Imus-ta messed up

"Nappy-headed hos.”\nThat description of the Rutgers women’s basketball team marks the latest public eruption of the racist and sexist attitudes – another sign that oppression is alive and well.\nRadio host Don Imus unleashed this ugly description on his show last Wednesday. Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer denounced his comments as “deplorable, despicable and abominable,” and NBC News, which carries his program, called them “racist and abhorrent.” Imus has since been suspended from his morning show for two weeks.\nImus apologized for his “insensitive and ill-conceived remark,” attempting to prove he was a “good person who said a bad thing.” Imus described charitable work he has done for children with terminal illnesses, many of whom are black. He remembered the many black guests he welcomed to his radio show. He recounted the many black leaders who he approached since his comments in order to make amends.\nI wholeheartedly believe that Imus sincerely doesn’t want to be racist or sexist: very few of us do. But wishing it doesn’t make it so.\nImus claimed his comment was a miserable attempt at humor and lamented, “I understand there’s no excuse for it. I’m not pretending that there is. I wish I hadn’t said it.”\nI, on the other hand, am thankful he said it. I’m also grateful for Michael Richards’ racist outburst last December; and for Sen. Joseph Biden’s questionable description of Barack Obama as the “first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy;” and for Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic, sexist tirade.\nIf we’re honest with ourselves, these public lapses in judgment force us to come to terms with an ugly, often hidden part of our consciousness and should prompt some uncomfortable self-reflection.\nDon Imus, Michael Richards, we all have been raised in a culture that teaches us to devalue certain people – racial minorities, women, gays and lesbians, and the many others who get marked as less human, less important, less fit for unlimited opportunity and potential. Some messages are subtle, for example, “black history” is relegated to the sidebars in history books and is treated as an afterthought to (white) American history. Others are so pervasive that we’ve largely learned to ignore them: for example, the way men regularly dehumanize women into mere objects for their sexual pleasure and indulgence.\nWe could learn a lot from Imus or Richards – or the next public figure who unexpectedly spews racism or sexism. The lesson is not to censor ourselves or blame the P.C. police for patrolling our thoughts. Instead, we’d do better to acknowledge the reality of our ugly conditioning and start the self-reflection that these men began one racist statement too late.\nI believe most of us are “good people,” too. Good people who have internalized terrible lessons. But that doesn’t excuse us. The key is to identify, own, reflect on, and most importantly correct those oppressive lessons before they rear their ugly heads “nappy-headed” or otherwise.