Should Imus' "nappy head ho's" comment lead to his firing?

[eljay]

If the "racial-ness" of a comment is a measure of its inadmissability, then action needs to be taken against Imus' executive producer, given that his comment - which set Imus off - that the team was a bunch of "hard-core hos" is, in my mind, considerably more offensive than Imus' "nappy-headed" quip.

And action definitely needs to be taken against Sacha Baron Cohen for his numerous anti-Semitic comments and jokes about Gypsies (as well as "retards") in the movie "Borat".

[QualityIsJobOne]

Here in the "Far East"

....Mrs.Q & I have enjoyed Imus on MSNBC on StarChoice for several years....

....We have subscribed to MSNBC since it launched in Canada....

....Imus is a good guy....a bit gruff, however he has a heart of gold..

....I hope he will be back on the air soon.

[eljay]

We're Hiding from the Ugly Truth in the Imus Scandal

Love this guy's rants.

[HT gearhead]

Yes let's fire everybody who says bad things or offends anyone in the media. Let's ban anyone who upsets anyone else publicly. Let's pass laws where it's a hate crime to have an opinion different from the mainstream thought of the day. Yes let's make a big stink everytime some knob opens their mouth and offends someone, intentionally or not. Dontcha just love the 21st century so far?

[biggar]

I am very happy that Imus got fired. Did you hear that the team he slagged was full of amazingly bright young people. Why is it that someone like Imus can come along and use language that is so disrespectful that it just about puts these kids back in the chains that their great grandparents had to wear. It's not fair. People should not be permitted to slag others for personal charateristics that they cannot change. For some reason of the other, big-time artists these days think that they can say anything that they want with impunity - just because they are bigshots. i do not think that the answer is to ignore these types. I agree with Hugh

[Jayme]

HT
Inus is no angel.This is the 5th time he has made a racial comment.

[hugh]

Yes let's fire everybody who says bad things or offends anyone in the media

If Imus was discussing abortion or the decision to goto Iraq or stemcell research or gun control, (pro or con) and was thrown off the air for voicing his opinion, then I would be angry as hell

There is a big difference between dissenting opinions and rascism and misogyny.

I want to hear about potentially uncomfortable issues and politically potent viewpoints and I hope governements never stop folks from discussing them, however, when your comments are nothing more than spewing venomous hatred on public airwaves then frankly I think we should stop it.

[eljay]

Deleted a repetitive train of thought.

[JonO]

I didn't understand the whole uproar behind this primarily because I just didn't understand the term "nappy headed" (first thing I pictured was a diaper on a someones head - and that didn't make sense...) A quick google and I found some comments that indicate the term "nappy" refers to curly/frizzy hear and "nappy headed" is often used as a slur against black people.

That's all I needed to change my mind.

[hugh]

I assume you know what "ho" means!

[JonO]

I would not think he should have been kicked of the air for the use of the term "ho". It's insulting, but not racially motivated. I don't have a problem with him making fun of people or even insulting them, but there has to be a line drawn when it comes to "racially" offensive terms.

[eljay]

Hmmm...it's wrong to offend women by making a "racial" reference to their hair type, but it's alright to refer to them as whores using derogatory, "racial" rapper slang. I guess that's why "hard-core hos" hasn't raised any eyebrows...

IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --

McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

[hugh]

Well, where I come from calling a team of women "ho's" would be deemed misogynistic!!

eljay, it raised my eyebrows! Can you imagine if Don Cherry or someone similar was talking on Hockey night in Canada about the Canadian womens hockey team and called them a bunch of "hard-core whores"?

[hockeymancw]

The difference is that Imus does not do an informative sports show. He does a comedy show and the comedy is based around him being a grumpy SOB and he makes fun of people and calles them names. He was not singling out a group of people and only focusing on them, he has made fun of other races, sexes, groups, politicians, individuals, etc. People tune in because they like that kind of humour. Don Cherry makes offensive comments towards gays and Russian players, but he gets a warning from the CBC and that is the end of it. I would think that the things Don Cherry has said on Coache's Corner were more offensive to their respective groups than what Imus said. Should he have been fired? No. I believe in free speach for everyone.

[eljay]

hugh, this is why I don't get the uproar over Imus' comment. He reacted - jokingly, but in poor taste - to his executive producer's comment which, in my opinion, is the more offensive one. And, further on, he is obviously flustered by the direction his producer and sports announcer Rosenberg take the conversation.

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.

Imus' comment doesn't strike me as vicious. It was inappropriate and he apologized for it. There are bigger, nastier, and more offensive fish to fry.