Moutains and Molehills

Okay. So now, I’m going to weigh in.

First, this is the transcript.

Media Matters for America, a liberal Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) research and information center, has posted the transcript of the offensive Don Imus exchange with Sid Rosenberg, a sportscaster, Bernard McGuirk, executive producer, and co-host Charles McCord.

Here’s the exchange:

Imus: So, I watched the basketball game last night between – a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women’s final.

Rosenberg: Yeah, Tennessee won last night – seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.

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.

Imus: Yeah.

McGuirk: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes – that movie that he had.

Imus: Yeah, it was a tough –

McCord: "Do The Right Thing."

McGuirk: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Imus: I don’t know if I’d have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

Rosenberg: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

My thoughts? You notice – the PRODUCER called them ho’s first – and I haven’t heard a PEEP of indignation about him, or suggestions that HE lose his job.

Imus added the ‘nappy-headed’ comment, which supports my point that the whole bruahah had little to do with him calling them Ho’s, but mostly to do with him calling them Nappy-headed. Which, to me, is really the saddest thing. All black people are born with nappy hair – no matter what they might do to it AFTERWARDS, it grows nappy. And the level of racial SHAME that black people STILL have over their damn HAIR, is so high – that they have managed to get a man fired for daring to speak the shame that should be relaxed into submission.

Has McGuirk been fired? Fined? Rebuked? The producer of the show is the one who is responsible for the content, isn’t he?

I think it’s a media frenzy, a waste of time, and a waste of effort. If the black leadership and women’s leadership gave as much of a damn about some old white man as they do about the groups they are supposed to be supporting, they might actually be able to change some things for REAL, rather than just pushing everything offensive under the rug and onto satillite radio.

All I’m saying is that it’s a big blowup over hair, and black shame.

Girl-Interrupted

April 13, 2007

Interesting. I, of course, never heard the broadcast so I only know what is going on on the news. It’s nice to get some perspective from someone real for a change. I cna’t believe that the producer got away with that! To me, that does make this just a media circus. He should be holding some of the responsibility too. and now if only everyone could support organizations and causes working to fix things with everything in life rather than bashing the little things, maybe we’d be moving forward in this thing we call life. 🙂 People seem to focus on the wrong thing sometimes.

Thunder Road

It’s funny – I planned to write an entry on this whole thing, because I have so much to say. Can I reference your entry?

originalsinner

1) i agree- the producer should be punished, too. 2)I believe that the network was searching for a way to fire Imus, because the only couple of times I have listened to his show, it was painfully boring. I can’t believe he was ever more than just a hick-town DJ. 3)I hate the false sincerity of major corporations- they condone the worst crap in the world until they get called on it when people get angry enough to complain in force. Til then, it’s just business as usual. 4) I simply do NOT understand racism. I’ve been genetically tested for my ancestry, and in the last 60,000 years my ancestors were Brown Africans, Black Africans, Semitic, West Asian and finally Caucasian. To insult one race is to insult every race, we are so inter-related as a people. It’s just stupid.

Jadalove

All black people are born with nappy hair? I’d have to disagree on that one. Another thing that bothers me about this is BET and HIP HOP call black women names much worse than “nappy-headed ho” and no one has been fired for that and it’s been going on and on and on for years. black women are constantly degraded on videos and music performed by our own people and yet we listen, support and buyit. Shame, shame, shame. He was totally out of line for saying that but I have a problem with the “ho” part more than the nappy head. And just my opion as far as the shame goes, it’s getting better but it never came from us to begin with. should we rebel and be who we are anyway? absolutely, straight hair or nappy, I am who I am. But after so many years or racism and oppression, that’s easier said than done for us as a whole. just my humble opinion.

Break On Through.

i don’t like imus. but i’m so sick of people apologizing for what they say all the time. on the view yesterday, rosie said something that I liked which was, “If you go to the horror movie, by choice, then don’t come out crying that it was too bloody.” The producer definately should have been part of the fall with this.

I agree – I think this was a great opportunity to advance some peoples’ political agendas. (Agendae?) As disgusting as this was, Imus has said a lot of things that were a lot MORE offensive. There’s nothing more tired than a shock-jock who isn’t shocking – it’s just vulgar, it’s not funny.

Fred

i’ve been following this with more interest than i would have ordinarily because one of my clients was a regular advertiser of his. being unfamiliar with the term “nappy headed” (a nappy in the UK is a diaper) i thought that “ho” sounded way more offensive. still, he’s said stuff that’s just as bad, or arguably worse in the past and the outrage has been much more muted because there were other stories they wanted to concentrate on instead. that said, he’s a bigoted offensive man and i’m glad that he’s off the air.

OK. The producer says “jigaboo”. Imus says “nappy-headed”. They both say “ho.” Imus is practically having to whip himself with razor blades on TV. Where’s the outrage about the definite racial slur from the producer — one that’s a lot more clearly defined and well-known to be insulting?? Gently caress me running, but this world has problems.

reading the note above me, what the hell is a jigaboo? pardon my not knowing these things. i don’t know if that’s good or bad.

i don’t even know what a pickaninny is. I feel retarded. LOL. Last thing I asked this about was something about a gay position and I had no idea what it was, and they laughed at that too. LOL. oh well. what can I say? I’m a boring previously-sheltered beyond belief girl. LOL!

I hadn’t heard a lot about it – by choice. I don’t like Imus but didn’t overly care because it just seemed like one of those media to-do’s. Looks like it was, but I admit I am surprised that the producer sounded a lot WORSE and has had nothing done to him. ANyway.. it’s all sad on many levels. You gave it a perspectice I hadn’t had before.

RYN: I thought that, too. Both points. I also considered having my placenta encapsulated from THIS pregnancy, but.. then I forgot and froze the damn thing and now its in my freezer. Im still feeling Nutso so we decided to skip the car show today. Kids at car shows can be assholes and I woulda gone bats wonky on them.

I have to ditto originalsinner 100%. This is the first I’ve seen of the whole transcript.

popetheempress

May 3, 2007

Jigaboo is yet-another not-very-nice word — consider it a softened euphemism for the n-word its ownself and you won’t be far wrong. Me, I grew up in the South and my dad used it as a term of endearment entirely divorced from racial context — it was college before I knew it was offensive or even racially related. I think it was one of those that went out in the ’40s when he was a little boy.