There. I said it.
If, however, you are one of those people who does care, you might want to read the transcript before offering up your thoughts:
"IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --
McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
IMUS: Yeah.
McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes -- that movie that he had
IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough --
McCORD: Do The Right Thing.
McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
IMUS: I don't know if I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?
ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.
IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah.
RUFFINO: Only tougher.
McGUIRK: The [Memphis] Grizzlies would be more appropriate.
So yes, what Imus - a man who built his career by shocking people with speech - said here was shocking. But I'm no more surprised by it than I am surprised when I turn on my local Clear Channel hip hop station to hear similarly offensive language being used numerous times each hour. That might be deeply unfortunate, but it shouldn't be surprising.
All that said, if this latest Imus episode does finally convince politicians and pundits that they should stop going on his show, I'm all for it. Imus, FoxNews, Limbaugh, Hannity - delegitimize all of them by refusing to even talk to them. They only have as much power as we collectively grant them, after all.
UPDATE: Atrios is confused about the hip hop references. I can't speak for Howie Kurtz here, but I can explain my point a bit better. It's about selective outrage. If you're going to be upset about public figures using their position of power to slander others, you should be upset every time it happens. It shouldn't matter if its happening on talk radio, on music radio, or anywhere else for that matter. Offensive speech is offensive speech.
So what do some hip hop artists and Don Imus have in common? They both use offensive speech as part of their schtick. From them, its expected behavior. More to the point, its the behavior that has propelled them to the heights of success. And yes, that says something deeply unfortunate about our culture. But given that it is behavior like this that made these people famous in the first place, I can't for the life of me understand why people now find it so surprising. The whole point of Don Imus' show is that is is offensive. And that's not an excuse; it's an explanation.
UPDATE II: Kevin Drum and Constance Rice (Condi's cousin), by contrast, get it.
UPDATE III: Last word on this. Looks like I'm going to have to give it to Snoop:
"It's a completely different scenario. [Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about ho's that's in the 'hood that ain't doing shit, that's trying to get a nigga for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them muthafuckas say we in the same league as him," - Snoop Dogg, on the Imus affair.
(H/T: Andrew Sullivan)
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