DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum A dangerous detour - NY Daily News column

I heard where Howard Stearn , who hates Imus, said that his biggest mistake was not saying what he did but apologizing for it and I gotta agree. Had he said to his critics to take a flying leap and gone on about his business I wonder where all this flap would be now. Fat Al and Hymietown Jessie would not have a villian available for their platforms. They are what bothers me most about this not Imus or those nappy headed Ho's from Rutgers , his words not mine . Aren't there more important things for us to worry about in this country than whether or not some crotchety old man has a jones for black chicks ?

Not only that, but look at the history of the person making the comments. Here are a few other things about Imus:

Imus skit impersonating Maya Angelou, where a producer jokingly said: "Whitey plucked you from the jungle."

Imus caught heat for referring to sports columnist Bill Rhoden as a "New York Times quota hire."

Imus also allegedly referred to PBS anchor Gwen Ifill as a "cleaning lady,"

These are all racist comments. Now, does anyone REALLY think that he wasn't being racist with "nappy headed hos" with his history of comments like those above? If someone is making these kinds of comments with regularity, how are they not racist?

You can mention that somebody is black without it being "racism"... but let's be honest, when he said "nappy headed" he meant "black"... I think that's fairly obvious and folks can look up definitions and give examples all they want it's not going to change my mind... he meant "black"....

It would be no different than if he had said "Tobacco chewin' ho's" about the Tennessee team... lots of people chew tobacco, I know plenty of northerns and highly educated folks who chew.. but in that context, it means "southern redneck"... you don't have to look up definitions to figure that out..

Racism, on the other hand, is feeling superior to that other person for that reason.. which is completely different.

IRE45,
Stearn can say that now since he is on satellite radio but even he has had to back track before. If anyone remember the flap Stearn caused about the Tejano singer Selina, after her death. Latin people were at his door the next day and he was issueing an apology!! Yes, there are more important things to worry about in the US, but Iman should go down to rutgers and apologize!

Barbie is a ho.

In breaking news, Jesse and Al just ran from a press conference on the Rutgers womens team because it was announced that all charges against the white Duke lacrosse players were dropped in connection with assaulting a black stripper... they should be landing in Raleigh within the hour...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/04/don_imuss_via_dolorosa.html

April 11, 2007
Don Imus's Via Dolorosa
By Kathleen Parker

WASHINGTON -- I'm an Imus fan and often tune in for headlines, a shot of guyness and a pinch of politics. He's sometimes funny, sometimes smart, and every now and then, dumber'n a box o' rocks.

As recently, when he referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos.'' It was ridiculously unacceptable, mean and insensitive.

But was it unforgivable?

Piling on is awfully fashionable at the moment, and while tempting, it's also awfully easy. Let's try something hard. Like thinking.



Yes No
Yes No

Yes No


The offensive remark was meant to be funny on a show that is a mix of serious and humorous commentary, both irreverent and sometimes adolescent. We all can agree it wasn't funny. As Imus has acknowledged during his stations of the cross, it was "repugnant, repulsive and horrible.''

It was also racist.

But the public scourging of Don Imus -- and his "I'm a good person who said a bad thing'' mea culpa -- borders on the ridiculous. Most absurd was his lashing by Al Sharpton on the latter's radio show.

Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others have called for the I-Man's' firing. A two-week suspension isn't enough, according to these self-appointed arbiters of acceptable speech, who seem to have made peace with their own racist remarks of the past.

In 1995, Sharpton organized a protest and called a Jewish landlord a "white interloper'' after the man terminated the lease on a black-owned music store. Later, the landlord's own store was burned to the ground, and eight people were killed.

Jackson called New York City "Hymietown" and Jews "hymies" in a 1984 interview with The Washington Post. When accused of anti-Semitism, he said, "Charge it to my head ... not to my heart.''

Fair enough for Jackson, but not for Imus?

What Imus said was not hateful, but it was thoughtlessly unkind to young women who are not, in fact, "hos.''

Anyone who caught the student-athletes' Tuesday news conference couldn't help being impressed by the players' maturity, integrity and poise -- and feel a little bit sorry for the less-mature Imus. His chastening has been severe and his humiliation must be painful.

The strength of the country's reaction may suggest that our tolerance for gratuitous insult has reached a tipping point -- and that is a welcome development. What would be even more welcome is if that news were to reach the places where the word "ho," short for "can't-be-printed-here,'' is frequently used.

Black hip-hop artists have been denigrating the women of their families and neighborhoods for years with terminology that reduces all women to receptacles for men's pleasure. Sharpton and Jackson would do well to direct some of their outrage to that neck of the woods.

Meanwhile, the broader savaging of Imus seems disproportionate to the crime. There is in the air the unmistakable scent of schadenfreude -- pleasure in someone else's misery -- as some in the media have turned on the radio jock like pack wolves on a wounded puppy.

Otherwise, his takedown feels like hecklers gone wild. When the star is down, the heckler gets to be the star. Celebrity comes to the one with the loudest voice, the meanest jibe or, in this case, the pithiest piety.

In such an environment, punishment doesn't have to be equal to the sin; it has to be equal to the sinner. Because Imus is rich and powerful, the only appropriate punishment is death by a million apologies.

Followed by forced retirement.

Context has been ignored, meanwhile, by all but Imus' oldest friends. Imus has said a few dumb things in a decades-long career -- as have we all -- but he also has raised many millions for charities.

Otherwise, his show is entertaining and informative, thanks to the many national politicians who show up. Yes, it's a little clubby at times, mutually admiring and self-absorbed, but those characteristics also create a sense of relaxed intimacy that is part of the show's attraction.

Whatever his flaws -- and however careless his recent blurt -- Imus deserves a shot at resurrection.

He has promised to make a better show and to become an even better person. If that means no more racist jokes, the world will be better. It would be a waste, however, to banish a reformed Imus from the airwaves -- especially if an example of redemption and rehabilitation is what we seek.

But sainthood -- please -- is not required. In fact, a St. Imus would be a suicide bomb for sure.

kparker@orlandosentinel.com
(c) 2007, Washington Post Writers Group

Your correct and if somebody doesn't like it they can just kiss my arse.

http://www.kansascity.com/159/story/66339.html

Imus isn’t the real bad guy
Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.
By JASON WHITLOCK
Columnist

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

Shocked to see an article like that come from Jason Whitlock. I've seen him write his fair share of race-card articles in the past.

well that is how a lot of us feel, but we're not allowed to say it because we're not black.

This whole thing is ridiculous.

People today need to get over themselves. Everyone preaches tolerance----until it comes down to them having to be tolerant of someone that they don't like.

Its a complete double standard. We should be tolerant of homosexuals---but not people who don't like to be around homosexual. We should be tolerant of African Americans---but not racists.

Tolerance is a sham. A mockery, a joke.

If people want to be tolerant of others thoughts and values and beliefs; then that tolerance should extend to everyone----not just a select few who deem themselves "special."

That's a pretty damn good point Tyler.

All too often "tolerance" is just another word for "think like I do". It's funny to see how intolerant the 'tolerance' folk are of things that don't conform to their beliefs though.... and I'm not just speaking about race matters, but everything.

Ummmmmm, its not racist.

Don Imus Holds Fundraiser at MSNBC Despite Being Dropped From Channel
Thursday , April 12, 2007




Embattled broadcaster Don Imus pushed ahead with his annual on-air charity fundraiser Thursday, a day after MSNBC pulled the plug on his TV show because of his latest racial slur.

"This may be our last Radiothon, so we need to raise about $100 million," Imus said at the start of the event, which has raised more than $40 million since 1990.

"I've been running my mouth for 30 years and I've said some stupid stuff," he said. But this time, he continued, his remarks were "really stupid."

Pressure from advertisers and politicians have mounted on the radio host since he referred to the Rutgers female basketball players as "nappy-headed hos" last week.

His ultimate fate depends on the CBS Corp., which owns both the radio station WFAN-AM that is the host's broadcast home, and the syndicator Westwood One, which distributes "Imus in the Morning" to stations across the country.

CBS Radio, which has also suspended Imus for two weeks without pay, said it would "continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely."

The 18th annual Radiothon, which has raised more than $40 million since 1990, began Thursday and runs through Friday. It was one of the reasons that his suspension from CBS does not start until next week.

Imus said Thursday said he had apologized enough and plans to meet with members of the Rutgers players. "At some point, I'm not sure when, I'm going to talk to the team. That's all I'm interested in doing."

It emerged Wednesday that a key to pulling the plug on his MSNBC simulcast was an internal mutiny within NBC. About 30 angry NBC News employees, many of them black, met with news division president Steve Capus and said they'd had it with Imus' brand of coarse ethnic humor.

"Within this organization, this had touched a nerve," Capus said Wednesday. "The comment that came through to us, time and time again, was `when is enough going to be enough?' This was the only action we could take."

Bruce Gordon, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he hoped CBS would "make the smart decision" by firing Imus.

"He's crossed the line, he's violated our community," Gordon said in a telephone interview. "He needs to face the consequence of that violation."

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has sought Imus' firing, said he will meet Thursday with CBS officials. And the Rutgers' women's basketball team and coach C. Vivian Stringer were scheduled to appear Thursday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

A growing list of sponsors — including American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp. — had said they were pulling ads from Imus' show indefinitely.

Imus' program is worth a total of about $15 million in annual revenue to CBS Corp., through advertising on WFAN and syndication fees received from MSNBC and Westwood One. It wasn't clear how much of that total came from MSNBC.

Two black on-air personalities at NBC News, reporter Ron Allen and the "Today" show's Al Roker, had already publicly urged Imus' firing on Web log entries.

Allen said he didn't buy the argument that Imus was "edgy" and had hurled slurs at many others. "Personally, I don't think being an `equal opportunity' insulter makes this OK," he said.

Roker said he was tired of cruelty that passes for funny, humor at other people's expense.

"He has to take his punishment and start over," Roker said. "Guess what? He'll get re-hired and will go on like nothing happened. CBS Radio and NBC News need to remove Don Imus from the airwaves. That is what needs to happen. Otherwise, it just looks like profits and ratings rule over decency and justice."

Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday became the first presidential candidate to call for Imus to be fired. "He didn't just cross the line, he fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America," said Obama, the only black candidate in the race.

Imus has apologized repeatedly for his comments. He also has said that those who called for his firing without knowing him, his philanthropic work or what his show was about would be making an "ill-informed" choice.

Imus' program has been the only thing MSNBC has aired on weekday mornings for the 11 years of the network's existence.

MSNBC loses a morning show personality at a time when his show has been doing very well. Almost as many people had been watching the telecast of his radio show than the highly-produced newscast on CNN — leading CNN to dump its two morning anchors just last week.

Producing its own morning show will also cost MSNBC money at a time it has been cutting costs, but it doesn't have the threat of an advertiser boycott.


http://www.foxnews.com

You don't think that calling someone a "Barbie", which is supposed to be a beautiful model type woman, is just a tad different than calling someone a "nappy headed ho", which is someone with kinky hair that is a prostitute. You seriously don't see the difference, King?

j/c...

a "racist" comment is most often just an offensive stereotype comment ...where the basis for that comment lies in racial or prejudicial metrics such as race and skin color (often with race/skin color being used interchangeably).


"Barbie" could very easily be intended as (and it's actually how I'd take it) "white blonde chick". If that isn't racist, then I'm confused on what is because it is making a comment whose basis lies in the individual's race/skin color.

Quote:

---

Sure it could be stereotyping, but its not racist. You could call a group of black girls barbies if they fit the stereotype, but again, its not racist.

---

racism is just stereotyping along racial lines.. is that any better or worse than sterotyping along other lines? like economic lines or religious lines or gender lines? You seem to think racial stereotyping is much worse than other forms of stereotyping

Quote:

---

And trying to validate calling a group of white girls barbies is on the same level as calling a group of black girls nappy headed ho's is ridiculous.

---

I personally never said it was exactly the same... it's similar. That's what an analogy is... it's similar, not exactly the same... But since you take things so literally, I should inform you now, life isn't REALLY like a box of chocolates...

Quote:

---

racism is just stereotyping along racial lines.. is that any better or worse than sterotyping along other lines? like economic lines or religious lines or gender lines? You seem to think racial stereotyping is much worse than other forms of stereotyping

---

Racism is believing you are superior to someone based on the color of their skin. I can stereotype black people as being better jumpers than white boys, but I dont feel they are inferior to me.

Quote:

---

I personally never said it was exactly the same... it's similar. That's what an analogy is

---

I never said it was exactly the same either. I know its an analogy, I GET what king is trying to say, unforrtunately he isnt saying very well. Its a horrible analogy.