Member Articles

Personally I agree with Imus being fired even though I've never listened to his show, but it concerns me that Americans are looking to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as moral authorities for what is bigotry when they have themselves both hurled insensitive and bigoted remarks. Where is Al Sharpton's apology for Tawana Brawley?

Imus being fired isn't going to address the issue of a level playing field that doesn't differentiate between Imus' "nappy headed ho" remark and Billboard's top 5 song this week, Mims "This is Why I'm Hot" that features equally egregious language.

The question that everyone should be asking is why Viacom, which owns CBS, is willing to drop Imus but they are unwilling to put limits on MTV, which everyday promotes sexist and misogynistic music videos to young people. We celebrate "thug culture" by putting rap artists on magazine covers and television, yet erupt in a firestorm of self-righteousness when Imus makes the same remark but expresses sincerity in his remorse.

There are no winners here, in fact we are all worse off because of the hypocrisy that accepts this kind of behavior from one community while acting like vigilantes to another.