Not a Nappy Head in the Bunch
The Rutgers Women’s Basketball team responded with class and poise to racist comments from Don Imus’s “Imus in the Morning” show at a press conference on Tuesday.
The radio/television host and his producer, Bernard McGuirk, referred to the Big East champions as “nappy-headed hoes” and “jiggaboos” last week after their loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Women’s National Championship game. Imus will serve a two-week suspension beginning on Monday, April 16.
Rutgers team members refused to comment on the severity of the punishment or on whether they thought it was just. The university used the opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of the group this season and to focus on their intellectual prowess. Rutgers has tough academic standards, and according to Coach C. Vivian Stringer
“These young ladies before you are valedictorians, future doctors, musical prodigies… these young ladies are the best this nation has to offer and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers. They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate. They are gifted.”
The team has agreed to meet with Imus to discuss his comments at an undisclosed location.
According to a transcript of the segment (from MediaBistro), Imus and McGuirk compared the game between Rutgers and Tennessee to “the Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes” from Spike Lee’s School Daze (misidentified by the show’s co-host as Do The Right Thing).
DON IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between — a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women’s final.
SID ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night — seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.
IMUS: That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and –
BERNARD McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.
IMUS: That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don’t know.
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
IMUS: Yeah.
McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had.
IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough –
CHARLES McCORD: Do The Right Thing.
McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
IMUS: I don’t know if I’d have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?
ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.
This isn’t the first time Imus’s crew has been guilty of “racially insensitive remarks”. In 2001, sports guy Rosenburg said Venus and Serena Williams would have a better chance at appearing in National Geographic than in Playboy. And Imus called the New York Knicks a bunch of “chest-thumping pimps.”
Many, including Rev. Al Sharpton, who hosted Imus’s formal apology to the African American community on his talk show, believe Imus should be fired for his remarks. Sharpton told Matt Lauer on Tuesday’s Today Show that suspension was, “not nearly enough. I think it is too little, too late.”
There is a chance that Imus will emerge from his suspension unscathed. Perhaps these comments aren’t as incendiary as Michael Richards’ racist tirade or Mel Gibson’s Jew-hating rant, but the Imus show is simulcast on national radio and television. He must adhere to a higher standard than Richards in a comedy club or a drunken Gibson in a bar.
What message does this send if Imus gets a two-week slap on the wrist for yet another racist joke?
And why doesn’t the suspension begin immediately? Imus is supposed to host a telethon for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and his networks don’t want the charity to lose money because of Imus’s absence. His very presence may have the same unfortunate effect.
The most frustrating aspect of this incident is that rednecks like Imus and his team can steal thunder from these powerful, intelligent and yes, beautiful women with racist remarks and bad jokes. This was their time to celebrate a magnificent season, not defend their womanhood, beauty and race from idiots like the Imus crew.
As additional pennance, Imus and his entire team should each donate a month’s salary to the Rutgers general scholarship fund and Imus’s radio station WFAN and MSNBC should match the number. That might start to undo the damage they have done.
April 14th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Joe Madison on Larry King said, “Be careful what you think. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. And your actions might become your legacy.”
It would seem that Imus’ words are now part of his legacy despite all the good things he’s done and was still doing. He just didn’t properly evaluate the impact of his words before he mouthed them and in America, that’s highly not recommended. Many before him have gone down in flames for less and many more after him will meet the same fate in the near future. Don Imus now owns the words that he uttered along with their consequences and they will continue to haunt him for the rest of his life. The sad part is that his arrogance and callousness will cost the people he was helping with his charity work more than him.
Does a double standard exist? The answer is always yes, and we all know it. The best examples can be drawn from the “acts” and lyrics of black comedians and rappers respectively, who freely toss around the n-word and constantly refer to [mostly black] women as hos/hoes. When and where did it start? I honestly don’t know but it will take more than the likes of Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson and [the late] Dr. Delores Tucker who took on 2pac to make it go away. Bill Cosby has part of the answer but when he speaks, he gets slammed. I’m not sure he could have done more with his star when he was America’s favorite tv dad but at least he said something. It has to germinate in the homes of black people. Each black family has to play the role of leader and clean up this mess…will that ever happen? I think not.
Black people seem to have a free pass when it comes to the use of the n-word among others; white people don’t, and, of course this isn’t spelled out in the 1st Amendment. Free speech or not, the history of this country has a lot to do with it and it’s just one of those things that lingers in the background and all it takes is an ill-conceived remark to create a ripple that soon develops into a tsunami wave of destruction. As Mr. Trump puts it…”Don Imus, you’re fired.” If we make this an absolute free speech issue, then Rev. Al Sharpton makes a pretty good argument positing that if Imus reserves the right to speak his mind without fear of repercussions as provided by the bill of rights, then all offended parties also reserve the right to express their resentment with their words. It’s hardly a perfect democracy and it’s all turned to shit for Imus since the bosses, sponsors and others have their own interests to look after.
Slavery, government sponsored and institutionalized racism, racist individuals and groups are part of the general fabric of American society. I believe that a great many black people feel that the horrible experiences of the last 400 plus years were a deposit of sorts, a pre-payment in full for any and all future transgressions. The issue wasn’t addressed in time and now it’s continuing to destroy the black community and in turn will destroy America and anyone who can’t see it was born yesterday or has been asleep for a long time.
A good portion of the black community is damaged beyond repair and if black America is damaged, then America is damaged. Many black entertainers, talented or not, have been part of the problem and will continue to be for a long time. They have helped to make it OK for black people to degrade each other and carry on the self-hating which is unforgivable and it gets worse when white people [who like it or not, carry the burden of their ancestors] feel that they can also freely and openly degrade blacks using the same language citing free speech and sticking it to the double standards as their reason for doing so.
About “nappy headed hoes”…well, he [Imus] should have known better. Coming from an old white guy his words were compounded by a factor of a million or so…I can’t believe they didn’t see this coming.
“Nappy” - People of African descent who are minimally mixed with other races have woolly, tightly-curled hair in it’s natural state. The term “nappy” as a description for black hair, has been associated with unattractiveness when compared with the straight, multicolored hair types of white people, which is the preferred standard for beautiful hair. It’s common knowledge that [biracial/multiracial] black people’s hair is referred to as “good hair” by some blacks which infers that 100% curly black hair is not. If we add the legacy of intense and lingering racism towards black people by whites in America, then any term that ‘puts down’ blackness will never be well received as we just witnessed especially when uttered by a prominent white individual. Many black folk have deeply rooted identity issues that were carefully planted by the white slave masters during slavery to control the slave population and the effects still linger and are partly to blame for this crisis we have now.
We still have unresolved race issues in America and that’s not going away. The baggage of slavery and race relations is with all of us and it manifests itself in various ways. Imus, in his apology, acknowledged what I believe to be somewhat true that deep inside, at the very core, black people are very suspicious of white people’s genuineness when they swear that they aren’t racist no matter how much interracial couples, marriages and families there are. At their most optimistic, many black people view the relatively peaceful coexistence with white people as something that had to be legislated and in the absence of the provisions made by federal law, white people would take [creative and not so subtle] steps to rid themselves of the inconvenience of black people…
Having said that, “nappy headed” isn’t necessarily offensive, however, “hoes” is universally offensive which makes the core of Mr. Imus’ recent exchange with Mr. McGuirk about the young ladies of Rutger’s U offensive, period. Fire the guy? I’m not sure about that.
That’s my 2 cents.