Bent Corner

Let this be a lesson. It doesn’t matter how many awards you have won. It doesn’t matter how much money you have raised for various charities. It doesn’t matter that you are in your profession’s Hall of Fame.

If you make a derogatory comment about black women, you had better do it on a hip hop album or on BET.

Even if you say it only in jest. Even if in your profession saying dumb funny things is not only acceptable, it’s expected. Even if you then go on to apologize repeatedly for what you said.

I will be the first to admit that Imus could be a jerk. He could be extremely offensive. What set him apart from so many other jerks was that he was an equal opportunity offender. It didn’t matter who you were. If you were in the public eye, he would probably get around to saying something offensive about you. He would ridicule anyone, including himself. Especially himself. It’s what he did best.

Some will argue that Don Imus is a racist. They will say that by saying “nappy-headed ho’s” on his radio program, he proved his racism. I would argue that a racist wouldn’t dare say something in public that could be interpreted as racist. They wouldn’t make a dumb joke about a woman’s college basketball team where most of the woman were black. No, a racist is more careful with what they say in public. A racist wouldn’t endorse an African-American candidate for the U.S. Senate. A racist wouldn’t then go on and aggressively defend that African-American candidate when racists attempt to smear the candidate with lies.

I’ve known real racists. Don Imus wasn’t a racist. He was just a guy on the radio that liked to make jokes.

Now that this whole ordeal is over and racism has finally been eradicated, I hope this means Jesse Jackson now has time to do what Don Imus did. Jesse Jackson said some awful things about three college athletes. Young men that played lacrosse at Duke University. The men had been accused of raping a woman. Something that proved to be not true. The woman lied.

Jesse Jackson said awful, untrue things about the Duke lacrosse players. At least he never made fun of their hair.

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From the April 4 edition of MSNBC’s Imus in the Morning:

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.