Imus fallout
A week ago radio personality Don Imus called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” Not unexpectedly, tensions have come to a head and people are calling to take Imus off the air, among them Al Sharpton and former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp. Bruce Gordon. The Associated Press reports Gordon believes there should be a “‘zero tolerance policy’ on racism.”
What Imus said was, as others have already made clear, both racist and sexist. It was stupid and hurtful, and he shouldn’t have said it. Still, should he be removed from radio entirely?
Without getting into a debate of first amendment rhetoric, I’m not convinced that’s the best course of action. I don’t disagree with a certain amount of discipline, but is firing him really just?
April 12th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
At times like these, I have to ask myself that if the situation was reversed, would there be such a fuss? If a radio personality, especially a minority radio personality, made a comment that was derogatory towards white people, would Al Sharpton, Bruce Gordon, and all the other people who upset by this be just as harsh in their demands? Would the radio personality be fired? Would the radio personality be viewed as a racist?
I think that the comments that were made were inappropriate, but so are a lot of things I see and hear. No one has the right to not be offended, but we all have the right to change the channel. I suggest that all people who have been offended (myself included) just change the channel.