Imus feeling white heat for calling black women “nappy-headed hos”?!

The following is the racist exchange from the Imus in the Morning radio show, which aired last Wednesday morning after Tennessee defeated Rutgers for the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, that has its preternaturally-irascible host, Don Imus, wallowing in contrition and begging Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for absolution:

(NOTE: This show is broadcast to millions of people on more than 70 stations and is simulcast on MSNBC)

On its face, this looks really bad! And, since I watched some of his show this morning, I suspect no one is more painfully aware than Imus is of this appalling fact. And he seemed genuinely prostrate with guilt and shame as he apologized for, and denounced, these remarks - ultimately insisting, inter alia, that, despite how it looks:

Indeed, Imus gave a pretty credible defense of his bona fides as a relatively “good person”: And in this respect, he cited the fact that he funds and personally runs a camp for kids with cancer and, more on point, that he has championed many black causes, including raising millions of dollars for sickle cell anemia (when no black American leader seemed remotely interested in its impact on black children) and being the first and most prominent person in mainstream media to condemn the Bush Administration’s neglect of Katrina victims as racist!

But anyone remotely familiar with his show, which is as popular amongst political and business leaders in America as the Daily Show is amongst college students, knows that it is premised on hurling “good-natured” insults at everyone from self-important U.S. Senators to his own wife - who he calls a “green ho” when making fun of her environmental activism. The man even called the “Jewish management of CBS [a bunch of] money-grubbing bastards”.

Indeed, in fairness to Imus, he is nothing if not an equal-opportunity offender. And, since I understand the base political (and commercial) motivation that compels people like Sharpton to reflexively call for his head on a platter, I do not think he should be fired. In fact, I do not think he should be taken off the air for the same reason I did not think Jesse Jackson or Julian Bond should have been exorcised from public life for hurling anti-Semitic insults:

The cause of combating hate-speech will be advanced far more by having these high-profile people expiate their sins in “the public square” (with their die-hard, enabling supporters being forced to do the same vicariously) than by having arbitrary and capricious moral cops like Sharpton arrest them and summarily throw their careers in jail.

Meanwhile, some of us are still waiting for Sharpton to show a little contrition for some of his rabble-rousing, race-baiting misdeeds. More on point, however, does anyone recall hearing Sharpton call for black actor Isaiah Washington - of Grey’s Anatomy - to be fired for calling one of his fellow cast members, who happens to be gay, “a faggot”? Click here to see why so many white people feel they have just cause to call Sharpton the black David Duke….

At any rate, it would certainly be a far greater punishment for Imus to be seen and heard groveling to save his job (he has already agreed to perform a public confession on Sharpton’s talk show for Christ’s sake!), than for him to be forced into early retirement while, of course, still collecting payments on his multimillion-dollar contract. And, just imagine what racial pins and needles he’d be sitting on for the rest of his career.

Fair enough Imus!

Finally, for the sake of clarity and honesty, let’s be sure we understand that no one is upset with Imus for calling these women “hos”. After all, the cognitive dissonance propagated by the Hip-Hop community has turned this insult into a term of endearment for far too many black women. Therefore, the sanctimonious outrage could only have been incited by his referring to black women as “nappy headed”.

But, if truth be told, this outrage is more about black hypocrisy and self-loathing than Imus’ racism. Because, at the risk of emulating Spike Lee’s portrayal (or betrayal - depending on how deep in denial your are) of intra-black prejudices in School Daze, if more of our black women were happy with their nappy heads, Imus’ insult - though still offensive (in the way blacks can call each other “nigger” but white people can’t) - would not have stung so much.

Never mind that it’s an open, laughable and pitiable secret that too many black women (and Rev Al Sharpton) spend inordinate amounts of money (and often endure excruciating pain) getting perms and extensions to make their admittedly-nappy hair look like white people’s hair! Indeed, I wonder how Oprah feels about her “authentic self” when white people compliment her on “her” long and flowing hair….

NOTE: For more on celebrities people spewing racial epithets, click on Related Articles below to read my take on the racist tirades of Mel Gibson and Michael (Kramer) Richards.

* Article published originally yesterday at 12:01 pm

Related Articles:
Arrested development of Mel Gibson (and click here for his apology)
Seinfeld Kramer erupts in racist tirade
YouTube video of Imus’soffending remarks

Don Imus