Don Imus: Rutgers women's basketball team 'nappy-headed hos'

hair and more

Pam, my late friend, the poet Terri Jewell (who was an amazing performer of her work--perhaps you knew her or heard her perform some time) and I had some really interesting conversations about Black hair/Jewish hair, Black noses/Jewish noses, feet, lips and on and on, talking about how the majority defining each of us (White/Christian) had turned our bodies into sites of contempt.  It was illuminating for both of us to see how racism and anti-semitism could find their focus in the physical and how embedded this was in the culture and in disturbed self-images.

 

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

---

by: Lev Raphael @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 07:18:22 AM CDT

Jewish features

I grew up so grateful for two things: my hair and my nose. Both my parents have medium-sized noses, and my siblings and I got them too. Kids, both Jewish and not, made fun of the girls in my high school who had the stereotypical "Jewish nose." Many girls came back from summer break between sophomore and junior, or junior and senior, years with nose jobs. Usually they were 16th birthday gifts from mothers who had the same surgery at their age.

On the other hand, I have a mother with straight light brown hair and a father with kinky dark hair. My brother and I got hair with just a little wave, and my sister got kinky. She keeps it long and it does look pretty, but it requires so much styling work and has been an aggravation her whole life. I was always glad that not only did I not have to deal with it as she did, but that I could also pass for gentile. I have pale skin and freckles and people usually peg me as Irish, except people who are actually Irish. We also have a last name that is recognizable by other Jews as Jewish, but not typically by non-Jews.

Now I pretty much come out as Jewish right away, and sometimes I'm a little sad when other Jews don't pick me out as one of them until I tell them. But I know very well that I've had privilege in my life because I pass as a white Christian American until I open my mouth and tell people otherwise. I definitely got the, but you're not one of those Jews: meaning that I'm not pushy and overbearing, materialistic, or whatever else other people's ideas of a Jewish woman are. I am certain that looking like the people who are passing that sort of judgment on Jewish women is a large part of why I seem to be given an exception from their scorn.

And despite the privilege I may get because of my appearance, I feel the stings of the criticism thrown at other Jews. I am still one, and I have no illusions that people who harbor negative attitudes toward other Jews wouldn't turn on me in a second. It's a lot like when I was semi-closeted at work, and people would say anti-gay things in front of me, such as making fun of a coworker who was butch. I still knew they meant me even though I was feminine enough to be marginally acceptable in their eyes. I don't hear them now because I'm completely out.

---

by: one jewish dyke @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 09:03:31 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I couldn't agree more

When people don't know you're Jewish, it's amazing what they feel free to say.

And white skin privilege is temporary, since once someone discovered you're Jewish or gay (or both!) you can often feel a shift in the atmosphere. That's why I feel the term white is applied to me provisionally, so to speak.

There have been studies, by the way, of low self-esteem among Jews being related to poor body image internalized from the non-Jewish culture.  And my spouse and I wrote a piece on shame and Jewish identity back in the 1980s when we first started publishing together.

One thread through my fiction, collected most recently in Secret Anniversaries of the Heart is dealing with shame(http://www.levraphae...). The pervasively negative view of Jewish men as wimpy, unattractive is one reason why so many of my short stories paint Jewish men as erotically charged.

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

---

by: Lev Raphael @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 11:46:17 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Do you actually take...

...Don I'm-an-ass In The Morning seriously?

---

by: raj @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 07:22:22 AM CDT

it's not about whether

I need to take him seriously, it's that he can casually toss off a comment like that because he doesn't have to actually deal with the ramifications of the racist assumptions he's laughing about. People are fired and discriminated against because their kinky hair doesn't conform to Euro standards -- that's no joke.

* Judge Upholds Public School Ban on Cornrows. U.S. District Court Judge Scott O. Wright in Kansas City, Missouri upheld a long-standing rule imposed by Boonville High School Coach Richard Smith that prohibits basketball players from wearing braided cornrows during games or practice. No reason is given in the story as to why this particular hairstyle is banned; only that the judge ruled citing federal appeals courts in general have deferred to the authority of the public schools.

* Dreadlock Lockout: The Dallas Police Department is firing employees based on their hairstyles.  Two dozen police officers were stripped of their duties last spring when the Dallas Police Department decided to "crackdown" on dreadlock and other unconventional hairstyles. As the author of the opinion piece, Gjared Robinson, says:

The department claims that officers must look authoritative and assume a role of power. I don't know about most people, but if I were pulled over by an officer, the badge he wears on his chest is all I need to see to know they have the power to arrest and charge me.

* Dreadlocks Don't Cut It at St. Louis Bar; Cheshire Inn Incident Split Up Wedding Party. (Elizabeth Holland, St. Louis Dispatch, June 6, 2003, page A9 [link is now dead.]). The Cheshire Inn denied entry of two men into the bar because of their dreadlocs. Jack Lueders, president of the corporation that operates the Cheshire Inn said:

"You can't wash that hair, and it stinks, and we're a crowded bar, and we don't want stinky people in the bar," he said, explaining the policy. "If you look nice and you're obviously clean, nobody's going to go up and smell your hair."

---

by: Pam Spaulding @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 07:34:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

That's just obscene

I, for one, love dreadlocks.  Not everyone can pull them off, mind you; if anything, I think they look best on people who can show power and authority--and do nothing to diminish those qualities.  If a cop with dreads pulled me over, I would accord him the same respect any other officer, which of course is proportional to the respect a cop accords me. 

Is it just me, but whenever our administration takes an ultraconservative turn, that our culture follows suit and we become obsessed with such minutae?  What comes next, are we going to start measuring the hemlines on skirts?

---

by: JoshWatermanMN @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 11:26:46 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

The response is...

...to make a joke out of them.

---

by: raj @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 12:19:10 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

If all of them,

the Becks, the Imus's, the Smirkovich's are simply written off as annoying bigots on a case-by-case basis, before long you have a collection of voices placing hate into the common space unchecked. 

I've heard people ask, "who listens to that anyway?"  But, the rise of the right-wing was bolstered by AM talk radio.  Individually, a radio squawker might not have a huge audience. However, for every Imus/Boortz, there are three Savages, and they all slip in hate-speech as often as they can get away with it.  Together, they are a large voice for intolerance, racism, and a general hate of anything balanced. The swivel-chair set (Republican males, 22-45) listens to them.

Besides, confronting a racist/bigot/homophobe/sexist is always worthwhile.

This is incredibly disgusting.  How dare MSNBC hide its head?  They are powering the mics in the studio right?

Electricity's for light bulbs!

---

by: n8nyc @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 08:12:34 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Fighting back on the dial

For every ten Imus/Boortz/Savage/Hannity/O'Reilly/Limbaugh/Beck/Ingraham/Larson/Medved, there's one Radical, working hard for the rise of the left wing by squawking on the AM talk radio.

Hmmm, is the cure for hate-speech called love-speech?  Or am I confusing that with 1-900-SPANK-ME?  (Which, I suppose, could be either hate or love speech, depending on the listener.)

"If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." -- Thomas Jefferson

---

by: RadicalRuss @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 10:56:11 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Ha

:) too funny Russ. 

Actually, I was thinking about you and Rachel Madow when I wrote my comment above, wishing more progressives were on the radio and tv.

Electricity's for light bulbs!

---

by: n8nyc @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 11:11:06 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

strong women

Can't some young women just be fabulous and talented athletics and leave it at tha?t....sheesch

---

by: Karen in Kalifornia @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 09:18:40 AM CDT

Women in sports

I'm a huge sports fan, and I love both men's and women's basketball.  I follow college, the NBA, and the WNBA.  When you read about women's basketball, and especially on the net, it's very hard to avoid the most offensive racist, sexist, and homophobic comments...they're everywhere.  Title IX doesn't mean anything to a lot of people(some of them women, unfortunately), and I read stuff all the time like, "Why should women get to play NCAA sports?  Nobody cares about their tournament.  WNBA players are a bunch of nasty lesbians."  You don't hear comments about the men's game like, "That Tim Duncan sure is ugly.  Why doesn't he change his hair?"  I just can't imagine those comments about the Rutgers team being made about a team of men.  Calling a group of accomplished, successful young athletes "rough" and "hos" because of their skin color and the texture of their hair?  Makes me sick but does not surprise me.

---

by: Heidi @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 09:47:36 AM CDT

WNBA : nasty lesbians :: NBA : gangsta thugs

I'd disagree a bit.  There are comments about the men's game.  But it's not Tim Duncan, it's Allen Iverson or some other player with lots of tattoos who wears lots of bling-bling and arrives at the arena in a pimped-out Escalade with rims that are spinnin', man, they spinnin'!  Whence comes the NBA's suit-and-tie rules.  They're called "thugs" and "gangstas" and described quite differently in the press.

But yes, Tim Duncan sure is ugly.  Otherwise, he's the anti-thug David Stern wishes Allen Iverson would be.

"If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." -- Thomas Jefferson

---

by: RadicalRuss @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 11:01:47 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I see your point, but...

I think NBA players are still accorded more respect in general.  The mainstream sports press accepts the bling-bling, Escalade, etc. style, and most fans like it.  I actually don't recall having seen the terms "thug" or "gansta" applied to players in the press, unless it's talking about players who are actually in trouble with the law for violent or drug-abusing behavior.  In any case, I think it's less personally hurtful to be called a gangsta thug because of your wardrobe (which you picked out yourself) than to be called a rough ho or a nasty dyke.

Personally, I love AI's style, including his tattoos and his great hair.  But I didn't mean to insult Tim Duncan...I just chose him because he IS that guy that David Stern loves.

---

by: Heidi @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 13:51:45 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

"fagging out"

That is actually not an offensive comment because it has nothing to do with being gay. He is using a much older definition of "fag" with a fairly distinct etymology.

From dictionary.com:

-------------------------------------------------------
fag(1)  /fæg/ fagged, fag·ging, noun
-verb (used with object)

1. to tire or weary by labor; exhaust (often fol. by out): The long climb fagged us out. 
2. British. to require (a younger public-school pupil) to do menial chores. 
3. Nautical. to fray or unlay the end of (a rope). 
-verb (used without object) 4. Chiefly British. to work until wearied; work hard: to fag away at French. 
5. British Informal. to do menial chores for an older public-school pupil. 
-noun
6. Slang. a cigarette. 
7. a fag end, as of cloth. 
8. a rough or defective spot in a woven fabric; blemish; flaw. 
9. Chiefly British. drudgery; toil. 
10. British Informal. a younger pupil in a British public school required to perform certain menial tasks for, and submit to the hazing of, an older pupil. 
11. a drudge. 

[Origin: 1425-75; late ME fagge broken thread in cloth, loose end. (def. 6) a shortening of fag end (a butt, hence a cigarette.
----------------------------------------------------------

Apparently it began as a term for a broken thread, then expanded to mean anything overworked or worn down, then to a worn down cigarette, then to cigarettes generally.

"Fag" as a shortening of "faggot", used to describe a gay man, wasn't in use until the 1920s, after gaining currency as an offensive term for a woman.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Online Etymology Dictionary:

faggot  (2)

"male homosexual," 1914, Amer.Eng. slang (shortened form fag is from 1921), probably from earlier contemptuous term for "woman" (1591), especially an old and unpleasant one, in reference to faggot (1) "bundle of sticks," as something awkward that has to be carried (cf. baggage). It was used in this sense in 20c. by D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, among others. It may also be reinforced by Yiddish faygele "homosexual," lit. "little bird." It also may have roots in Brit. public school slang fag "a junior who does certain duties for a senior" (1785), with suggestions of "catamite," from fag (v.).The oft-heard statement that male homosexuals were called faggots in reference to their being burned at the stake is an etymological urban legend. Burning was sometimes a punishment meted out to homosexuals in Christian Europe (on the suggestion of the Biblical fate of Sodom and Gomorah), but in England, where parliament had made homosexuality a capital offense in 1533, hanging was the method prescribed. Any use of faggot in connection with public executions had long become an English historical obscurity by the time the word began to be used for "male homosexual" in 20th century American slang, whereas the contemptuous slang word for "woman" (and the other possible sources or influences listed here) was in active use.

What the hell was I doing in Oaxaca in 1992, on the eve of the Zapatista revolution?

---

by: Cambridge Kid @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 10:47:43 AM CDT

No, not fag=exhaust. Fag=wimp

Sorry, CK, I disagree.  The context is more "fag" as "wimp", to wimp out, to wuss out.

It obviously can't be fag=task a pupil or fag=fray a rope or fag=cigarette.  So, let's try fag=to tire, become weary, exhaust:

ROSE: Do you need a runner this Final Four? Because I could jump on a plane, and I could be there.

PACKER: You always TIRE out on that one for me. You know, you never -- you know, you always say, "Oh yeah, I'm going to be the runner," then you never show up. But I'm sure they can find a place for you. You've got all the connections in the world. You can go ahead and be a runner any place you want to.

Doesn't work.  You could say Packer thinks Rose will tire as a runner, but then the following part about not showing up would imply he never ran in the first place; he just broke his word, he didn't take him up on running and then weary and quit.

But if fag=wimp, the graf works:

ROSE: Do you need a runner this Final Four? Because I could jump on a plane, and I could be there.

PACKER: You always WIMP out on that one for me. You know, you never -- you know, you always say, "Oh yeah, I'm going to be the runner," then you never show up. But I'm sure they can find a place for you. You've got all the connections in the world. You can go ahead and be a runner any place you want to.

"If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." -- Thomas Jefferson

---

by: RadicalRuss @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 11:15:48 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Well I definately agree

that he could have shown more sensitivity as to how his remarks would be taken - I just try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

I do get sick of people using "fag" as "wimp" though, and assuming that if they are not talking about gay people generally or a specific person who actually is gay, then it is ok.

What the hell was I doing in Oaxaca in 1992, on the eve of the Zapatista revolution?

---

by: Cambridge Kid @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 11:29:31 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Indeed.

Amen.  If they use the word "fag" pejoratively as "wimp," it doesn't matter in the slightest if they're not talking about gay people generally or specifically.  The point is, they're targeting someone and using a term that they consider one of opprobrium. They're starting from a place of rhetorical contempt: to be gay is intrinsically bad and weak.  Doesn't matter how they defend themselves.

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

---

by: Lev Raphael @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 13:07:35 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Rutgers nappy heads??

hmm, I watched the Rutgers Tennessee game...and I noticed the Rutgers players hair...because they had some of the straightest, shiniest ponytail's I'd ever seen, hours of work went into them looking good ;)
There was not a nappy head in the lot of them!

---

by: caune @ Sat Apr 07, 2007 at 08:42:28 AM CDT

Rutgers

> Imus apologized many times for his "thoughtless" statement and I am sure that he is sorry for the crude remarks. He is not the heartless monster you all have made him out to be.>

The problem is that a statement like that would have not been made against the United States Womens Gymnastic team; Coincidently, there have only been two members of color. If Imus did make a statement like that he would not have a job by the end of business day.

My point is, if you had a fat daughter who was made fun or at a birthday party, and all the children making fun were "normal size". Would you feel apathy/anger because she is your daughter, or because you know the comments are wrong,or both?

---

by: GymBrat98 @ Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 18:55:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Imus Remark

I find it amazing that a broadcaster can make racial slurs against blacks and take heat. But let them say something against whites and nothing is ever said. Jessie Jackson doesn't want to appear bigoted or one sided, however, he is by his actions.
  I feel sorry for the broadcasters that make the comments. And the media picks up and runs with them. I don't feel that Imus or any other broadcaster needs to be fired for what they say or do on their programs.
  If they start there, they had best look at news sensationalism and start at truth in broadcasting. Because we are only seeing what the reporters want us to see about Iraq, Iran and anywhere else in the world and the United States.
  Imus apologized many times for his "thoughtless" statement and I am sure that he is sorry for the crude remarks. He is not the heartless monster you all have made him out to be.

---

by: diamondj @ Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 14:39:02 PM CDT

Imus

Imus should put some of his considerable money where his apologetic mouth is:
  The 8 offended members of Rutgers' bb team have undergraduate school already financed. I-man should offter to pay for their post graduate education after they graduate.

---

by: uhohotto @ Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 09:16:49 AM CDT

YES! That's a great solution!

Yes, I so agree!  Don Imus could benefit some other children who do not have cancer (ahem).  These young college women have worked so hard to get where they are.  He should finance future education. I'm sure we have plenty of OTs, DMs, DDms, DVMs, and MDs...,not to mention all of the lawyers, engineers and chefs among this group. And wonderful homemakers, too.

This has been such a shock...We have to regroup and continue to speak, educate, evaluate...and listen. If I scream, please know it's a temporary state of being.

You go, GIRLS!

---

by: Robin @ Wed Apr 11, 2007 at 23:11:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Don Imus

I do not like Imus, however, I do not feel he should take the heat for something that most people do, either in private or in public. 

Imus is a Shock Jock and according to background information from Wikipedia.org on Shock Jock,
"The idea of a performer or entertainer that breaks taboos or places their careers in the realm of the currently offensive is not a new one. Despite insistences of some decency activists, there are few eras of history in which there have not existed notoriously offensive performers (Benny Bell, Le Pétomane, Redd Foxx and Lenny Bruce for example). Shock jocks, as the current incarnation of this phenomenon, entered the American radio scene during the 1970s, and are still common into the 2000s."
http://en.wikipedia....

If you look around, People not of Color are not the only ones who are offensive, many African Americans poke fun and use harsh language when performing.

I agree with GymBrat98 @ Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 19:55:28 PM EDT
"Imus Remark
I find it amazing that a broadcaster can make racial slurs against blacks and take heat. But let them say something against whites and nothing is ever said. Jessie Jackson doesn't want to appear bigoted or one sided, however, he is by his actions.

  I feel sorry for the broadcasters that make the comments. And the media picks up and runs with them. I don't feel that Imus or any other broadcaster needs to be fired for what they say or do on their programs.

  If they start there, they had best look at news sensationalism and start at truth in broadcasting. Because we are only seeing what the reporters want us to see about Iraq, Iran and anywhere else in the world and the United States.

  Imus apologized many times for his "thoughtless" statement and I am sure that he is sorry for the crude remarks. He is not the heartless monster you all have made him out to be."

Criticism Thrown At Others
I also agree with some of the points from: one jewish dyke @ Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 10:03:31 AM EDT
When people don't know you're Jewish, it's amazing what they feel free to say.
What about the common pervasively negative view of Jewish men as wimpy?
What about people who say anti-gay things in front of closeted gays, such as making fun of a coworker who was butch?

In General
What about the hypocrisy that exists in the Black community and other communities?

---

by: Unfathomable @ Thu Apr 12, 2007 at 09:57:59 AM CDT