I'll Be Expecting Your Resignation Soon, Mr. Imus

In this blog last night, I wrote an entry mentioning that folks- mainly, black folks- should stop playing victim. While I stand by those words, I also must say that there are times when it's appropriate when black folks should speak up when something is amiss.

I'm watching the Rutgers womens' basketball team right now, conducting a press conference, and now that I've heard from the other side, and how those comments hurt those young women- many of them black- I believe that Don Imus must resign, or get fired over his comments.

While I still believe that his comments were in bad taste, and not so much a racial or sexist knock, what the 'I-man' -as his fans call him- said was deplorable. Was uncalled for, and for that, he must get the ax.

On NBC's Today, Imus said that he's a "good person who said a bad thing." Okay, so he's a good person. Adolf Hitler was a bad person who thought he was doing a good thing when he exterminated six million Jews. Point is that neither action- Imus' comments or Hitler's genocidal tendencies- are excusable.

In the nearly 40 years that Imus has been on air, he has made insensitive comments toward blacks, women, and others. Sure, he calls it comedy, but at what cost? Misogyny; homophobia, perhaps. Of course, racial politics play a big part in this as well. It shows that even though we as a nation have come far in healing race relations, we still have much more work to do.

Imus owes the Rutgers womens' basketball team a big apology- and I mean practically begging, on his knees (if that what it takes) to those young ladies for calling them "nappy-headed hos". The women I watched at the press conference- courtesy of ABC News- are intelligent; bright. Extremely smart. And probably could outshoot, outplay, and outdefend Don Imus any day, any time, any place.

Don Imus, in addition to apologizing to the team, must turn in his resignation- effective immediately- to MSNBC and CBS Radio. He must take time off from radio, think about why his actions brought him to the point he is now, and if he ever decides to return to radio, he could return a better person.

But until he can prove to America that he's no insensitive shock jock, Imus must leave the airwaves. And stay off. Click here for the video from ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3028005


Copyright 2007, by Darren W. Alexander. All Rights Reserved.