend to backpedal profusely and try to salvage their reputation and career.

Do you expect him to act differently? Tell me you don't actually believe him being apologetic is significant of anything other than desperately trying to keep his head about water.

 

[BPSCG]

He really would do himself a lot better service if he'd apologize and drop it. If he wants to keep his job, he'd be better off ignoring those people who demand he be fired, rather than trying to turn the potential hypocracy of their criticism into the issue. All it ends up looking like is that he's trying to deflect criticism, which is contrary to the terms of a genuine apology.

Agreed. Heard someone today say "the longer he keeps apologizing, the better his chances of getting fired."

Doubling back to my comment about the Rutgers girls' "self-righteous anger," I'll stipulate that calling it "self-righteous" was saying more than I knew, since I hadn't heard anything from them about why they'd refused to meet with Imus (and no, I'm not going to apologize for it...). That having been said, if they truly find his remarks so disgusting, I have to ask if they have been at the forefront of getting rappers to clean up their lyrics? If not, then this is nothing more than another sanctimonious "Let's punish ugly white speech, but not ugly black speech" episode (viz. George Allen, Michael Richards, Joe Biden). There will be more.

 

[hgc]

Agreed. Heard someone today say "the longer he keeps apologizing, the better his chances of getting fired."

Doubling back to my comment about the Rutgers girls' "self-righteous anger," I'll stipulate that calling it "self-righteous" was saying more than I knew, since I hadn't heard anything from them about why they'd refused to meet with Imus (and no, I'm not going to apologize for it...). That having been said, if they truly find his remarks so disgusting, I have to ask if they have been at the forefront of getting rappers to clean up their lyrics? If not, then this is nothing more than another sanctimonious "Let's punish ugly white speech, but not ugly black speech" episode (viz. George Allen, Michael Richards, Joe Biden). There will be more.

Have any rappers specifically targeted the Rutgers Womens basketball team?

 

[Tailgater]

White people don't go around calling black people nappy headed as a slur!

Yes, where I live, they most definitely do.

Making fun of someone's nappiness is a black thing! Its part of the black on black hazing process.

Huh? Wha?

 

[hgc]

When someone gets smacked with the racist label, they tend to backpedal profusely and try to salvage their reputation and career.

Do you expect him to act differently? Tell me you don't actually believe him being apologetic is significant of anything other than desperately trying to keep his head about water.

As I said above, I don't know if his apology is sincere or expedient or both in whatever combination. Why don't you give him a little more credit that he truly realized he'd done something wrong, as he says he did? You seem to think that just because, in your opinion, the charge is specious, then Imus must be pretending to be apologetic. I don't know how you know this.

 

[Donal]

They shouldn't be happy that the guy that insulted them got into trouble for it? You sure are busy telling a certain group of people how they appear to the public.

fixed that for you.