OK, please let me first say that I have absolutely NO interest in anything Don Imus has ever said or ever will say, and I obviously don't agree with him calling any female a "nappy-headed ####" as he did last week.
That being said, should anyone really give a rip what Don Imus says about the Rutgers womens basketball players on his radio show? Do I have to watch every single sports channel simultaneously air a boring #### press conference at the same time to talk about it? I mean, come on gang, what's the big deal anyway?
Imus is a 66-year-old aging hipster whose job it is to stir up controversy and create phone calls into his show. I think the only real problem we have here is that Imus is on a free nationally syndicated show. If Howard Stern said the exact same thing on his show (which he, himself owns, by the way of 34 million shares of Sirius Satellite Radio), we wouldn't be having this discussion.
People say things like this everyday on pay-per-view channels like HBO or XM Radio or in comedy clubs around the country, but we pay for the right to hear those things, so we have no right to complain, right? But if it's free, it's apparently wrong, and I'm not buyin' it.
Yes, there's a major difference between what Don Rickles does and what Michael Richards did in his recent rant against blacks at the Laugh Factory in L.A., but I don't think that's what Imus did here.
Imus was trying to make an off-color joke that went awry. Does that make him a racist? Of course not. You mean to tell me any one of us hasn't made a racist joke of some sort in our life? Come on! I guarantee you Al Sharpton has, as have every single one of you out there. If you say you haven't, you're a hypocrite.
It doesn't mean anything, gang. It's your actions that make you who you are, not your words. Words are just that, people ... words. It always has, and it always will, amaze me that so many people want to take what people say so seriously.
I cannot begin to tell you the things I've been called playing basketball on the public courts I've played on the past 20 years. Being white, I'm the minority out there more often than not. The things I get called blow away anything Don Imus could ever imagine saying on his radio show. But so what? Do I care? Not at all. Why? It's wasted energy.
I get called all sorts of names on this very blog just for how high I believe Miguel Cabrera or Travis Hafner should go in a fantasy draft. Develop some thick skin, because these debates are tired and boring. Every week there's a new story about someone calling someone something that doesn't amount to jackola. It's forgotten as soon as the next person says something.
So what if Don freakin' Imus says "nappy-headed ####". Does Imus and his over-the-hill audience even have any relevance anymore? What can he do to you? How does what he says effect your life? Does he matter whatsoever?
The answer to all those things is "no".
So, I ask you all again ... Who gives a rip?
Let it go please. I'm getting bored here. What's the score of the game, for cryin' out loud?!
Nicely said. Especially for a bald-headed dufus. Uh oh. Please don't get James Carville to riot and protest me and my views against all the folic-impaired citizens of this country.
I heard something earlier this week which I think needs to be retold. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are leading protests and calling for Imus's job, which they are allowed to do by an American's right to free speech, the very thing they want to be curtailed for an #### like Imus. And yes, I think he's an ####, but it's hard to #### a man or group using their first amendment rights to call for the suspension of someone else's.
But I digress a bit. More to my point, where were Jackson and Sharpton when Tim Hardaway spewed his hatred for homosexuals? Was that comment not offensive? And where is GLAAD, who was looking for blood in the Hardaway matter, right now? It's funny how the leaders of these groups can pick and choose what's offensive and what's not. So I guess Imus should have said "Nappy headed dike ####'s," and Jackson would have had some more people with his back.
Finally, it must be said that you can't pick and choose who can use a word and who can't. If a word is bad, it's bad for everyone. And though no one ever wants to talk about it, let me put in print that I find it offensive to be called "cracker" or "whiteboy." And yet, any black comedian, or really any black person can use that slur and it's not a problem. So, now that it's out there, does it mean that the next time Chris Rock calls a caucasian a "cracker #### cracker" we should boycott the adverstisers on "Everyone Hates Chris." As Gerrit correctly pointed out, words are words and EVERYONE needs to move on from them as quickly as they are uttered.
G-Man, I could not agree with you more. We are so over saturated with this type of news story. I believe it stems from the fact that everyone has not only a personal opinion about it but we have all experienced situations like you described in your article. Thus, media organizations take full advantage of this and over expose the issue to the point that they generalize incidents to "bait" the public into these type of hot button issues. If we could all just de-sensitize ourselves to these issues maybe some of these over-exposed news stories would subside.
