"NAPPY-HEADED HO'S..."

Sorry for missing a few updates last week. I’ve been interviewing and I’m starting a new job on Monday!

Anyway, I finally got a chance to catch up on the news. I heard about radio host Don Imus calling the nearly all Black Rutgers University women’s basketball players a bunch of “nappy-headed ho’s.”

For those that haven’t heard of him, Don Imus has a daily program on WFAN radio that is also broadcasted live on cable on MSNBC in the mornings. Well, that was the forum Don Imus used to make racially insulting remarks to a team of student athletes that had reached the Final Four in basketball. Not surprisingly, Don Imus waited more than 24 hours to apologize for his remarks. In addition to saying they were “nappy-headed ho’s,” Mr. Imus also called the players “rough looking girls.”

So, we have a dried-up and crusty looking White man calling beautiful young Black women ugly hos. That’s pretty much what it boils down to!!

One of the show’s producers, Bernard McGuirk, chimed in that looking at the Rutgers University players compared to the ladies on the Tennessee squad was like looking at “The Jigaboos vs. The Wannabes” a reference to the light-skin (or White) vs. dark-skin issue from Spike Lee’s Movie, School Daze (wrongly referred as Do the Right Thing on the program). Mr. McGuirk also called the young ladies, “hardcore hos.”

A guest commentator, Sid Rosenberg, said, “The more I look at Rutgers, the more they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.”

Yes, these 3 White men went to the old stereotype of Black women being ugly (according to White standards of beauty), promiscuous, and threw in the bit about us being masculine—which is commonly heard about all Black, female athletes (e.g., the Williams sisters in tennis, track and field athletes, etc.)

The National Association of Black Journalists is demanding more than the lame apology offered by Mr. Imus. They feel that, at the very least, he should reach out to personally contact the women to offer his apologies for the vicious and insulting comments. They also want Mr. Imus to be fired! MSNBC is trying to distance itself from his comments, but hasn’t taken any action against him.

In the past, it’s been reported that Mr. Imus has referred to Gwen Iffil (of the News Hour and Washington Week programs) as a “cleaning woman.” And, he also referred to a Black reporter for the NY Times as a “quota hire.”

Al Sharpton has said that if Mr. Imus is not fired by Friday the 13th, he plans to picket outside the studio headquarters. MSNBC says they are “reviewing the situation.” That simply means they want to know if there will be a public commotion about the comments or if the public will disregard the remarks. Just Blacks complaining about the comments won’t be enough. There has to be some indication of White outrage or disgust AND there has to be extensive media coverage/pressure before there is any hope that Mr. Imus will be fired. I just don’t see that outcome happening, but it’s worth a shot!!

I’ve already written to Mr. Imus and the others listed below. My question to Mr. Imus was: Don’t you have enough White “hos” to talk about? And, then I named some.

To write to the producers, anchors, and hosts of the Don Imus morning show email: imus@msnbc.com

To write a general letter to MSNBC TV email: viewerservices@msnbc.com

To write to WFAN radio (www.wfan.com) email: fanmail@wfan.com (Business Office)