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

The following is from the Imus in the Morning radio show, which boasts millions of listeners via 70 radio stations and simulcast on cable TV:

That racist exchange aired on Wednesday, the morning after Tennessee defeated Rutgers for the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. It has the show’s preternaturally irascible host, Don Imus, now wallowing in contrition and begging Al Sharpton, the self-appointed pope of Black folks, for absolution.

On its face, that exchange looks really bad. And, based on what I saw of his show this morning, Imus is painfully aware of this seemingly irredeemable fact. He looked genuinely prostrate with guilt and shame as he apologized for and denounced his remarks. He pleaded continually that, despite how it looks:

Sure enough, he gave a pretty credible defense of his bona fides as a “good person.” Among other things, he noted that he

• funds and personally runs a camp for kids with cancer;
• has championed many black causes, including raising millions for sickle cell anemia (when no black American leader seemed remotely interested in its impact on black children); and
• was the first and most prominent person in mainstream media to condemn the Bush Administration’s neglect of Katrina victims as racist!

The Imus in the Morning show is as popular amongst political and business leaders as the Daily Show is amongst high-school and college students. Regular viewers know that Imus hurling “good-natured” insults is the hallmark of his show. More to the point, he targets everyone — from self-important politicians to his own wife. Hell, he often refers to her as a “green ho” when ridiculing her environmental activism. The man even called the “Jewish management of CBS [a bunch of] money-grubbing bastards.”

In other words, he is an equal-opportunity offender. Nonetheless, base political (and commercial) motivations compel people like Sharpton to reflexively call for his head on a platter.

However, iPINIONS does not think his radio and TV bosses should fire him. I do not think they should even suspend him. This, for the same reason I did not think sponsors should drop Jesse Jackson or Julian Bond for hurling anti-Semitic insults. iPINIONS reasoned then, as I do now, that:

Having these high-profile people expiate their sins in “the public square” will advance the cause of combating hate speech. Not least because this will force their die-hard, enabling supporters to reflect in a similar vein. This will provide far greater public service than having self-aggrandizing moral policemen like Sharpton arrest them, lock them up, and throw away the key.

Apropos of which,  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, does anyone recall Sharpton picketing ABC to fire black actor Isaiah Washington (of Grey’s Anatomy) for calling one of his fellow cast members, who happens to be gay, “a faggot”? Not to mention the just cause Sharpton has given white folks to regard him as more Black hustler than Black pope.

In any event, Imus seems determined to do whatever is necessary to make amends. He has already agreed to a public confessional on Sharpton’s talk show, for Christ’s sake! Paying this penance seems a far greater punishment for him than early retirement, during which he’d still be collecting payments on his multimillion-dollar contract. And, just imagine what racial pins and needles he’ll be sitting on for the rest of his career.

Fair enough, Imus…

Finally, for the sake of clarity and honesty, beware that nobody 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. That’s why the real cause of this outrage is Imus calling Black women “nappy headed.”

But, if truth be told, this outrage is more about Black hypocrisy and self-loathing than racism. After all, if Black women were happy with their nappy heads, Imus’s insult would not have stung so much. (For a little insight into intra-racial prejudices about Black women’s hair, I refer you to Spike Lee’s School Daze.)

Then, of course, there’s the way far too many Black women (and Sharpton himself) spend inordinate amounts of money (and often endure excruciating pain) to get perms and extensions. Why? All to make their “Black people hair” look like White people 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 spewing racial epithets, click on Related Articles below to read iPINIONS on the racist tirades of Mel Gibson and Michael (Kramer) Richards.

* Article published originally yesterday at 12:01 pm

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Don Imus