Imus - Your thoughts

I was kinda surprised that no one has brought this topic up yet. What are your thoughts on the whole Imus incident? Personally, I think its crap.

In case you haven't heard, on his morning show Imus referred to the Rutger's womens basketball team as "nappy headed hos". He said it as a joke. Granted, it was poor taste, but he meant it as a joke none the less. Even if he didn't mean it as a joke...so what?

One of the greatest things about this country (if not THE greatest) is the right to free speech. Not "free speech as long as nobody is offended", but free speech. I also find it particularly amusing that Reverend Jesse "Himeytown" Jackson is one of the leaders of the charge against Imus. A great patriot once said "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it!". That's what its all about, to me.

It seems to me that as a society we now determine whether or not words are offensive by who says them, not the words themselves. I once remember a Chris Rock show where he was joking about how many blacks believe the media falsely portrays them as gangsters, to which Chris Rock commented "Its not the media! When I go to the ATM, I'm not lookin over my shoulder for Ted Koppel....I'm checkin' for n****s!" And 1000's of black audience members were howling with laughter at that. I remember laughing out of shock and thinking...Good Lord! If a white comic said that, he'd be crucified. Just like I couldn't imagine a movie being made with say Will Farrell and Adam Sandler putting on blackface and wigs and pretending to be black women and covering all the stereotypes of black women. But White Chicks was a movie. I dont recall Jesse or Al Sharpton picketing that one. I actually didn't see the whole movie but have seen pieces of it, and I thought it was pretty funny.

Words either offend you, or they don't, regardless of who said them. And even if they do offend you, so what? Don't listen to that person. In the case of Imus, if you don't like what he said, turn the channel. But he, and all of us, have the right to free speech. I don't agree with everything Farakahn says (although I do with a lot of it), but I'm not going to start a protest to shut down the Nation of Islam because I don't like what he says. Its his right to do so.

I dunno. I just cant believe that this country is so out of whack that because someone said something that others didnt like (at least, didnt like coming out of the mouth of some old white guy) that he now lost his TV show, has been suspended from radio for 2 weeks and may lose his radio show all together as well.