IMUS: ‘Jiggaboos and Nappy-headed Ho’s’

NABJ appalled by Imus’ racist comments, Calls for boycott of show

WFAN, MSNBC host calls Black student athletes ‘nappy-headed ho’s’ during show

WASHINGTON, D.C. — America and the National Association of Black Journalists are outraged and disgusted by the crude and insulting comments leveled by WFAN radio personality Don Imus against the student athletes of Rutgers University’s women’s basketball team. Imus called the team “nappy-headed ho’s” during a radio interview, simulcast on MSNBC.

NABJ calls for an immediate, sincere and unequivocal apology from the sophomoric host and expects all journalists of all colors to boycott his show until he acknowledges and apologizes for his damaging remarks.

“Has he lost his mind?” asked NABJ President Bryan Monroe, vice president and editorial director for Ebony and Jet magazines in Chicago. “Those comments were beyond offensive. Imus needs to be fired. Today.”

Imus and his producer, Bernard McGuirk, went on to further attack the black members of the team, calling them “jigaboos and wannabees.”

“As NABJ strives to dispel stereotypes and promote accurate portrayals of minorities in the media, we find this characterization of these young black women offensive and hateful,” said Barbara Ciara, NABJ vice president/broadcast and managing editor at WTKR in Norfolk. Ciara said Imus has an obligation as a broadcaster to “speak with a responsible voice.”

Sports journalists around the country were equally dismayed.

“The disrespectful comments by Don Imus were degrading to women,” said Gregory Lee, chairman of the NABJ Sports Task Force and senior assistant sports editor at the Boston Globe. Lee said task force members question MSNBC’s leadership in aligning itself with someone who feels free to denigrate black women and student-athletes.

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An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the nation, with nearly 4,000 members, and provides educational, career development and support to black journalists worldwide.

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I have tunes in to Imus for years and was shocked at those derogatory comments. I have no idea what provoked him to say the things he said. He IS a shock jock and not too many are immune from his not so flattering comments though. I do not believe he means very much of what he says in the ” shock ” department ,{ although I can’t find an excuse or reason for where he found these words ). But I do not believe he is as prejudiced as they would indicate , if at all. I do not like it ~~~~~but I would give him another chance based on the good that he has done and I believe that he will continue to do.
My opinion.
Jo

I watch Imus every morning, and I don’t think he is a racist although he regularly insults everyone in his line of sight (except his wife, Deidre, who obviously is the boss in that family). That said, Imus was outrageously over the line when he insulted the Rutgers players and when he allowed Bernie’s “jiggaboo” epithet to go unchallenged. Stupid, hurtful insults have no place in today’s world. They’re not funny. They’re repulsive.

What is the problem? I hear blacks refer to women as hos all the time and nobody has a problem with that. Blacks should get down on the ground and thank god their ancestors were brought here as slaves or catch the next boat to jamaica or africa or wherever. There is a deficit of a work ethic in young black people and this will cripple the black community for generations to come unles people like Bill Cosby can change black culture. Other ethnic groups do not have this problem, figure it out african americans.

You people crack me up. I am an African American woman. Because my access to my ancestry was stolen from me I should denounce my African heritage? You would love that wouldn’t you, “linda finch?” Whatever! And as far as your ignorance, “dan,” maybe YOU should catch the next thing smoking back to Europe or wherever the hell you came from. It’s easy for the people who initiated this country based on lies, deception, thievery and downright evil to say, “get over it.” Well you know what, I’m NOT over it. Until I can get back everything that was stolen from my family, my ancestors, my culture, I will NOT get over it. People need to start being accountable for the evil deeds that have been going on for decades in this country.
I really don’t see why any of us are surprised by this kind of conduct. It goes on every day. They smile in your face, all the while thinking what they think. Perpetuating the monolithic stereotypes. Me, an African -American woman, do not represent the entire Black race. If I do something, it’s me. Not ALL blacks, or all black women. Hell, when Andrea Yates or whatever her name is drowned all of her children, should I say, “see how they are?” When Jeffrey Dohmer eats people, should I say, see how “THEY” act? I for one refuse to boxed into any persons perception of me. I am An AFRICAN-AMERICAN woman. If you don’t like it, tough shit. Don’t try to conform me, make me act like you. I’m NOT you. Who would want to be? Not me.

I look at it this way:
You have the power to tune him out …
Those young girls would never know about what he said until it hit the news …
What would people’s responces be if Rush Limbaugh said exactly the same thing? …
I believe in equal justice for all …
Bye Don …
A. Watts

The biggest problem is that there are people like those who have posted here who don’t see a problem at all with the racist, bigotted comments made by Imus then seconded by himself and his white male counterparts. I have seen this typical white male response over and over “what - can’t you take a little joke?” or “we were just having fun.” This is not an acceptable defense for sexual harassment, nor is it an acceptable defense for racial slurs.

Dear Mrs B and any other person living in the past:

Wasn’t it our own people that stole our Ancestry? Rather then us fighting the white man, we took their gifts and sold our own brothers from local tribes we were feuding with. I think you, and me, and everyone else needs to move forward from this. If you can’t, you can always go back now. Or can you?

I would be more concerned with rappers still calling everyone the N-word. Funny how I can walk down the block, call my buddy the N-word, and no one thinks twice about it. I get my white friend to call me that in public, and everyone gets alarmed. Stupid.

I applaud Imus and his harmless bantor. He should have also thrown Sharpton into the mix, I mean… you see his hair?

Mrs. B.
We all need to move on from that period of history. I do not mean to belittle the plight of your ancestors but judging people that lived several centuries ago by today’s morality makes no sense at all.
Until the advent of the Industrial Revolution, slavery was part and parcel of human history since before there was history. There was no moral issue with slavery, as such, just in the way slaves were treated. It only became a moral issue once the Industrial Revolution removed the need for slaves. (I am referring to the institution world-wide. It was not just in America, you know.)
The Bible and Koran have instructions for how people should treat their slaves. There is a true story about a slave revolt in ancient Rome, lead by a slave called Spartacus. (That was not just a movie but a real story.)
No body alive today had anything to do with slavery and hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in this country ending it here. Surely that has to go a long way toward restitution, if any is merited.
I do not mean to sound cold, either, ma’am but those were different times and people all over the world lived by different standards.
I was researching the history of slavery in America some years ago and was initially surprised to learn that the slave ships that went to Africa to pick up a cargo of slaves (what an awful concept by today’s standards, eh?) they did not go out into the countryside and kidnap people from their homes. That would have been terribly dangerous, don’t you think? They went to port cities and bought slaves from a slave market! The people in Africa were steeped into the institution of slavery as well - they were selling their countrymen in a marketplace like vegetables! What restitution do those people owe you and your kin? Surely their part was significant?
We all need to look at this issue from a view of what life was like hundreds and thousands of years ago. (The Jews were slaves in Egypt and helped to build the pyramids, if the Bible is to be believed (and I do). The Ancient Greeks had slaves and they are the people who started democracy! What about them?
Speaking of the Jews, after they were freed from their bondage, they went to the promised land, conquered the people there and kept their captives as slaves. Yes, these former slaves became slave holders.
The world has a rough history, not just the USA. Have you studied the history of Western Civilization? Barbarism and slavery went hand in hand with all of it. All of us who are of European decent are all the products of rape and pillage if we follow our family trees far enough. Should we be seeking restitution from the Huns, or the Saxons, or the Vandals,or any of the marauding tribes that raided their way throughout Europe in the first millennium? Shouldn’t the Italians be held accountable for the excesses of the Romans?
Where would it all end? We all need to see that today, slavery (of anybody) would be wrong but it wasn’t a few hundred years ago. We need to get past all that and get on with the hard job of building a better life for ourselves and our children and grandchildren.
The reason we study history is so, hopefully, we won’t repeat the mistakes of the past; but holding people accountable today for the actions of their ancestors isn’t justice.
Remember this, if it helps, it wasn’t the Civil War that ended the need for slavery; it was the Industrial Revolution that made it unnecessary and therefore immoral. Before that it was a hard fact of life all over the world, not just here, all over the world. (Some places still keep slaves.) Remember, too, that people of all races were held as slaves in different places and at different times in history; it isn’t just a black thing. I’m sure that if I were to follow my ancestry far enough back, I would find a slave in my family tree, too; in fact there would likely be many of them.
We’re all brothers and sisters on this planet and life is too short to hold a grudge for something that nobody alive had any control over.
Be at peace, sister, and don’t worry about things that can’t be changed. That path leads to madness.
Be well and God bless you. For my part, I thank God I was born in this country; there are far worse places to have been born in. Imagine for a moment that you were born in the further reaches of China as a peasant; don’t you think life here is better than that? …or in a small village in the mountains of Central America. I can’t imagine the hardness of life like that. We are all so lucky, and it is just that, to be born where we have opportunities to have a good life by comparison to so many people in the world today. Even the poorest people here are better off than the average person almost anywhere else. If we look hard enough at the clouds in our lives we can usually find a silver lining.
God has blessed the both of us, don’t you think? I do. I hope He continues to bless you and your family.
Try not to let ignorant people get you down. Ignore them or love them; they don’t know how to deal with either. Besides, there are too many of them and you could waste your entire life railing against them. Say a prayer for them; say one for all of us. We need all the prayers we can get.
Peace…

Imus should appologize & resign… only after Chris Rock does. In the context of comedy/humor, everything is game. Frunkus.

This whole conversation is ridiculous. All of this political correctness is about to make me puke. If Mrs B wants her heritage back, she should get on the first boat back to Africa. Blacks want us to acknowledge and honor their heritage, but they want whites to disregard theirs, as they have tried here in South Carolina with the Confederate flag monument at the statehouse. Let’s face it, if not for Blacks and Hispanics, most cops would be out of jobs. Funny how you never read of any Blacks returning to Africa to reclaim their roots.

Just because the culture of the time says that something is morally acceptable does not mean that it is. It is obvious from the statements that many of us have had very different experiences. Let’s look at reality. African American have been and continue to be disenfranchised and discriminated against in the U.S.A. Its moving over to the Latino population and the Arab population. It’s all based out of fear and ignorance. Yes, calling the group of women ho’s goes too far. The women rights group should be leading the fight.

Most whites don’t think of the term ‘ho as racial. Just listen to black music or watch their music videos. They love ‘Hoes.
Their films do not help their cause either with titles such as “White Girls, My Baby’s Daddy, Jungle fever, etc”.

still waiting for someone to tell me one good this that has come out of Africa…

Thank you Aime Watts. I should read more history.

I agree 100% Steve…but I am still waiting for someone to post one good thing to come out of Africa.

rebinsc, you can wait until the cows come home for someone to “post one good thing to come out of Africa.” Your ignorance is abysmal, your racism is ugly and disgusting, and your moral and spiritual blindness is sad.

Since Imus is using “names” to characterize a group of women, how should we characterize the women in the Girls Gone Wild videos? How should we characterize Beyonce Knolls or Britne Spears? How should we characterize our cheerleaders who raise their legs for men to view their under garments or the women who show their underwear in low rise jeans? Should we then call the American media and men pimps who encourage and endorse it?

Rmcgready,

No you don’t want to see the South Rise Again because this time there will be a lot more support from the whites in the rest of the country. The 1st Civil War wasn’t about race but the next one will be.

White people are the devil.

I’m a white woman living in Idaho and have known two black people personally in my whole life, and I am outraged and horrified by Don Imus’ comments. First because he denigrated those player’s hardwork and training. Our football team, The Broncos, just had an outstanding win and our entire community came out to support and encourage all the players. If anyone had said something as racist, degrading, petty, and ignorant about them it would have been heartbreaking.

As to all of you (white people) who don’t understand how language is subtle, nuanced, context-based and meaningful even in its smallest words (hos), I’m dissappointed. White ignorance is exhausting and embarrassing and it’s about time you all dug into the frontiers of your brain matter and start experimenting. Try thinking. Try empathizing. Try contemplating an experience other than your own.

This white woman just wants to hope that if my daughter or son someday earn a place on a college sports team they won’t have to be dragged down into the murk and slime of the likes of Don Imus or any other moron with a microphone.

rebin SC…obviously you are an unhappy unfulfilled and ignorant living creature not worthy of been refered to as a human being. Just know that while you are hanging out in your trailer making babies with your sister, hard working individuals are out in the real world working hard to make a living. I suggest you get your facts straight..Ignorance is not bliss..its a punishable crime…GET A LIFE..better yet take your first plane ride out of South Carolina or where ever the hell you’re from and see that the world does’nt revolve around you and people that think like you..I feel sorry for you and the people that are unfortunately associated with you..GOD BLESS YOU…

First off thank you Tami in Idaho. The NW needs more people like yourself…the US needs more people like yourself.
This sort of constant diet of racism and the support by the white masses for it against blacks( mind you if this had been gay/lesbians, Asian women, Hispanic(the new flavor of the month) or middle eastern no one would argue that D.I. should be fired. But somehow blacks should quit their “belly-aching” and self-victimization and get over it.
There have been recent studies that show that racism actually contributes significantly to health problems and stress related illness in blacks. http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/Anxiety/minorities_2.asp High blood pressure being one of them. This disease is disproportionately seen in the black community with no rational other then racism being the culprit. That is unbelievably sad that in the 21st century racism is still killing people in the US. That is the biggest reason why I have chosen to live outside of the US. And I encourage other blacks to leave as well( I recommend the UK and Canada as they are much more livable for minorities)…taking their tax and consumer dollars with them…good riddance to a country that is hateful and terminally ill.

Hey White guy, why don’t you go and measure dick against the Black guy in your country. If it is smaller then give your woman to the Black guy… I am sure that she’ll be satisfied.

it’s too easy to forget the point - the impact on the team. a celebrity bully with millions of listeners, attacking them with ugly slurs, totally out of left field. that’s offensive.

what’s offensive to me is that imus was ever on the air in the first place

Well, thank goodness we all had access to so many well-paid white multi-millionaires with their own shows on television to point-out that this really WASN’T a story about a white man in late 90s making a racist red-neck ignorant-a$s remark about a bunch of innocent girls with no means to rebut his ignorance. OH NO! This is REALLY a story about rap music, violent video games, the “black prison culture” and MOST OF ALL, it’s a GOP media generated Works program for black conservatives to defend old country & western red-necks. I’m a white guy, but Bush and the Corporate and Mega-Church-PWNED cable-satellite “news” media makes me want to tell people I’m a light-skinned Argentinian.

“Conservatives–both Democrats and Republicans–hated Reverend Martin Luther King’s doctrines. Hating them was one of the litmus tests of conservatism.”

If anything, Rev. King would have been far to the left of Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson. The revisionists take on Rev. King are too indicative of the patterns they used to cover their ties to German and Italian fascism and to help muddy the water about Hitler’s religious beliefs and life-long ties to the church. White people fall for spin like the Empire’s Storm Troopers fell for the Obi Wan’s Jedi Mind trick.

“These aren’t the droids you’re lokking for, move along.”

I’m so tired of hearing how you niggers are oppressed. hell, your just to lazy to help yourself up.

you want someone to do it for you.
as far as “hos” are concerned, most of you don’t even bother to get married.
you just screw anyone that comes along.
your right your not “hos” your whores!

All of us are foreign in this country. So for those who are saying blacks should go back to Africa, then whites should go back to Europe. I agree w/ everything Mrs. B, Tami in Idaho, and White man has stated. If you are not discriminated against on a daily basis you do not know our struggle.
Most of the inventions used today was invented by African Americans. Africa remains in the state it is because things continue to be taking from them. To the question: “Can anyone name anything worthwhile that comes from Africa?” One word-DIAMONDS!! That alone would make Africa rich.
For those who don’t have a problem w/ D.I. statement-you have a serious problem. What if he were black and said the girls on Girls Gone Wild are a bunch of sluts who will be most likely strippers and pornstars-wouldn’t you be mad? What if it were your daughter or niece that was called that?
For those who are saying rappers should be stopped-I AGREE!! If you keep up with the news you would know we have addressed this issue and continue to. A few rappers have agreed to refrain from using the N-word and degrading women. We won’t stop until all have agreed.
Why does the act of one individual define the race as a whole? In that case, white women are all sluts according to GGW. Why is everything blamed on blacks? White people commit crimes too. Just look @ american’s most wanted. Why is HIV/AIDs a black thing? It was once known as the white gay man’s disease. Why is gov’t assistance? Whites are on welfare and other types of gov’t assistance. Whites was the first to use it. There are whites who are poor known as white trash. There are white women who don’t get married and screw everything that walks. They just have abortions and use birth control. The list can go on for days.
I am tired of this racist crap. Everyone needs to open their minds, because people of every race do the same thing. We need to grow as a people together. If most of this country believes in GOD then we should act like HIM and have love for everyone. I’m an AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMAN and I am proud of who I am.

Umm, the whole “Jigaboos & Wannabes” was Imus referencing a Spike Lee movie “School Daze”, unless I’m very much mistaken.

Wouldn’t you say that was odd, having that kind of knowledge of a film mainly about black culture in the US, if he is the bigot that Al ‘resonable’ Sharpton keeps maintaining that he is?

Just sayin’…

All I hear about is your African-American ancestors built this country. More than likely all they probably built was a shed behind Masser Johnson`s house.Please prove me wrong I don`t believe they have never done any more than that except maybe keeping up the cotton field.

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