Rutgers players describe how Imus' remarks hurt: Stole "a moment of pure grace"

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNN

Rutgers players describe how Imus' remarks hurt
April 10, 2007


Rutgers players listen Tuesday as coach C. Vivian Stringer weighs in about Don Imus' controversial remarks on the team.

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey (CNN) -- Don Imus "has stolen a moment of pure grace from us," the captain of the Rutgers women's basketball team said Tuesday, responding to the uproar over the radio host's description of the players as "nappy-headed hos."...

Essence Carson and other players spoke out at a news conference in their first public statements since Imus' inflammatory remarks last week.

"I would like to express our team's great hurt, anger and disgust toward the words of Mr. Don Imus," Carson said. "We are highly angered at his remarks but deeply saddened with the racial characterization they entailed."...

***

Carson said that she and her fellow players will meet privately with Imus in the near future....

***

"I would like to speak to him personally and ... ask him, after you've met me personally, do you still feel in this category that I'm still a 'ho' as a woman and as a black, African-American woman at that?" said Kia Vaughn, a sophomore center.

"I achieve a lot, and unless they have given this name of 'ho' a new definition, then that is not what I am."...

***

Coach C. Vivian Stringer praised the accomplishments and character of the team members, five of whom are freshmen.

"Before you are valedictorians of their class, future doctors, musical prodigies, and yes, even Girl Scouts," she said. "They are young ladies of class, distinction, they are articulate, they are brilliant, they are gifted. They are God's representatives in every sense of the word." Stringer described the team's hard work to bounce back from defeats early in the season.

"Ultimately, they ended up playing for the national championship," she said. "No one believed in them but them."...

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/10/imus.rutgers/index.html

[annm4peace]

1. My heart still hurts

I hope the FCC fines MSNBC, but I dont' know if they can. Of course Imus should be fired, so should many others. The producers should be fired.
My heart hurt for those players, for their families, for all female athlets, for every mother raising the daughters, especially those that are African Americans. To give those beautiful young women justice would be to fire Imus, nothing less. He should also get counciling.. and then go work at a homeless shelter for about 2 months so he can find his soul again.
And with McCain and Guiliani saying that it is ok now that IMUS has apologized, says a lot about their character.

[Ranec]

5. The FCC stays away from cable.

They historically have said they have no control over cable broadcasts.

I think that MSNBC is betting that in two weeks this will all blow over. We need to make sure that we don't forget what a racist show this is.

I am deeply disturbed that a man I respected, Tom Oliphant, has been so complicit in giving Imus a pass.

I hope that it is time for Imus to retire.

[FredScuttle]

14. Ah, but they do over radio

Don't forget....that cragged-out bigot is employed by CBS radio

[cascadiance]

32. Makes you wonder if XM will try to grab him like Sirius did Stern...

... Oh.. I forget, they're merging. Probably not!

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Those strong beautiful women, that hateful old fart.

Everyone of you defending that creep and his salvage attempt should be ashamed of yourselves.

[ninkasi]

3. What he said was cruel, and hateful

We should be encouraging our talented and bright young people, not knocking them down with ignorant, hateful remarks. Those are all beautiful, accomplished young ladies, who should be encouraged, not subjected to racist bigots like Imus. The young are our future. Is this any way to treat them?

[mzmolly]

4. She is a remarkable women as are the girls on this team.

Such a sad commentary on our culture in many ways.

[blondeatlast]

21. And such a remarkable acheivement to be obscured by someone else's hatred

in pursuit of ratings.

I love college hoops, men's and women's, and it breaks my heart to see it dragged through the sludge this way.

To the Vols and the ScarletKnights, my sincere congratulations and appreciation for a great NCAA final!

[Erika]

6. I expect NBC will negate his contract soon

It should be noted that Sean Hannity defended Imus to the max.

[silverojo]

7. I just wish people wouldn't forget the sexist aspect

This isn't just about race. It's about misogyny. I wish the media wouldn't keep glossing over that fact.

[City Lights]

9. Thank you!

I agree completely.

[Evergreen Emerald]

10. that is what I have been saying too-- the misogyny is rampant

on that show. I watch rarely, and every time I have watched I am forced to turn it of while shaking my head because of their (he and his bigoted, sexist producer) unabashed degradation of women.

[SemperEadem]

13. exactly

The actual comments are:

The actual comments are:

"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. { Note: No,the movie was School Daze, but far be it from any of them to know Black Films--and this scene was in context to the whole movie)

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 Grizzlies would be more appropriate.
--------------

They also objectified Tenneesee's Lady Vols, too, but that has gotten past everyone.

[yardwork]

17. Horrible and repellent hate talk - indefensible

It's a sad commentary on our culture that ANYBODY defends this.

[jollyreaper2112]

23. wtf?

They said jigaboos? Why isn't that getting more airtime than the ho thing?

[piedmont]

25. Wow-- it's much, much worse in the full context. nt

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

15. With respect to misogyny and sexism, one person has been overlooked.

As there is always an enabler, or several in this case, I can't help but consider Deidre "The Green Ho" Imus' role. Seems she's been a chief enabler of this behavior. I would like to hear from her. Bernard is an idiot, I could give a rat's ass as to what he has to say for himself. That said, I thought it most amusing when Matt Lauer, of all people, put Imus' feet to the fire and the crew didn't give him any grief for folding like a lawnchair.

I wanted to add that I e-mailed both the Rutgers Athletic Department and Women's Studies Department yesterday after watching that truly amazing press conference in its entirety last night. I encourage others to do the same.

[marshall]

16. I think it's more about misogyny than racism

If you listen to the entire conversation, it started as a discussion of the women's tattoos. I think Imus was ridiculing their femininity/gender moreso than their color. And from listening to the press conference I think the team took it as such.

And they also seemed to blame the media as much as Imus. They said they are being inundated with phone calls about Imus's remarks and it is overshadowing their success. I think a big part of the team's upset with Imus and the media is the relative disprect that women's sports get in relation to men's sports. The team is getting far more attention over Imus than they ever did over their championship.

[Threedifferentones]

19. Damn right

"Nappy headed hos" is an African-American insult, as in an insult used in African-American culture. So, its not really a racial slur.

What Imus' joking use of it revealed is that he does not respect the achievements of women, only how pretty he perceives them to be. For publicly admitting that he should be canned without hesitation.

On that note, fuck you MSNBC.

[iverglas]

29. I agree that misogyny was the dominant factor

It's funny how it all intertwines. He might not have had anything particularly obnoxious to say about the team had they been white, and of course had they been male the whole thing wouldn't have arisen, even if they'd been black ... . But make it a group of black women, and you have a pig's delight.

Conform to one of the stereotypes of "black" -- tough and strong -- but you're a woman ... and you're fair game still, but even more so, because women aren't supposed to be tough and strong.

Conform to one of the stereotypes of "woman" -- stupid and sexualized in a fur coat -- but be black rather than blonde ... and you're not a trophy wife, you're a prostitute.

"Double deviance" is what I called it in a long-ago undergrad paper about women criminals (women aren't supposed to be criminals, criminals aren't supposed to be women). Being black and a woman, you're probably not going to get it right no matter what you do.

[robcon]

8. The words imply a deeply held racism by Imus.

The words "nappy-headed ho's" would not occur to anyone but a racist lowlife.

I'm glad the coach so eloquently defended her players. Imus must go - and stay away, IMO.

[Felix Mala]

11. Those women have a lot of class... if only Imus had a few ounces of that.

I can't imagine what possessed him to make such a stupid remark. Is he going to make Special Olympics jokes next?

[MasonJar]

12. It is upsetting for sure, but it is also a godsend to the Bushites.

[yardwork]

18. I disagree. .

[Mandate My Ass]

20. I wish that meeting would take place in Camden

Imus needs to go and plead his pitiful case about being a "good person" despite his hateful racist comments in the mean streets of Camden, NJ.

[tomhayes]

22. Who cared about Imus? It's the Limbaugh's that need to be fired

Imus is for old, mildly inappropriate people. Nothing he says is *meant* to hurt or damage people.

He's a coot.

The bigger issue is how can Glen Beck call the victims families of 911 scum and still be on the radio. how can Limbaugh lie. Have you *heard* a Michael Savage show? He's an insane, hate filled, racist maggot. How about Drudge?

Imus is a shock jock and what he said this time went too far for many. Frankly it didn't really offend me. it's like being at a bar in the south, but much much much milder. And I'd have never heard about it if it wasn't for the uproar. Why don't I listen to Imus? Because he's been saying exactly the same things for 30 years. What's the surprise?

I think Stern has said much worse things. I know Limbaugh has. Bill Bennett anyone?

In a perfect world Imus would go away from low ratings. Same with that idiot who "lays the smack down." And the new Dennis Miller program that replaced Penn Gillete's on many stations.

But can't we spend time on focusing on the real bigots? Imus is a fool, but he doesn't seem to be causing real problems in the real world.

[iverglas]

24. things a foreigner just doesn't get ...

First (and someone has already said it well here): what kind of a person even thinks words like that?? The words themselves are foreign to my particular (Canadian) culture, but I can't imagine having their equivalents, about any group or individual, spring to my mind when I was talking about them. It's just beyond my comprehension, how deeply ugly the inside of someone's head would have to be for that to happen.

Now it may be (as someone else mentioned) that the expression used is one that has fairly common currency in some other context where it is perhaps not intended pejoratively. (How on earth could "whore" applied to a woman be anything but pejorative? but that's another question ...) And it just came into his head. But then, how stupid would someone have to be to spew it out his mouth in that situation?

Second: what kind of people actually watch this brain-dead walrus? Not to mention the people who apparently accept invitations to appear on air with him. We pay our $3 a month to get MSNBC on digital cable here, just to have a variety to choose from when CBC Newsworld starts repeating itself ... or showing Fashion File ... on a Saturday morning. (We also get CNN and France's TV5 for free and until recently paid for BBCWorld, now free ... but forego paying for FoxNews.)

I once flipped over to MSNBC on a weekday morning to see whether their news was any more interesting than what I'd seen elsewhere already, and thought their staff must be on strike and I was watching the cleaning crew play with the equipment after a long night of beer-drinking ...

[Lisa]

26. "how stupid would someone have to be to spew it out his mouth"

Not only stupid, but it seems, blithely assuming that people would think it was okay. I'm Canadian too, iverglas, and a visible minority ... growing up in the 1970s, I heard occasional (and sexist) language directed at me, though there have been some changes in recent decades (and also I am older and in a professional job) so I don't hear it nearly as much. My parents have told me it was a lot worse in earlier times -- they weren't even allowed to vote until after WWII -- so they always roll their eyes when they hear some Harperite going on about how wonderful it was in the "good old days". Although there are still bigots who whine about "political correctness" when they make some racist comment and the rest of the room does not laugh and applaud, but stares at them in disgust.

To have kids grow up not knowing what those names mean, because they have never heard them before -- it makes me feel we have accomplished something during my lifetime. There will probably always be malicious bigots of every type, but to have them isolated while we work on shrinking that casual bigotry that used to be so widespread that nobody even seemed to notice it ... I didn't realize until I saw the media coverage of this story, how much my peace of mind depends on being able to walk down the street and not hear those words being shouted, or even whispered.

[iverglas]

28. whitebread London Ont

There's some advantage to growing up in a 1950s small southwestern Ontario city where there just weren't any visible minorities. (London's still about tied with some hamlet on the Prairies for whitest town around.) You don't learn how you're supposed to behave around them!

Yes, yes, London did have its visible minorities. About 4 of 'em, I think. You've probably heard me tell the tale of one, a well-dressed black man, who got on a city bus my mother and 3-year-old brother were riding on one day, would have been about 1958. My bro stood up and pointed and gleefully said " mummy mummy, look at the chocolate man!" The chocolate man was singularly unimpressed and my mother tried to crawl under her seat -- but at least it didn't occur to my bro to say "look at the nappy-headed pimp!" ... and nobody expected him to move to the back of the bus ...

And of course having parents and teachers and congregation members who didn't have much chance to demonstrate the proper way to talk about/with visible minorities, but were pretty clear about what the improper ways were if the situation arose, helped.

It is indeed the "casual" racism that festers and perpetuates itself, in ways I just never got exposed to really. A trip to Florida where all the motels have "American owned" signs out front, and the bicycle shop owner doesn't think twice about uttering the most appallingly racist words and ideas to a complete stranger, as if we white folk are all in this together, is an eye-opener. Yes, I do know people like that here, they just don't put it on signs and spew it at tourists -- same kind of people, but they generally live their bigotry in the shadows rather than on the street, and what would be their casual racism somewhere else really does make them the malicious bigots you speak of, here.

And ear-opening to hear brain-dead walruses on US TV saying things like this and not getting fired on the spot.

But hey, we do have Don Cherry, so mustn't get smug.

[plasticsundance]

27. I disagree with his politics, but I like Imus

I cut him slack.

There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. - Michel de Montaigne

[cmkramer]

31. Did anyone see Dick Gregory on HANNITY AND COLMES?

He said he suspected that Imus may have done it deliberately so that he could go to Sirius or whatever the other satellite radio station is called.

By the way, has Camille Paglia weighed in yet?

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

30. It's now being reported (MSNBC) that the girls received death threats. n/t