Just in case it slid past you, Don Imus returned to radio last November. Today, after keeping a relatively low profile, he got back to his old tricks again.
When the shows topic switched to NFL player Adam "Don't Call Me Pacman No'mo" Jones and his many arrests, Imus asked "What color is he?" When his co-host said "he's African American" Imus replied to the effect of "well, that explains it." You can listen for yourself here:
Ok. In hindsight of the Rutgers Women's Basketball team comments, I've heard people go from being outraged over the "nappy headed hoes" comments to actually being like "well, them broads did look kinda rough when you think about it." That may be true, but "nappy headed hoe" crossed the line. If you gonna call some chicks ugly, just call them that, ugly.
With this Pacman Jones comment, I don't really know how I feel. Its not like Imus said anything that we haven't in our own households. Think about it. When you go to work or talk with friends, and someone brings up something like "yo, did you hear on the news about that dude who {insert crazy crime here}." You'd be lying if you never responded "what color was he?" or "was it a brotha?" or "White dude wasn't it?"
Don't act like when you hear about some psycho killer who got caught stuffing his victims into Dell computer boxes or someshit, you don't assume "white dude wasn't it?" Don't act like when you hear about some cat opening fire at a pool hall on the Southside, you don't say something like "man, niggas man." Don't act like you wasn't surprised when you found out that the D.C. Sniper looked more like dude from down the street than he did the Unibomber.
So that being said, should folks really get overly upset about what Imus said this time around? I'm not siding with dude at all, but still. Was it that bad? Would folks get upset if Steve Harvey asked if Scott Peterson was White after hearing about him?
4 comments:
There's a level of responsibility you have to step up to when you are a voice to a large public audience.
His comments were irresponsible. That's what makes it bad.
What you do in your house is your business... if you choose to go running outside butt naked... don't be shocked if your indecency offends people.
I understand what other commenters are saying but we can't fail to take into account that he's a "shock jock". He gets paid to say colorful shit (pun intended). That's his job.
I think we, as Black Americans, tend to be OVERLY sensitive when it comes to matters like this. Especially, when we inherit the a attitude that it's OK for US to it, but not THEM.
If one dislikes the dude and his opinions, then fine...don't listen to his show if you knowingly expect to hear some racist shit.
Anyway, go here,
http://my2cents-sense.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-is-new-bitch.html
if you wanna read my take on situations like this.
I lost some brain cells reading this.
He must be black?
He must be white?
Really?
I agree with you. I've done the same thing so I'm not all that outraged honestly.
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