Nigga, Please...

Unless you've been living in a cave on one of Jupiter's moons, you've heard of Don Imus' on-air comments about the Rutger's woman's basketball team. Imus referred to the team as "some nappy-headed hos." The immediate outcry from the black community was swift and resulted in Imus' show being pulled from MSNBC and him receiving a two week suspension from radio. Opportunists like Rev. Al Sharpton pounded away at Imus and the news networks began their blanket coverage. Sponsores to Imus's show pulled away, as well. I guess those corporations had no problem with his past racial or derogatory comments, but when heat is on, they began their disassociation. Typical.
I'm not a big Imus fan. In fact, I think the I-Man is a desiccated old cowboy, a rude and cantankerous curmudgeon. But I really pity him now.
Imus fell all over himself apologizing to everyone - to the station, to the listeners, to the Rutgers athletes, to the black community, to God. That wasn't enough, and he personally apologized to the athletes. The basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer and her players admonished Imus and the issue is getting more exposure in our retarded corporate national media.
I heard one pundit ask what made Imus feel so comfortable that he could call black women "nappy-headed hos"? There has to be a gulf between blacks and whites in this society to make one feel so removed, so at ease to utter that phrase. Because when you're shielded by income, culture and status from each other, you can't help but objectify others different from you.
Conversely, we live in the land of free speech. I'm sure a majority of Americans don't agree with Klansman David Duke and former Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell, who spewed hated and division of the races, yet they were allowed to speak the most foulest hatred imaginable. I don't agree with dopes like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, but I don't want them thrown off the air for their rhetoric.
Maybe it had to do with history. Whites owned slaves and enacted legislation that kept blacks socially feeble for generations. The onus was to throw him off the air as an example and not just to play the race card. Maybe it doesn't matter that Imus donated millions to charity or has a ranch where sick kids can go. Maybe we're focused on the current bloodfest du jour.
Who knows? Who cares?
You know, if an entire country can rise up and get Imus thrown off the air, can't they rise up and get better programing on TV?