The Don Imus Controversy

Hello WBUR! I'm a B.U. grad school grad from COM living in L.A.
OK, on subject: Don Imus has always been a jerk. I'm frankly surprised that his mouth hasn't gotten him in bigger trouble before this. This time he definitely crossed a line. Time for his retirement.
Mary F.

I am thrilled that the team has asked to meet him to answer the question, "Why did you say the things that you did?" This is more than asking for an apology. Their request should force Imus to really think about the words coming out of his mouth and the consequences of his actions. His remarks are abhorrent and he knows it. Why does he choose to say such hateful things and how will he explain that to the team? I would love to be a fly on that wall.

While I agree with a lot of what the commentators on the show said, it disturbs me how carelessly they throw around the 'racist' and 'ignorant' labels. It is used so aggressively and closes off further introspection by immediately denying any value to that person's perspective. Putting people on the defensive in this way is simply unproductive.

no-one has mentioned the underlying white racism, which means that since the whites are the dominate, power holding class, therefore their actual point of view of things comes from who they are. They do not indentify as "other" in any way. Especially males. Some white women, gay people, those who are disabled, etc., understand from a very real perspective what it feels like to be "other" and to lack basic rights and respect. So that a straight, likely Conservative, white male would say this is not a surprise to us "others". The problems also involves looking at the results of letting the market run things-the "market" has no conscience!! So the leadership of this country for the last decade have espoused this as the way to go. They set the tone for the country-we live up, or down to what is put forth. Many young people have never lived in another type of culture. They see Jerry Springer and his "ilK" on TV (their main source of information) every day! This is why CBS should fire Imus-someone, Like a parent in a healthy family, show what is right in terms of creating the type of world we truly want to live in.

Imus does have a history of similar comments, e.g., referring to (I believe) Gwen Ifill as a cleaning lady when she started covering the White House. He could try the excuse that he's fried quite a lot of brain cells by his various forms of drug abuse (cocaine, ethanol, and who knows what else). It's certainly easier than actually admitting that he's a probably both a misogynist and a racist.

About the only positive thing I've got to say about Don Imus is that he isn't as big a jerk as Howard Stern.

I am really glad that the conversation is now including gender issues as well as race. Since when did it become ok to offhandedly refer to young, female student athletes as "Hos"? I realize that every generation has slang that makes certain questionable terms acceptable, but Imus isn't hip hop and he shouldn't go throwing around a word that has "whore" at its roots. He gets paid to be shocking and inflammatory, so I'm not surprised that it happened, but why put something so nasty out into the universe? They should be celebrating a spectacular showing in the NCAA tournament and instead the coaches and students have been the center of a much more unfortunate media frenzy.

The comments by Imus were not appropriate. But the media circus is a joke. Where was Sharpton and Jackson at the announcement of the dropping of charges at the Duke lacrosse case? Why doesn't Sharpton and Jackson make a big stink about rap music constantly calling women "bitches and ho's" and black people "niggers"? Is that OK? Why did it take two to three days for the mainstream media to start their feeding frenzy on this? How long will the circus last? You wonder how long this "crisis" is going to last with the 24hr media networks? Why hasn't Hillary and Obama made comment to this "crisis". Have you noticed how silent they are?

And you wonder why people don't trust the media these days.

yes- this type of hateful language sparks such passionate feelings in people, then we try to ignore that part and move back into our "heads" to come up with some sort of thoughtful and literate explanation. does not works and it's a bit too much! when we were kids we were scolded for hurting other's feelings and it made us develop empathy-there is little to no empathy left in this world. i do believe, however, that there was a line three days ago and what we heard was something that MANY people are saying, just this time it went out on the airwaves. oops!and if it was said intentionaly for ratings (which I doubt), again the point is CBS needs to take a stand aainst such rhetoric and bigotry. if they don't, its because their already inflated and greedy pocketbooks need to be fed!

I find it particularly bad when people like Imus start taking about how the hateful comment they made comes from the group they were talking about. Just because someone else says something does not make it right for others to say the same thing. Any more than it is right for the originator to say it. This excuse gives all the power over our actions to the original jerk. It shows lack of character for one person to say insulting, insensitive things. What does it say about the person who repeats the comment?

Imus will not resign. Or be fired. He's too important to other media types and politicians, especially those on the East coast.
If the fire him he will be hired in less than a month or two to a big money deal again. NBC will ride this one out.

Why hasn't Hillary or Obama spoke out on this one yet? Could it be they like the free pub he gives them?

This guy isn't even on in MN. I had never heard of him. Sounds like a cranky old man to me.

Sure he is. He's on MSNBC televsion in the mornings. It's kinda a weird format. They have a camera in the studio while he does his radio show. Also he's on AM1570 in Minneapolis, a small underpowered radio station that picks up nationally syndicated shows like Dr. Laura and Dennis Miller, that the bigger talk radio stations haven't picked up.

He was one of the original VH1 VJ's in the late 80's when MTV started VH1. The east coast media and political establishment love him. Both Reps and Dems. His brother is the founder of "Lefty's and Larado's" salsa, which is very good.

But, assuredly, he is a cranky old man.

Ok, so he is on a cable news channel and an end of the dial AM station. That is pretty much not being there. He isn't on in duluth.

I have been stewing over this all day and my wife had to listen to my soapbox rant when I picked her up. But I wanted to talk about two things. One is that Rutgers was completely irresponsible about responding to this. In the press conference, the girls mentioned that they were depressed, saddened and at one point crying about Imus' comments. Discussing this in public and opening the wound three days later is not the correct way to handle this. Of course they are saddened, I would be too. But I am not to go and publicize my disgust for this. As a teaching institution, they should explain to their student-athletes that they are being thrust into the public spotlight and that positive AND negative reactions are going to occur. Teach the students that there are idiots, to ignore those idiots and their comments, and reinforce the positive feelings they had in accomplishing their goals. Rutgers is doing a major injustice to these girls. The second thing I want to discuss is my reaction to the panelists today and how this is being covered. When there is a racial comment being uttered by a white person, that person is viewed in disgust and is a bigot, racist, hate-mongerer, etc... That person is then to appear before Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and BET offering an apology. The show South Park even mocks this process as one of their characters must kiss the behind of Jesse Jackson to get an apology. The panelists today mentioned that people are not being properly educated about racial issues, but having these "bigots" go before the prominent black figures to offer apologies is not educating the people, it is simply telling them to not make those comments. And this message is being spread through the white culture. "Just don't make the comment and you are not racist." That is a horrible thing to teach and we are not educating at all. It just helps to deepen the problem. One reason for the lack of education is not rap music, but the perception that the black culture has toward any comment the white culture makes. The white culture is deathly afraid of saying any comment whatsoever so they will not be labeled a racist, which is easily being thrown out there. There is a fine line between racist and ignorant. Sometimes they go hand in hand, but in Imus' case, it is just ignorance. The main example of this was the last two callers on your show today. They had to justify to the black panelists that they were not racist before they could even discuss anything remotely black. This happens more and more and that is becoming more of a problem then saying nappy-looking ho's. The problem is finding a white person to say these things without fear of losing his credibility and being called a racist. That is probably why there were not any white panelists today. I enjoyed the show today ( as I usually always do) and I am always impressed with Tom's nuetrality and thought-provoking questions. Keep up the good work.

I have just viewed the infamous statement on youtube and I found the both of them (he and his producer) repulsive and reprehensable.
His firing is well done.
How else are we as a culture going to make the point clear that this (innate and open racism) is NOT cool, is NOT ok, and is NOT going to be tolerated?

There is much that white people don't understand regarding the gravity of what Mr. Imus said last week. The long history of hurt and pain encapsulated in his words. A short piece called Imus Mess at http://starrwriter.wordpress.com/ says it best. What's being discussed here goes far beyond mere words. It's a hate that has festered here for hundreds of years.

I have heard various commentators on radio shows talk about how the "black community" thinks. Huh? There are individuals with individual thoughts. As far as I know, there is no "white community." We will never get anywhere if we continue to look at life in terms of generalized groups, rather than individual people.

Pimp has double meanings. Sure, as a noun it is taken in the traditional "Huggie Bear" sense.

However, since the 1990's it has been used as an adjective, meaning "If somethin' is pimpin', it's pretty darn cool. It's probably something "normal" that's tricked out ghettolicious and gawdy.
Basically, you look very ghettofab and blingbling."

This is not about free speech nor is it about a right to his point of few. This is not just about racism - the word "ho's" is street for "wh---" - he had no right to specifically speak of the Rutger's lady basketball team in that manner not having any basis for his comments. He didn't generalize his comments nor did he have an item of interest to hang his comments on. They were not in the media for doing anything except coming in #2 in the country in ladies basketball. They should have been applauded for their season. If he had a point I fail to see it. No matter what Rappers say or do, even if he called Hilary C. a witch she is a politician and everyone knows it's her views and political position not her as a person. The Rappers are in show biz. These ladies are in college going about their everyday lives and he singled them out to insult them. He had never met any of these kids. There is no justification whatsoever for his comments. He picked the wrong group and he knows it. Nothing else, no matter how revolting, that is said about anyone else can justify what he said . I hope they fire his sidekick too. It was out of the blue, insulting and I wonder how many people who are screaming about overkill, would feel the same way if he had called the #1 ladies basketball team a bunch of ho's. He still would have gotten fired. Other groups get outraged when they feel they have been insulted, Mel Gibson is still atoning for his comments - he went into rehab and his comments were not as vitriolic as Imus. Comments are being made as if somehow what black Americans do in show business and other areas of the public is a reason for what he said. That's blaming the victim. Whatever negative images hiphop, and other venues in the media give, no one can convince me that he got it twisted. A very tired excuse, blame Black America it our fault, because he failed to engage his brain before he put his mouth in gear. These are college students, not people in any of the areas usually targeted for insult like people in public venues. Is it upsetting ask yourself how upset you would be if he had used those comments to college students that you know or a college were your daughter was attending and participating on the basketball team. Everyone seems to forget - how specific he was. This wasn't some general statement - he was talking about Rutger's College Students. He should be fired, sued personally along with his radio station for defamation of character and slander and to the radio station who will air his reruns...apply that name to your daughter and see if you still think it's ok. I'm not nearly as upset about the word nappy-head which is clearly racist - I don't like it however when you ad the word "ho's", it makes the entire comment 10x's worse. It's an ugly word and in the black community will cause a fight if you call someone that word. If you look it up in the dictionary you'll see why people are so upset. Hiphop music and other radio commentaries cannot be used to justifying what he said. His comments were personal to the ladies of that team and no one else, you couldn't confuse his comments as a general statement, it was specific and therein lies the problem.