Imus Reveals Race Prejudice Again: Will NBC Do Anything This Time?

I've just about had it with Don Imus.

I know I'm not the only one. The crusty DJ has snarked off just about everybody in the business, from Howard Stern to Tavis Smiley, with his unthinking, sexist, racist nonsense.

This time, Imus decided to stick it to Rutgers University's female basketball team, calling them "nappy-headed ho's" on a recent broadcast.

Here's how it was captured on the liberal-oriented Web site Media Matters:

"On the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which is comprised of eight African-American and two white players, as "nappy-headed hos" immediately after the show's executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, called the team "hard-core hos." Later, former Imus sports announcer Sid Rosenberg, who was filling in for sportscaster Chris Carlin, said: "The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the [National Basketball Association's] Toronto Raptors."

McGuirk referred to the NCAA women's basketball championship game between Rutgers and Tennessee as a "Spike Lee thing," adding, "The Jigaboos vs. The Wannabees -- that movie that he had." McGuirk was presumably referring to Lee's 1988 film, School Daze (Sony Pictures), though co-host Charles McCord misidentified it as "Do the Right Thing" (Criterion, June 1989)."

This isn't the first time Imus has pulled this kind of nonsense.

NBC had to apologize for Imus in 2004, after he called Palestinians "stinking animals" and referred to an Iraqi executed by a U.S. soldier as a "bobby-trapped, raghead cadaver."

Former New York media critic Philip Nobile has made a crusade of documenting Imus' awful racial remarks, including calling the highly-regarded black journalist Gwen Ifill a "cleaning lady" when she was sent to cover the White House for the New York Times.

Nobile also noted Imus admitted to 60 Minutes that producer Bernard McGurk was brought on "to do nigger jokes," called Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz a "boner-nosed Jewboy," called Patrick Ewing "the missing link," Shaquille O'Neal "a car-jacker in shorts," and the Knicks "chest-bumping
pimps."

It's been easy to ignore his nonsense because I find the show so boring I never watch it. And critics such a Nobile who have taken on Imus have paid a price, as the celebrities and journlists who frequent his show find it easier to disparage the critics than turn away from the book sales and TV ratings Imus fans deliver.

But turning away from this is wrong. Pretending it's all in good fun is wrong. And with Imus show growing in popularity -- the Washington Post noted a 35 percent jump in ratinghs from last year -- it's time to demand this crusty knucklehead join the 21st century.

The National Association of Black Journalists today called on journalists to boycott Imus' show until he sincerely apologizes and cleans up his act.

I wonder if NBC will do the same? Will regular Imus guests like Sen. Joe Lieberman, Meet the Press host Tim Russert and presidential candidate Sen. John McCain do the same?

Hard to believe that, in 2007, you still have to make a case for shunning a guy who slings around slurs about black people and Jews like it's 1957.

UPDATE: My friend Richard Prince reports on his Journal-isms blog that Imus has apologized for the slurs.

Prince writes: "On Friday's "Imus in the Morning," which originates at WFAN in New York, Imus said: "Want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team.

"It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry."

MSNBC distanced itself from the comments.

"While simulcast by MSNBC, 'Imus in the Morning' is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio. As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC. We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments," spokesman Jeremy Gaines said."

When talk radio firebrand Michael Savage made insulting comments about gay people and AIDS, MSNBC dropped him relatively quickly. What will the cable newschannel do now -- besides distancing themselves with a mealy-mouthed apology -- faced with similarly offensive comments from one of their biggest stars?

Comments

[Beat Visitor]

This racist rant will not be forgotten at this Rutgers Football blog (http://www.beatvistor.com) and the inevitable empty apologies will not be accepted.

Thanks for spreading the word about this apologist for racism as a part of "normal" conversation.

He has to be called on his "jokes" early and often, until he's retired to satellite radio.

[Eric Deggans]

I hear you. Let's hope MSNBC does, too.

[joe hillman]

it's times like this i always remember what howard stern referred to imus as:

"don anus."

[Daniel Pennant]

For the prejudice beetwen the white and black people . I have talked about it many times with many friends on EbonyFriends.com. we hope the MSNBC can do something.

[Shirley Irons]

I was shocked to hear such offensive remarks.This guy should be canned.

[puck30]

Shirley you are shocked?
You must not be from the New York area. He's been doing this since the 70's. We have a sportswriter Phil Mushnick in New York, who has so many Imus gaffs documented. He could probably fill a book.

The reason he was able to get away with it was he had a lot of his stooges do his dirty work and then if they went over the line he would just fire them. Sid Rosenburg comes to mind.

And another reason would be for a lot of years, nobody would listen to him, he kept placing near the bottom in ratings. It's just been lately people have started to listen and watch him. Why? You got me! To me, the show was always a borefest.

If he goes, a lot of people's first words will be. 'What took them so long?'

[Bob]

If MSNBC drops their simulcasting of Don Imus' radio show, the network may be forced to either air reruns of shows like "Headliners and Legends," or risk incurring the wrath of NBC Network affiliates by airing live hard-news programming that would compete with the "Today" show.

[Eric Deggans]

Couldn't MSNBC just find another radio jock to do mornings -- preferably somebody a little more animated and interesting?

I think Imus should be let go. If we are going to move forward and live in a society were everybody is looked upon as equals, then we have to let all these old trees die off. This morning on his show he me made the statement about if he were racist then why would he play Bishop Patterson's sermon even though other people would ask him why was he playing sermons by that n____'s, Imus then said he paid no attention to the racist, but Mr. Imus, a real advocate would have exposed the racist for what they were instead of keeping to yourself and now only speaking about because you're in hotwater.

[Hank Henry]

Imus is an uneducated overbearing money grubber. He ceaslessly promotes his talentless much younger wife and for some reason has his 8 year old on the set. His 3 inch over shot brow, stupid outdated hair style (only Donald has a worse do) is covered by an "all hat no cattle" Stetson. I am embarrassed that I know so much about this ex Junkie. He needs to go.

[Princess R]

By Mead Gruver
ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:34 p.m. April 4, 2007

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Houston resident and Cree Indian Cheryl Melendez had just dropped her kids off at school and was listening to one of her city councilmen on her car radio when she heard something that floored her.
Councilman Michael Berry was saying American Indians don't deserve the federal assistance that they're getting because they “were whipped in a war.”

Advertisement “We conquered them,” he said. “That's history. Hello?”
The March 27 remarks on the Michael Berry Show – archived online and available for anyone to hear – have sent shock waves through Indian Country. They've been a hot topic on Indianz.com and on another Houston radio show – one about Indian culture.

What Berry said was especially galling for Melendez and her husband, Steve, who have dedicated themselves to teaching the real story about being “whipped.” They're the co-founders of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston.

“My only question was, was Sand Creek and Wounded Knee a war?” Cheryl Melendez said Wednesday, referring to the slaughter of more than 163 Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek, Colo., in 1864 and of some 300 Sioux at Wounded Knee, S.D., in 1890.

“You want to believe that things are changing. You want to believe the best in people. And then, wham, something like this happens,” Melendez said. “I guess it kind of just takes your breath away and leaves you disappointed.”

Besides being an at-large councilman, Berry is Houston's mayor pro-tem, meaning that he fills in for certain duties when Mayor Bill White isn't available. Berry did not return messages left Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The Michael Berry Show airs weekdays on KPRC 950-AM in Houston. A message left for station officials seeking comment also wasn't returned Wednesday.

Berry made the remark while speaking out against a proposal in the Texas Legislature for the state to apologize for slavery.

“If we're not going to apologize for slavery, then we need to stop the continuous apology for what was done to the American Indians,” he said.

Berry said the federal government in effect apologizes to American Indians every day by expending “incredible resources from our treasury.”

“We continue to give land,” he said, without elaborating.

He said the government had given tribes the right to print money.

“Which is also known as a casino,” he said. “Why are we still doing that?”

And he said he was qualified to say such things because he has Indian blood.

“If you're against apologizing for slavery, then you've got to be against giving welfare to the American Indians because of the fact that 200 years ago they were whipped in a war. And let's just call it what it is. They lost a war,” he said.

“Why don't we go hand the Germans a few million dollars, and the Italians, and the Japanese? OK, so we did rebuild their country. We don't continue to give them aid because they sit around whining about a war from 200 years ago. Are you kidding me? Seriously.”

Steve Melendez said that the second elected president of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, declared an “extermination war” against Indians.

“Here in Texas, the war that was taking place 200 years ago was a war of genocide,” he said.

He said newspapers of the day advertised Indian scalps selling for $200. To this day, he said, there aren't many Indians to be found in Texas compared to other states.

“That was one of the strange things that happened to me when I came from Nevada to Houston. There were no Indians,” said Melendez, who identified himself as Paiute.

Jacquelyn Battise, host of the weekly Houston community radio show People of Earth, which focuses on Indian culture, said she read some of Berry's remarks on the air.

She got a lot of calls and e-mails in response.

“It's ignorant, some of the remarks that he made about casinos,” she said. “It just shows, I guess, a real disconnection.”

She said there was talk about circulating a petition to counter some of the remarks.

H. Mathew Barkhausen III, a media specialist for the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center and a freelance writer based in Denver, got word of the radio show through a chain of e-mails.

“It's really frustrating to me, for example the casino issue, when people make sweeping moral judgments about something they obviously know nothing about,” Barkhausen said.

He said Berry “obviously doesn't know anything about the Indian gaming act.”

“For some reason, there's a ridiculous assumption that the 500-some-odd recognized tribes in the United States have become wealthy through casino money, and that's not the case,” he said.

Part Tuscarora and part Cherokee, Barkhausen also questioned the notion that American Indians had been “whipped.”

“The Indian wars never ended, they just changed format,” he said. “They're battles that are fought in the courtroom.”

Thus ... this recent incident brings me to the sad conclusion that things like this are harbored in a persons inner soul. Feeling like these towards people of any color ARE TAUGHT,ACCEPTED and sometimes sadly nurtured to the point were they are destined to manifest themselves to all of society. Our current media outlets are becoming polluted with distasteful ignorance ...this must STOP, no matter who you are/were your from etc.

[Candy]

A comment about this Imus thing that might tick a few more people off... No one seems to consider where the man heard the phase. Frankly, the whole situation is much like a little child hearing an adult curse. There is no doubt in my mind, he heard the phase from a person of color. To them, it might incite anger - but is IS their own phase. When someone is the subject of the phase, yes, it is an insult. Hearing it said about someone... yes, is funny. This matter is the same old song and dance - a black person can use the "n word", but a white person cannot. A tremendous amount of rap "music" needs to be cleaned up - and the attitudes of those who buy it, before a single man should be made an example of.

[Lets Hope..........]

Imus can come up with something appropriate to label the KILLER (Brandy) who escaped punishment for vehicular manslaughter, without upsetting the masses.