Years ago, I used to listen to Imus in the Morning. He was acerbic even then. After a while, I decided that while there was some humor, the bad outweighed the good, so I turned him off. In a recent show, his description of the predominantly African American Rutger’s women’s basketball team created quite a stir.
While he used a term that is commonly found in today’s contemporary music, many found it offensive and the normal group of protestors - Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and even Barack Obama - demanded he be fired. I read a comment by someone that said, I can call my brother ugly, but if you do it, then you’re in for a fight.
But the captain of the Rutger’s b-ball team said hurtful words are wrong, no matter who’s saying them.
Another person thought it was wrong to protest Imus’ words, since it was a double standard to do so. This brought a long group of people agreeing with him and commenting about how tired they were of the double standard that allows black people to get away with bad behavior while demanding whites to live up to a different code of ethics.
Sigh. The playing field hasn’t been even for minorities. And life isn’t fair. And we don’t make choices about our behavior based on whether someone else does it or not.
Double standard or not, calling young women on a basketball team “nappy-headed ho’s” isn’t nice.
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