Racial slur gets Imus 2-week suspension

[2scoops]

how many of you actually know imus's history? this has happened before but wasn't put in the spotlight. there are several occasions where he has bashed the black community. they were talking about it on the radio today. one example was the williams sisters (venus and serena). he said back when they posed for playboy that that was the wrong magazine for them; that they belonged in nat'l geographic w/ all the other monkeys. his own boss was noted in saying that he (imus) even made part of his hiring decisions based on whether or not those around him agreed to bash blacks more. tried to look up more of the examples they gave, but the transcript wasn't listed on the station's website.

[Chuck-17]

I think it is safe to say that we all think what Imus said was stupid and ignorant. That being said he is not the only one who has made racist comments. He is just the one losing his job over the coverage it has received. I am not trying to justify what he said in any way I am just trying to point out that the people making the biggest deal out of this are the ones who have said things just as bad if not worse than Imus.

Here is an example of another idiot:
"You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.” – Howard Dean, February 2005

[Ripken8fan55]

Got him fired now lol.

Tom

[mikesilvia]

Again, I think Imus is an idiot.

But let's look again at Gold Digger.

Gold Digger" is a 2005 number one single recorded by Kanye West.

"Gold Digger" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, becoming West's and Foxx's second number one single after 2003's "Slow Jamz" with Twista.

The single broke a record for the most digital downloads in a week, selling over 80,000 digital downloads, and it is also the fastest selling digital download of all time. It was 2005's second-longest running number one on The Billboard Hot 100 at ten weeks.

"Gold Digger" was nominated for "Record of the Year" at the Grammy Awards of 2006 (losing to Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams") and won the award for Best Rap Solo Performance.

Does a song with the N word in it at least a half a dozen times get punished? Absolutely NOT. It gets a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year and does get a Grammy Best Rap Solo Performance. It breaks record after record. So, because a guy is black and says racial slurs he gets rewarded with millions of dollars and told his song is the best in the world! He is called a brilliant artist and his album gets called "Critically acclaimed".

This is what America has come to. If you are black you can use racial slurs against your own people. If you are white and even come close to making a racial statement you are out of a job and people want you dead. Make no mistake, Imus will know be know by everyone in the future as a racist.

5 years from now if you ask your kids, who was more of a racist, Democratic Senator Byrd or Imus? 99% of people will say Imus even though Byrd was a member of the KKK for many years. Don't believe me?

Robert Byrd - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1942 24 year-old Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan, which he had seen holding parades in Matoaka, West Virginia, as a child. His father had also been a Klan member.[2] Byrd was unanimously elected to be the leader, known as the Exalted Cyclops, of his local chapter.[3]

Byrd, in his autobiography, attributed the beginnings of his political career to this incident, although he lamented that they involved the Klan. According to Byrd's recollection, Klan official Joel L. Baskin told him, "You have a talent for leadership, Bob... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." Byrd recalls that "suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities. I was only 23 or 24, and the thought of a political career had never struck me. But strike me that night, it did."[3] He participated in the KKK for a period of time during World War II, holding the titles "Kleagle", which indicated a Klan recruiter, and "Exalted Cyclops". Byrd did not serve in the military during the war, working instead as a welder in a Baltimore shipyard where he helped to assemble warships.[citation needed]

Byrd commented on the 1945 controversy raging over the idea of racially integrating the military. Byrd, when he was 28 years old, wrote to segregationist Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, in which Byrd vowed never to fight:
Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."[4] He had earlier written Bilbo:
I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side[5][6]

So, we find it in our hearts to forgive a man that said so many bad things about African Americans and wore a KKK hood for many years in a leadership position, but we can't forgive a guy who said something borderline at worst?

[doniceage]

Well let set aside one issue right now. Just focus on IMUS. Thing is he has this over and over. Now for those who say he blast blacks remember he has hit the JEWS and many other ethnic groups as Jerry Doyle show was listing them one after another.

Now what Jerry was saying and this is a fact. Why does IMUS get fired for saying this and not for all the things he has said in the past. Is this one worse than any of the others. I am sure the other races would say they hurt just as much. Perhaps they do not have the CLOUT who knows.

Okay so if your listening to IMUS you know he crosses the line RIGHT. So why do you listen if you get offended by this type of material or is it that you actually wait for him to go over the edge.

Mike,
Now ya can bring your rapper stuff in but the same thing goes in people know what those Rappers are going to say. That why they have all the explicit lyric's and your STUPID if you don't know what coming next with the language. With IMUS he on FCC radio so you don't expect that to any degree. So comparing it to RAP MUSIC is not quite a fair comparison.

Now lets look at a whole nother issue. Sharpton and Jackson are men of the cloth CORRECT. "REVERENDS". Well if they are biblical and someone apologizes that it you accept it otherwise you are not a TRUE CHRISTIAN. If you don't then are you truly a CHRISTIAN that opens another debate. I don't think Sharpton wanted to just hear I am sorry and go with that when he had IMUS on the show.

p.s. There is so much we could argue here as this was a slow newsweek and we got a old curmudgeon who used to be a STAR. Now he is a shadow of himself but the little people are tearing him down like a pack or wolves. The one that makes the bloddies spectacle of IMUS will get their shrae of limelight until the next newsworthy story comes. Until then just enjoy the carnival of all the hypocrites and people who used slander cast the stones. Personally, I think we need to call BLACK WOMEN in not Al and Jesse as they were the group offended not BLACK MEN.

DON

[Ripken8fan55]

I wonder if like Imus said, will Jessie Jackson & Al Sharpton apoligize to the Duke lacrosse players for what they said about them now that all charges have been dropped against them? I highly doubt that they will. But that`s another discussion.

Tom

[mikesilvia]

Don,

Sounds like you accept rap stars using racial comments because of their music. Where does it end? It is ok to tell a man that uses the N word a dozen time "you are the best", but tell another man that he can't say something half as bad? Sound like reverse racism to me. So, rappers are the privileged few who should be able to say what every they want because it is expected?

So, the test now when we hear the N work and any other racial comment is to first find out their color of their skin or see if they are in rap music? Do white rappers also get this free pass?

[Bondsaway]

OK I don't know if anyone watches Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN. But I think this says it all.

Stuart Scott (little black guy if you don't know him) said on espn that some people use those words as terms of endearment. Now hold on. He went on to say... Its not what is said but the hate behind it. So if a white man were to scream creampuff at a black man with malious its no different than calling him a "N" word.

Now if thats true why was Imus fired? I heard no hatred in what he said just stupidity!

This story is getting more retarded (can I say retarded and still be politically correct) by the second!

[doniceage]

Don,

Sounds like you accept rap stars using racial comments because of their music. Where does it end? It is ok to tell a man that uses the N word a dozen time "you are the best", but tell another man that he can't say something half as bad? Sound like reverse racism to me. So, rappers are the privileged few who should be able to say what every they want because it is expected?

So, the test now when we hear the N work and any other racial comment is to first find out their color of their skin or see if they are in rap music? Do white rappers also get this free pass?

Mike,
Personally, I do not care about this whole thing but you love to bring this up as it good for discussion. Of course this story has rec'd more attention than it ever should.

As for rappers using racial comments it not something that they just do. The industry put a warning label on them Parental Advisory so as I said before you know your going to get some crap in your lyrics. Do I accept it no but is it ACCEPTABLE by the public. Well how long has it been going on Mike it is accepted and you cannot DENY that.

As many have said thruout the posts it usually okay for blacks to say the N word. If a white man was to do it they would be hard press to get by with it unless they were extremely close to the ones they said it in front of. SO again it all depends who you are and how you are viewed by the crowd your saying it in front of.

Mike on your free pass I used to say the N word in front of blacks and mixed race all the time. Why it was my homie's and best friends in the world. So I got a free pass in front of them as I was ACCEPTED as one of them. Of course I also did this in downtown Battle Creek one nite at 2 in the morning and almost had to defend myself as one of my best friends was in the crowd. The two guys looked at my bud in the back and he was like "HE IS OKAY" and that was the end of it. Of course if he would not have been there end of the story as I would have been in the ER. But I did get a free pass so if a White Rapper was respected by the blacks as a true rapper and not a poser or white wannabe he would get it. Would be hard to earn the stree cred's or whatever you want to label it but it can be done.

We could come up with numerous examples that have a double standards. Use families where you see brothers or sisters talk trash about someone in the family. Yet if a stranger was to do it, all hell would break loose and their would be a fight ready to brew. Of course a sister or brother can do it, but a stranger say the Exact Thing and not ACCEPTED (Care to debate that)

Double standards all over in the world and we contribute to many each day. The best thing is to treat people as you want to be treated of course not many do that as it is mentality in thisa ME ME ME world. If we truly thought about others like we should this stuff wouldn't happen.

DON