Racism in the Morning

I really liked Eugene Robinson's colum on the Imus affair. I'm a bit surprised the Post headlined it "Misogyny in the Morning," however, since what he's clearly trying to say is that Imus is a racist. As in "The simple answer would be -- all together now -- racism." And as in Robinson's discussion of Imus' deployment of the admittedly misognynistic term "ho"

It's easy to surmise that Imus came out with the word "ho" because hip-hop is an African American art form and he associated the word with black women. He knew nothing about those women from Rutgers, except that they were black. It's hard to imagine him describing, say, a Swedish basketball team as a bunch of "stringy-haired hos."

Right. I dunno. I always used to listen to Imus when I was a kid. His show is the sort of thing that's hilarious if you're in the crucial 11-16 demographic.

Comments

Howard Stern = entertaining.
Don Imus = excruciating.

Posted by 11-16 yr. old Gregorio | April 10, 2007 2:27 AM

Here we all go again. Bring on the Speech Cops!
Imus said something that many people find offensive and of course they have to bring out the R word.
More offensive than anything Imus said are the attempts now to silence him.
Just like the silencing of the dirty hippies pre-war.
No difference between Sharpton's BS and Guilliani's BS. Both are proto fascists.
When did we forget the simple rule that the answer to offensive speech is more free speech?
KikeNiggerFagBitchQueerHoWopDickEtcEtc
Who cares? Or is all this self righteous BS only a cudgel in the ongoing PC wars?
And now tell me that Robinson never ever used the word Nigger.
Fuck 'em.

Posted by Southie | April 10, 2007 4:34 AM

I heard what Imus said and immediately opined: "His ratings must have gone down and he decided to gamble on controversy". I have no idea whether I'm really right on that.

Go ahead, beat him with sticks, I don't care...

Perhaps his show could be turned into a charity fund-raising "Roast" where black celebrities came on and trashed Imus, who would not be allowed to speak. Would that be a dark roast? Or maybe make him play against that team he insulted. Every day.

Posted by Fred | April 10, 2007 6:53 AM

For what it's worth, Imus refers to his wife, environmental activist Deirdre Imus, as "The Green Ho," and you don't get much whiter than her. So it's not hard to imagine him calling Swedish women hos at all. Which is a whole other problem, I suppose, but the premise that in using the word "ho" he's definitionally being racist is faulty.

Posted by Sean T. Collins | April 10, 2007 7:18 AM

This is not an isolated incident. Is side kick called the game a contest between "Jiggaboos and wannabes". This is a big part of his act and frankly his appeal with the over 55 set.

Posted by phg | April 10, 2007 9:01 AM

The thing that bothers me about this, and I'm not exactly defending what Imus said, but I strongly suspect that the only reason Imus got in so much trouble is because he was picking on a women's basketball team. If he had used the same term for a less revered group of women, I don't think we would be seeing the same reaction.

Posted by cs | April 10, 2007 9:27 AM

When did we forget the simple rule that the answer to offensive speech is more free speech?

Jesus you're stupid. The people who are condemning Imus ARE answering him with more free speech. That includes the people who are calling on his private employer to stop airing his show, which is their right.

Posted by Matt Weiner | April 10, 2007 9:50 AM

to follow up on Weiner, the following needs to be understood:

free speech != the right to be paid millions of dollars for using offensive language

Posted by theCoach | April 10, 2007 10:07 AM

Does this mean Imus watches women's basketball? I guess he is a moron.

Posted by too many steves | April 10, 2007 10:25 AM

Yes -- 11 to 16 years old -- the halcyon days of my Imus listening. I don't remember how many 9th grade snow days I enjoyed by lying in bed listening to stale "Bubba" Clinton parodies and Ted Kennedy impersonations. Imus was the ruler of my radio world in the mid-90s... Now it doesn't wear nearly as well, although I bet Mike Breen's old sports updates still hold up.

Posted by Matt Karp | April 10, 2007 10:43 AM

Has anyone outside of NYC heard of Imus? I didn't know who he was til the movie "Private Parts" and even then I thought he was a fictional character.

Posted by Max | April 10, 2007 10:53 AM

Has anyone outside of NYC heard of Imus?

He's broadcast every morning nation-wide on CBS Radio and simulcast for 3 hours on MSNBC. That's quite a platform.

My retired father starts out with him every morning, before then spending the day with Rush, Savage, et al. Last time I visited him, he told me he watches some college basketball, because "at least some whites still play that". I guess that's Imus's demographic down to a "T".

Posted by Ethel-to-Tilly | April 10, 2007 11:28 AM

Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.

UPS driver makes a delivery and calls the shop owner a "nappy headed ho". UPS fires him. That is not a free speech issue. Congress passes a law forbidding all delivery drivers from calling customers "nappy headed ho's". That is a free speech issue.

Posted by Brock in Portland | April 10, 2007 11:56 AM

In this country, we hear the phrase "people throw out the term racist so easily," yet just about anytime a white guy says something like this, and plenty of white guys are out there to defend him. Look how Trent Lott got re-elected. Then the media play along and make it all about Sharpton (who, because of the whole Korean grocer thing and his weird statements about Jews thing does make me think he's a bigot) and Sharpton makes it all about Sharpton and the clusterfuck goes round and round. Something seriously has to be wrong with you if you think calling a bunch of women you don't know "nappy-headed hos" is not racist. Really, who says that, especially in public? When a black guy says it, it is still misogyny. When a white guy says it, it is both misogyny and racist. What, is he one of those guys who is upset that black guys can say "Nigga Please" and he can't? And "Jiggaboos"? What the hell is wrong with this guy? Why doesn't he just make a segment called "The Nigger Minute" and get it done with? He's always been a bit creepy about race, very much in the old white guy crying "we're losing everything!" vein.

Posted by Reality Man | April 10, 2007 12:10 PM

Well, because "Misogyny in the Morning" is alliterative, don't y'see, whereas "Racism in the Morning"--not so much.

Never let accuracy get in the way of a good gimmick...

Posted by Captain Goto | April 10, 2007 12:19 PM

The jiggaboos comment was a reference to a Spike Lee movie.

Posted by Dimmy Karras | April 10, 2007 12:35 PM

The jiggaboos comment was a reference to a Spike Lee movie.

Those idiots on Imus even got the name of the movie wrong, it was "School Days." And to those upthread, "Nappy-headed hos" counts as racist.

Posted by Sharon | April 10, 2007 12:43 PM

The hypocrisy and stupidity of the "left" in all its glory.
Of course anyone has the right to call for Imus to be "fired". Dohhhhh!
The question is the wisdom and effectiveness of the practice.
But then you have no problem with people being fired for, say, voicing their opposition to the war in Iraq right?
Or better, can we all say Tawana Brawley?

Posted by Southie | April 10, 2007 12:56 PM

Imus is almost certainly a racist, and if he isn't he's at the very least an asshole. I'm all in favor of his firing. And yet: in the bigger picture, I think there's something counterproductive in the seemingly constant cycle of:
(1) Celebrity or prominent person makes racist remark
(2) Minority rights groups call for his firing
(3) Celebrity makes hostage-like apology or faux-apology
(4) Parties come to negotiated compromise leaving everyone unhappy
(5) Lather, rinse, repeat

Certainly a great many of these people really are racists who fully deserve to have the pound of flesh extracted from them. But to the great majority of Americans who watch ten times more celebrity news than real news, this is the only exposure to civil rights and racial justice issues that they ever get. I think the cycle ends up trivializing the issues at stake.

The fact is that most white people (not to mention, frankly, most minorities) are no less racist than Imus or Michael Richards or John Calipari or Rosie O'Donnell or whomever. This sucks, but in the grand scheme of things, the subjective personal feelings and opinions held by some dumbass celebrity are totally meaningless and insignificant. Individual people are always gonna be racist no matter what you do - the only reason why this presents a public policy problem is because of the power differentials that exist in American society. When you consider that this celebrity scalp-collecting is the only way in which these issues are presented to Joe Sixpack for him to grapple with, I think that's pretty problematic. Surely there has to be a better way to focus energies and resources.

Posted by JP | April 10, 2007 1:00 PM

The hypocrisy and stupidity of the "right" in all its glory:

Or better, can we all say Tawana Brawley?

What does Tawana Brawley have to do with anything? Since when did she have a nationally broadcast radio and cable television show and have a history of broadcasting racist and sexist comments?

This is about Don Imus, is it not? Isn't bringing in Tawana Brawley nothing more than a feeble attempt to change the subject and muddy the water instead of actually addressing the issue at hand?

Posted by Ethel-to-Tilly | April 10, 2007 1:09 PM

Over on Tapped someone posted an Onion headline that about sums up Don Imus: " 'Politically Incorrect' Sophomore Actually a Racist Asshole"

It's morons like Imus who've ruined commercial radio which has lost over 20% of its audience since the 1989 peak.

Posted by Mike in KC | April 10, 2007 1:10 PM

From the NY Times:

Head coach C. Vivian Stringer said her players ''are the best this nation has to offer, and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers University. They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate, they are gifted. They are God's representatives in every sense of the word.''

How come she gets to call them "articulate"? Isn't she in Biden territory?

Posted by right | April 10, 2007 1:28 PM

Sorry guys, but "hos" doesn't look right, and "ho's" looks possessive. Obviously, hoes is right out, so I guess that leaves us with the very Egyptian President-connoting "hos." Oh well, I'm sure that Mr. Mubarak wouldn't mind...

Posted by Gregorio | April 10, 2007 2:17 PM

Usually in these sort of circumstances someone organizes a movement to boycott/pressure commercial sponsors rather than outright fire/censor the offending media personality. I'm just wondering, with all of the outrage that this has generated, why we haven't heard of any of that sort of pressure brought on Imus's corporate enablers.

Posted by Ethel-to-Tilly | April 10, 2007 2:21 PM

I'm just grateful to Mr. Imus for bringing to national prominence the problem of properly pluralizing the word "ho." Maybe this will settle it definitively, and my hos will stop envying my bitches their pat plurality.

Posted by Gregorio | April 10, 2007 2:22 PM

See a tongue-in-cheek visual of Imus and his newfound buddy, Michael Richards, hanging out and counting sheep...here:

www.thoughttheater.com

Posted by Daniel DiRito | April 10, 2007 3:00 PM

Plenty of antisemitism there too.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2006/12/another_jew_hat.html

As people say above, the guy's whole act is built around behaving like an asshole and pandering to an audience that gets a kick out of this stuff. At this point it almost doesn't matter which words he uses. I'd rather just say yes, he's obviously despicable and move on, because as you can see above committed haters build elaborate myths that they're the real victims.

FWIW the misogyny strikes me as the worse part of this, though of course for his intended audience, the remarks are a delicious cocktail of racism and misogyny. Calling young women whores is a pretty extreme insult.

I see no problem asking politicians and sponsors why they want to be associated with this crap.

Posted by CD | April 10, 2007 4:05 PM

Robinson's book "From Coal to Cream" is fascinating and rather upsetting. It's a collection of ruminations on race told from different times at Robinson's life and in different places (growing up in South Carolina in the 50s-60s, working at the Wash. Post in DC, being their South American correspondent in Brazil).

He admits some pretty interesting things in there about his feelings on white people.

Posted by Zagnut | April 10, 2007 5:16 PM

The very charge of 'racism' was popularized by NeoMarxists (Frankfurt School) to undermine Western Civilization. To charge any Euro-American of "racism," I believe, is a form of soft terrorism.

See the documentary: "Frankfurt School Story"

Posted by Alex | April 11, 2007 7:29 AM

Don Imus must be fired. To all his defenders and apologists: please untwist your dirty diapers. He's a racist, he's a misogynist, he's an anti-semitist, he's a homophobe, and most importantly, he's NOT funny!

Posted by Ga Peach103 | April 11, 2007 9:13 AM