Foot-in-mouth syndrome

People say stupid things a lot. \nBut when people say stupid things on national television and radio, it gets noticed.\nThat’s what happened last week when syndicated radio host Don Imus made racially charged comments on his show — which, in addition to being aired on radio stations around the country, is simulcast on MSNBC.\nWhen discussing the NCAA women’s basketball national championship game, Imus and his co-hosts commented on the looks of the runner-up Rutgers team. Imus claimed they look like “rough girls” and called them “nappy-headed hos.” He also said the Rutgers team looks like the Toronto Raptors, whatever that means.\nI’m not a political-correctness fanatic by any stretch of the imagination. I think there’s an important place in society for satire and sarcasm, and it often uses or requires uncouth humor. A lot of the time, people who are offended by politically incorrect humor need to grow up and be a little less sensitive. \nThis is not one of those times. Imus, when first confronted about his comments, responded on his show that people needed to relax and not worry about “some idiot comment meant to be amusing.” What he said, though, wasn’t even vaguely funny. It was an unprovoked and unnecessary attack on the Rutgers basketball team.\nSeveral days after the incident and after his totally useless original reaction, Imus apologized for his comments. He referred to his words as “insensitive and ill-conceived” and “inappropriate ... thoughtless and stupid.”\nThese public apologies have to be taken with a grain of salt, but some might want to actually believe that Don Imus is contrite. Those people would be unfamiliar with Imus’ history.\nIn 2004, remarks were made on his show referring to Palestinians as “stinking animals,” and that Israel should “drop the bomb and kill everybody.” \nImus has in the past referred to African-American New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden (who is, by the way, very good) as a “quota hire,” and PBS anchor Gwen Ifill, also African-American, as a “cleaning lady.”\nHe has called Arabs “ragheads,” and a colleague on the show was fired after he made remarks about singer Kylie Minogue’s cancer diagnosis, saying she “ain’t gonna be so beautiful when the bitch got a bald head.”\nImus’ apology clearly is moot, considering his show’s extensive catalogue of useless offensive content. If he has done this same thing countless times before, it’s pretty safe to assume it will happen again. \nI will defend his right to free speech to my death, but Don Imus is horribly abusing that right. It’s OK to use uncomfortable humor to make a point about the world. The great comic Richard Pryor was a master of using such humor as a commentary on our society and the problems within it. However, when people like Don Imus and his cronies flog that right to within an inch of its life with pointless and mean comments, it does a disservice to us all.