i must be a racist

because i don't see what the big deal is, about don imus' comments. he called them nappy headed ho's and the nation makes it out like those poor girl's lives are over along with their coach. several things about this issue bug me. first off, i'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that since they are high level college athletes, they regularly get heckled and called much worse by opposing fans. so to act like this one comment took them by surprise and crushed their worlds' is a little overblown. much, much worse things are said about athletes on a daily basis on talk radio without anyone so much as batting an eye. joakim noah has an endless number of facebook groups dedicated to hating him along with getting attacked daily on talk radio for simply beating people down two years in a row. yet that doesn't bother anyone. second, nappy headed is not that bad of a term. it's not like he dropped the n-bomb. nappy headed means bad hair. joakim noah is very definitely nappy headed and i love joakim noah. that's not a racial slur. sure it has racial undertones but it's not a term that is driven by hate. along with that, "ho" doesn't have the same negative connotations that it had 20 years ago. the term is used loosely all the time in everyday conversation by men and women alike. it wouldn't be too crazy too assume those same players have called each other ho's in passing. if anything, because of hip hop today ho is just another part of our culture's everyday vernacular. sure he shouldn't have said it. yes he was dumb and it was inappropriate. a two week suspension is appropriate. everyone seems to forget though that he is supposedly a "shock jock". by definition that term conjures up a guy who is offensive and slightly off color. i can't believe there isn't a single group defending imus' right to free speech and lack of censorship. what he said was wrong but he should have the right to say it on his own show. turn it off if you don't like it. what really bugs me is that everyone is blaming Don Imus for taking away Rutger's chance to celebrate by bringing all of this negative attention to this issue. Imus didn't bring any attention to this issue. the media did. the very same media that barely covered the women's national championship because no one in america gives a crap. it's not like the whole nation was caught up in women's basketball national championship fever and this comment crashed the party. it's more like the whole nation wasn't even aware that the women's national championship had even happened and they definitely didn't know Rutgers was in it. what exactly were they still celebrating anyway? getting beat like a red headed step child by tennessee. if anyone should be upset in the switch in media coverage it would be tn. who actually won the game. on the flip side this has brought more attention to Rutger's women's basketball than they ever could have dreamed of. they have sympathizers across the country now. they're going on Oprah. they're dominating Sportscenter as well as the regular news. so call me an insensitive jerk but not only did the Rutger's team definitely need to accept Imus' apology but on the contrary they should be sending him a thank you card for catapulting Rutger's women's basketball to a level of prominence they'll never experience again.



one last thing, is it just me or did anyone else catch that the follow-up comment to the nappy headed thing was a description of the game as "the jiggaboos vs. the wannabes"? i feel like that would be considered more of a racial slur than "nappy headed". that might get a guy fired