Imus in the News

I decided to write about this when I was in the gym hoping to watch the Lakers-Phoenix game, when all that was on was the damn Imus story. And the title on the bottom of the screen was something like “Imus Crisis.” (the news is a joke) I don’t know Imus and don’t have any prior negative or positive feelings about him, but now I am just annoyed by him. Here should be the headlines to me… “Race Issues In America Still Exist.” Cause that’s the real issue, right? Not really breaking news. So fire him and get on with it. Not that I don’t think this is a story, but don’t act like this is actually turning the country upside-down… or that it is a “Crisis.” There are several aspects of this story I find interesting, and I’ll break it down.

For those of you who have been in a hole for about 10 days ill break down the happenings. Basically the radio personality Don Imus, referred to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” (Poor choice of words)

It didn’t take long for a finger to be pointed at “hip-hop.” Imus said, in his defense, something along the lines of “ho” is said in hip-hop all the time, so why is what he said so different. Well, if you ask me its very different, and here is the top three reasons why.

(Before I begin I would just like to say that I think the world might be a little better off if everyone stopped calling women “hoes” and “bitches” with such easy (myself included). Though you may not mean it… you may not know it, but it does affects the way you, and others around you, think and treat women. You don’t call women you respect (i.e. your mom) a “ho” or “bitch.”)

1) Imus is on public radio, and is not coming out with a CD anytime soon. If he wasn’t on the radio and wanted to come out with a CD with a song called “hos, hos, and hoes,” this would not be a story.
2) Imus was referring to the second place 2007 NCAA women’s team. Do you really need to bad mouth the Cinderella team, who had a great tournament performance… especially after the just lost in the finals? I mean who does that. I am surprised he didn’t bad mouth George Mason last year.
3) Imus didn’t just call them “hos”… he called them “nappy-headed hos.” And this is the real story. This is more of a race issue then a sexist issue, which says something about our culture. We have a long way to go, racism is still a huge issue, and its unfortunate that we don’t need a radio host to say something stupid to address that.

With that said, I am going to turn on the TV and hope to god Imus isn’t on.
Also, don’t use the word “Crisis” loosely, cause when you have a real “Crisis” no one will believe you. And if he contaminates anther one of my PTI’s I’m going to have real problems with this guy. He will have a special place in my heart…right next to Anna Nicole Smith.