FIRE that fat pig of a radio talk show host Don Imus

Imus controversy shows power, not morality, defines racial limits in America
By Ray Hanania

It isn’t enough that Don Imus is the ugliest man to host a TV show.

Imus, the syndicated radio talk show host whose program is broadcast on MSNBC, the NBC Network affiliate, also happens to be one of the nation’s most outrageous racists and bigots.

Imus is always slandering someone, and some how because his show generates profits, and he is popular among mainstream White audiences, he can get away with it.

But Imus may have met his match when he went too far slandering Black people this week.

In referring to the Rutgers woman’s basketball team, Imus called the eight Black women members "nappy-haired hos" who have tattoos.

Immediately, the giants of the African American community, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, demanded that Imus be fired, that his syndicated radio show be dropped and that NBC cancel his MSNBC TV simulcast.

Of course, none of the demands were met because Imus is White. He speaks with a Southern drawl, is so ugly he could be a legitimate target of criticism himself, and he has a track record of slandering everyone.

Not White people, of course, unless they happen to be Democrats.

Why do we tolerate bigots like Imus?

Today’s America is not the same America that it was in the 1960s when it was fashionable to openly slander Black people and minorities. Whole neighborhoods changed from White to Black all because a Black family moved into the community.

The suburbs were born not just out of post-World War II efforts to help returning veterans buy cheap homes, but to also create a haven that was too expensive for Black people and other people of color to move.

America hasn’t become less racist today. America has just become more sophisticated about its racist tendencies.

You can hate Blacks and other people of color in America, as long as oyu don’t say it publicly.

You can fire people of color from their jobs, as long as you are smart about it and find other reasons to dismiss Black and Hispanic and Arab employees. You can discriminate against women, as long as you are not open about it.

In fact, racism is alive and well in America, just as long as the racists don’t get crazy and express their hatred openly, as Don Imus did on his widely broadcast radio and TV show that is listened to by millions of Americans, almost all of them White.

Maybe Imus and other racists are just too comfortable inn today’s world of sophisticated racist hatred.

Maybe Imus knows that the only color that counts in this country besides White is Green. The holy dollar. Profits decide the line of morality in America, not principle.

MSNBC is making a fortune broadcasting the Don Imus show and it is going to take a lot more than Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson to call for his firing. Why? Because most Black people don’t listen to Imus.

So at the end of the day, MSNBC won’t see a drop in their revenues.

Advertisers will keep buying their ads on the Don Imus show because their market isn’t Black people. It’s White people, the audience that Imus commands every morning.

Don Imus should have been fired years ago. But he hasn’t been fired.

And that fact alone proves that as long as you are White and you make a fortune for oyur sponsors, you can rant and rave against any minority group, any minority religion, any minority ethnic group.

As long as your audiences loves it and doesn’t complain.

And listen to the complaints against Don Imus.

In case you haven’t figured it out, it’s not his audience calling for Imus to be fired. White leaders are not calling press conferences to demand that Imus be fired.

It’s Black leaders. Leaders of color. Columnists like me whose skin color isn’t quite White enough in this country – my skin color is Olive, one of the colors not even favored among the coalition of the minorities in this country.

So Imus will apologize, as he has done, in one of the most arrogant ways I have ever heard someone contritely thumb his nose at the public.

Imus said on his show Monday morning, days after his racist, bigoted and hateful remarks were broadcast to millions of people in America:

"Here's what I've learned: that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it," Imus said.

Is that what you learned, Don Imus? That you can make fun of some, but not everybody because "some people" don’t deserve it and apparently "some people" do.

Don Imus should be fired immediately.

Anything less would be an insult to Americans who do believe that this is a great country of principle, justice and fairness for all.

END