i didnt know he also called them jigaboos. the media is all over the nappy-headed hoes comment, but isnt jigaboo much more offensive? seems like that is on par with actually saying the n-word. why is the media avoiding that?
Here's what Imus said: 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. IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah. RUFFINO: Only tougher. McGUIRK: The [Memphis] Grizzlies would be more appropriate. Did he say anything offensive other than "nappy-headed hoes?" No N word or anything more offensive. My point was that you tried to characterize Imus in the Morning as the bastion of backward conservatives. If you knew anything about the show or cared anything about the truth you would affirm that the show is an eclectic mix of important people and Imus champions many causes which would make you proud. I hope he reads your warning. If this transcript is accurate, nobody said the N word. So ZERO.
1. I guess if someone called your daughter a pasty slut, that's ok, because they didn't say "cracker". 2. giddy you're just not very smart. The people I listed as guests are respectively, a former Democratic Senator, a NY Times columnist that is generally labeled as liberal, and a journalist that used to be chief of staff to Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. I didn't even list a Republican, so how you get from there to me characterizing Imus in the Morning as the bastion of backward conservatives is a mystery. 3. And I can't believe I actually have to spell this out, the point about the stopwatch, is that the amount of time it takes to say something has absolutely no bearing on whether it is racist or not. Anyway, I get it. You're one of those people who think anything short of actually saying the word n_gger, isn't racism. And if you're going to call it racism, it had better be n_gger, with an er and not n_gga, because rappers say n_gga all the time, and they're black so it should be alright for whitey to say it too, or something.
A question for those criticizing Imus. Do any of you give him any credit for his apologies and even willingness to go on Al Sharpton's show?
i haven't heard that word in a long time. yeah, i think that is a blatantly racist word. i think it's up there with gook, spic and sand ****** as the worst racist names i can think of.
Agreed...I think what he said was in poor taste, but I must admit, I laughed a little when I first heard it...I was thinking, how stupid someone can be...Does that make me a bad person, no, it just means I can laugh at someone being really stupid...It happened, he apologized, got suspended, move on... Now given the script above, the other guys were just as bad...
he's definetely done more than a lot of other people have in the past. Still though, the guy's show is lewd, crude, and rude. people have been letting him get away with murder because of who he is. I commend him for going onto the Sharpton show, but there is no sympathy for him. He's had this coming for a long long time. that said, there's a bit of a pile-on effect going on here.
I think saying jigaboo is worse. I'm not familiar with their personnas, but with Imus I think it was poor taste, but just part of what Imus does and part of his act. I have no idea whether or not he actually is racist.
I believe he meant to push the evnvelope in the first place, and his comments crossed the line. I believe he is legitimately sorry for causing offense, because I don't think it was his intention. However, I think before everyone dismisses what Imus said, it should be understood why it was offensive.
This is what they were talking about. School Daze (1996) Directed by Spike Lee. Cast: Larry Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campbell, Kyme, Joe Seneca, Art Evans, Ellen Holly, Ossie Davis. This music-filled, off-beat contemporary comedy takes an unforgettable look at black college life. Dap and Big Brother Almighty conflict over the Greek frat system while the Wanna-be's and Jigaboo's conflict over self-identity and self-esteem. 114 min. DVD 529; VHS 999:2194 And a review from Amazon To the person who gave this movie five stars yet panned this film, this is a film parodying life at a fictional HBCU during its homecoming, with a focus on three groups on campus: "Da Fellas" and their women (the women are known in the "Straight and Nappy" musical bit as the Jiggaboos, a racist term for African-Americans, because the women refuse to relax their hair), the people who would rather urge Mission College to divest from South Africa because of discrimination at that time; Gamma Phi Gamma and the Gammites, men who claim to have true brotherhood but dish out abusive punishments and orders to "obtain" that brotherhood; and the Gamma Rays (also known as the Wannabes because most--note I did not say all--of these women are light-skinned African Americans that relax their hair and are apparently rich), women that are just mere sex objects and trophies to the Gammas. And no, Spike Lee does not play Urkel--otherwise, he'd be wearing suspenders and speaking in an annoying nasal voice. He plays one of the Gammites who just happens to be connected to Dap (Lawrence Fishburne), one of Da Fellas. Of course, during its time, several people didn't understand this film. For example, while "School Daze" was shooting, the then-president of Morehouse kicked Lee and his cast and crew off of the college (Lee's alma mater) for the portrayal of the Mission College school president in the movie, who is dark-skinned. "School Daze" is a parody focusing mainly on colorism (discrimination among African-Americans based on skin tone), such as the view that the lighter your skin is if you're black, the more doors open for you (which was true prior to intergration laws). I really do like this movie, especially the song sequences done by cast members ("Straight and Nappy," "Be Alone Tonight"). I really encourage people to see this film. Although I realize this movie is not considered to be as good as "Do the Right Thing" or "She's Gotta Have It," this movie does have a point, and most people, despite their race, can relate to the themes presented in this movie.
Listen Poindextder - the dictionary isn't the ultimate authority on how language is used. Everyone knows you can use the word ho to describe a woman and not mean she's a prosititue. Get out of the library geez. And secondly, just because I say people can use the word ho to describe woman and it's become part of the vernacular (which doesn't mean it's in the dictionary) - doesn't mean I agree or espouse it's use. Again, you're making quite a leap there. In fact, I've never used to word in reference to a woman - and please don't ever make that sort of assumption - or imply that I'm a mysogist. Really, there's no need to come in there and suggest that - you're jumping to conclusions all over the place - about Imus, about me - it's really disturbing. You keep talking about racism - but if Nappy-headed is not racist, then what was his racist words? And if one group of blacks get called nappy headed and another does not - again, it even calls further into question whether or not he is even being discriminatory. It's a weak case, and pure over-reaction to suggest what he said was racist.
No, everyone does not know that. The word "ho" and w**** both have negative meanings and are not used to refer to all women or any woman, unless you truly are a misogynist. Please. Anyone with a brain knows what nappy-headed means. Of course he's being discriminatory. He's calling the women who look more African than the others whores. He's not saying they were "nappy-headed women." He said Ho, short for w****. What he said was racist. Again, that doesn't mean he's a racist, it just means that that statement at that moment was.
So are you saying a lot of african american men are mysogints? Because they use the word "ho" to describe a lot of women in their lives. You might not be familiar with ghetto speak... Words aren't always used to their exact dictionary definition. If you looked far enough down you list that you produced 7 definitions from - there were another 20 or so you skipped. Maybe you should read the rest?
http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html COMMENTARY Imus isn’t the real bad guy Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture. By JASON WHITLOCK - Columnist Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem. You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality. You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor. Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred. The bigots win again. While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos. I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas. It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent. Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves. It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud. I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack. But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$. I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had. Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage. But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction. In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive? I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do? When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim. No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out. To reach Jason Whitlock, call (816) 234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com
^ Nice to see that there are some people who do indeed get it and can articulate it far better than I can.
