POLITOPICS

I was wrong. Last week I was certain that Don Imus would not apologize for his insensitive comments about the Rutgers lady basketball team. Not only has he apologized, but he spent most of his show apologizing and promoting his appearance on Al Sharpton's radio show this afternoon.

First, I do not believe that Imus is a racist. As he reminded people this morning, Imus was very outspoken about the problem of black poverty after the Katrina disaster. He has also been outspoken about Congress showing more interest in sickle cell because many of the black kids that come to his ranch have that illness. A racist wouldn't do this. A racist probably wouldn't even have a camp for ill kids of any race like Imus. This was a group of white men talking about something they don't know anything about. When you talk about something you don't know anything about, you make yourself look like a fool and set yourself up for this kind of trouble.

Like I said before, Imus calls everyone a ho, men and women. He even calls his own wife a "green ho" because of her work in environmental causes. It means nothing. The offensive part was "nappy-headed". He did not know this (which is why he shouldn't be talking about it), but hair is a sensitive issue with black women. And although the term nappy is not an insult in itself, he was using it to insult women who were black. He wouldn't have used that term if he was referring to the women's soccer team. He would have just called them hos. If he had just called these women hos, it would have been unfair, considering they are just 18,19 year old girls, but it wouldn't have been considered racist. Imus on race flap: I'm a good person - MSNBC.com

So he'll go on Sharpton's show and have to apologize and eat humble pie. That's fine. I thought spending 90% of his entire show this morning apologizing was enough, but whatevs. I'm still bothered by the fact that Sharpton is calling for Imus to resign. This is the same Sharpton who did NOT invite Imus on his show when Imus was trying to get publicity for sickle cell. Sharpton is going to say he should lose his job because he disrespected black women. Black leaders all across the country are saying that this is unacceptable. Meanwhile, millions of black kids will come home after school today and watch an hours worth of videos that send them the message that black women aren't worth s^%$. Where are those same black leaders? Yes, they might blah, blah, blah about it, but who among them has called for resignations in the rap industry? Is the message that white men must respect black women but black man don't?