Don Imus' Mistake

Radio talk-show host Don Imus has been all over the news lately after calling members of the Rutgers womens basketball team "nappy headed ho's." That Imus shouldn't have said the remark is obvious. That the women he insulted and their friends and families would be upset is unsurprising, as is the fact that he is paying a price for his remark. MSNBC just canceled the simulcast of his morning program, and he will never again have the access to politicians and news makers that he once enjoyed. There has been plenty of commentary about the race and women related issues surrounding this event, with very little left unsaid.

One aspect of the slur that has not been discussed is the near inevitability that Don Imus would do something like this. In reading about Mr. Imus, it is clear that part of his shtick for many years has been to insult people who are in the news using juvenile name-calling. It's part of what has made him popular--when you refer to some politician as a "fat moron" you can be sure that at least half your audience is going to have some sympathy with that viewpoint. When you continually insult people, it becomes a pattern of life, and insults immediately spring to mind when noticing people. Mr. Imus has indiscriminately spoken thousands of nasty insults over the years, and his equal opportunity nastiness has gotten him a reputation for being "entertaining" and "fair." That, and his admittedly talented ability to interview, has made him a wealthy man. With our culture becoming increasingly coarse, things have escalated to where on a news program you have a couple of guys who think it is OK to refer to people as whores--probably because on TV and in popular music you can hear a woman being called a any number of expletives and it is celebrated. Well, Mr. Imus, as Spike Lee put it "went to the well once too often" and insulted a group of young women as a bunch of whores. When a person engages in sinful (an old religious word, admittedly) and indecent behavior in the same way over and over, it dulls the senses (one's conscience and ability to make wise decisions) with regard to that particular behavior and eventually the behavior is outwardly destructive. After decades of acting in this matter in his professional life, it was inevitable that Don Imus' judgment would grow increasingly worse over time, his behavior would escalate, and he would do something like this.

In the end, I hope that Mr. Imus and the Rutgers basketball players have a heart-to-heart meeting and that he offers sincere apologies and shows true contrition. And I hope that if this happens, the Rutgers players are able to forgive Mr. Imus and put this episode behind them--other than the lessons they hopefully are learning about enduring insults with dignity and grace and forgiving those who with sincerity of heart ask for compassion and absolution.