Should Don Imus be fired?

[Reverend Rick]

He's on his own then.....:run:
Then what's so special about this current statement if he's been a bigot all along?
Not unless most people understood he had a tendency of joking like this?

Don Imus is not a hater. He is insensitive and ignorant sometimes. He's an equal opportunity offender. He can be funny too. When he first started out in radio, he once called McDonalds and ordered 1200 hamburgers on the air. Where he has run a foul is when he started having heavy weight people come on his show and some people got the idea he was a serious radio host. The fact is, he is too old to be hip and his recent attempt to be funny cost him his job.

 

[Quiddity]

Don Imus is not a hater. He is insensitive and ignorant sometimes. He's an equal opportunity offender. He can be funny too. When he first started out in radio, he once called McDonalds and ordered 1200 hamburgers on the air. Where he has run a foul is when he started having heavy weight people come on his show and some people got the idea he was a serious radio host. The fact is, he is too old to be hip and his recent attempt to be funny cost him his job.

So you think his history of bigoted/racist comments were jokes and nothing more?

 

[Reverend Rick]

I would have to know the man personally to answer that. He abused his ex-wife, he had a Vodka and Cocaine addiction in the past. I see to many signs that he is just getting old and really might be losing his mind.

If you look at his life, he has done good and bad things. It is time for him to retire.

 

[lilithu]

He's on his own then.....:run:
Then what's so special about this current statement if he's been a bigot all along?
Not unless most people understood he had a tendency of joking like this?

Hi Victor, namaste.

What's so special about his statements this time?

1. He directed his comments at college-aged athletes. They're practically kids. They're not celebrities. They're the not the kind of people who are usually the targets of such abuse.

2. And this is most "special" part: the context in which he made the comments was that he was comparing the players of the Rutgers team with the players of the Tennessee team. Both teams have a majority of African-American players. The Tennessee team tended to be more light-skinned/straighten-hair and the Rutgers team tended to be more dark-skinned/kinkier hair.

Bear that in mind as you read what Imus and his crew said:


IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --
McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.
IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
...ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.



Translation: dark skin, kinky-hair = scary, repulsive, bad. light skin, straight hair = nice, attractive, good.

And the worst part of it is that he probably has no idea just how hurtful those comments were to those young women, and to other African-American women. For Imus and for many Americans, the racial dimension of their ideas of beauty and worth are so deeply ingrained that they're not even aware of them.

One doesn't have to hate based on race in order to be racist.

 

[NoahideHiker]

What do you think? Should Don Imus be fired?

No. I like the idea that all views are acceptable for exchange even if they are not popular or even inflammatory.

Freedom is putting up with things we may not like nor agree with.

 

[Reverend Rick]

Hi Victor, namaste.

What's so special about his statements this time?

1. He directed his comments at college-aged athletes. They're practically kids. They're not celebrities. They're the not the kind of people who are usually the targets of such abuse.

2. And this is most "special" part: the context in which he made the comments was that he was comparing the players of the Rutgers team with the players of the Tennessee team. Both teams have a majority of African-American players. The Tennessee team tended to be more light-skinned/straighten-hair and the Rutgers team tended to be more dark-skinned/kinkier hair.

Bear that in mind as you read what Imus and his crew said:


IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --
McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.
IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
...ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.



Translation: dark skin, kinky-hair = scary, repulsive, bad. light skin, straight hair = nice, attractive, good.

And the worst part of it is that he probably has no idea just how hurtful those comments were to those young women, and to other African-American women. For Imus and for many Americans, the racial dimension of their ideas of beauty and worth are so deeply ingrained that they're not even aware of them.

One doesn't have to hate based on race in order to be racist.

I agree with that. Imus has apologised and the women from Rutgers accepted the apology. Imus has been fired, and unless you want his head on a stick, this is a done deal.

So does it all end here, or is there more work to be done?

Do we need to remove Rush Limbaugh, Rosie O Donald and the like?

Does Reverend Jesse Jackson need to apologise to the Duke students?

Do we need to put more pressure on certain music lyrics?

 

[The Seeker]

I agree with that. Imus has apologised and the women from Rutgers accepted the apology. Imus has been fired, and unless you want his head on a stick, this is a done deal.

The Rutgers women have apologized. It's time to move on.

Do we need to remove Rush Limbaugh, Rosie O Donald and the like?

Only if they say something that gets a large number of people in an uproar.

Does Reverend Jesse Jackson need to apologise to the Duke students?

Yes.

Do we need to put more pressure on certain music lyrics?

yes

 

[constantine]

If by witch hunt you mean complaining until every bigot is off television, then yes,

what about Archie Bunker... l love that guy

 

[UnityNow101]

Archie Bunker was insanely funny...But if he would have done that sort of comedy nowadays he wouldn't last a full season. They do still show his shows on some channel which is kind of cool though.

 

[Reverend Rick]

lilithu must have me on ignore. You cannot ignore my questions that many times in a row and not be ignoring me.

 

[maggie2]

To begin with, let me say I'm no fan of Imus and I'm not sorry to see him go. That said, however, I think there are many other things we need to address around this issue. I have mixed feelings about whether he should have been fired or not. On the one hand I do not like his brand of commentary. On the other hand I do believe in free speech.

Here are some things I've observed over this past week that relate to this issue. I'd love some comments on these observations.

First of all, Imus himself didn't apologize until it became apparent that he could well lose his job. It took him 48 hours to say he was sorry and then, IMO, he didn't do a very good job of that. Then when he DID apologize he tried to excuse his behavior by saying rappers use those words. Not a great way to apologize, IMO.

Next, it took NBC a week to decide he should be fired and if the truth be told, apparently the decision wasn't made until many advertisers had pulled the plug. CBS waited another day after NBC to fire him. NBC in particular said that they were mainly influenced by people in their company who were objecting to him. They never addressed the economic issues of the situation, choosing to ignore them. Seems to me they may have been trying to make themselves look good.

Another thing I've noticed is all the people who are talking about this keep calling these gals from Rutgers 'beautiful young ladies'. Since their coach first used this phrase everyone else has picked it up and spout the same thing. Since when do we go around calling kids in University 'beautiful young ladies'? It appears so fake when people say this. It's not a turn of phrase that we would normally use. So why such an over-reaction? I saw John Harwood on Meet the Press this morning and he used the phrase and it just didn't fit.

One of the other things I find interesting is the hypocracy of those in the black community, particularly Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, who are screaming about Imus but who haven't been screaming about rap artists for years now. That's where the phrase Imus used originated from...rap music. So why hasn't the black community been up in arms about the kinds of things expressed by their own people? Is it okay for a black man to say those things but not a white man?

I truly believe that we have to set the tone of how we want to be treated and in this case, the black community needs to step up and get rid of the kinds of lyrics that their own people are using. Once they clean up their own community then they can expect others to treat them better.

For example, my daughter, Charlotte, keeps complaining that her daughter, Katie, not keeping her bedroom clean. I keep telling Charlotte that when she keeps her own bedroom clean that's the time she can expect the same from Katie. We can't expect people to do the things we won't do ourselves.

And finally, I think that we need to stop making victims of these girls. They need to be supported but most importantly they need to be assured that they don't have to feel victimized by what anyone says. That is their choice. They do not have to allow what anyone says put them down. They need to be applauded for the efforts they made in their field and how far they came. They don't need anyone else making them the poor underdogs of this event.

What does everyone else think about this whole thing? I'd be interested to know.