Don Imus Suspended for Racist Remark

Radio Host Don Imus Suspended For Racist Remark, Rutgers Team Fires Back At Press Conference

By Cynthia Gordy

(Posted on April 10, 2007) ?- One day after it was announced that radio jock Don Imus would be suspended for making sexists and racist comments about members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team, the players spoke publicly for the first time about the issue at a press conference.

"We are students first," said Essence Carson, a 20-year-old junior from Paterson, New Jersey, who fielded most of the audience's questions. "We did not do anything to deserve this controversy." Carson also said the team has agreed to a private meeting with Imus in the near future, but they have not yet determined whether they will accept his apology.

NBC News and CBS Radio announced on Monday night that they would suspend Imus's radio talk show for two weeks in response to Imus calling the team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week. The suspension begins on Monday, April 16.

"I'm not a ho. I'm a woman, someone's child," sophomore Kia Vaughn said. "I want to ask him, ?'After you've met me, as an African-American woman, do you still feel that I'm a nappy-headed ho?'"

In response to the question of whether the lyrics in popular rap songs are partly to blame for Imus's use of the word, Carson said, "Rap music has desensitized people to some of the lyrics, but that doesn't make it any more right." She went on to say that the focus should be on moving toward women not being classified by degrading names in any context.

"This has scarred me for life," said junior Matee Ajavon of the derogatory remarks. "I've dealt with racism before. But for this to be in the public eye like this, it will be something I will tell my grandchildren and other future generations."

In a statement released by NBC President Steve Capus, the network said of the radio host's suspension, "His dedication?-in his words?-to change the discourse on his program moving forward, has confirmed for us that this action is appropriate." MSNBC will run a previously scheduled Imus radiothon fund-raiser on Thursday and Friday that benefits several children's charities, including the Imus-sponsored Imus Ranch for terminally ill children.

The network's announcement came on the heels of a protest on Monday afternoon led by the Reverend Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Outside the NBC Tower in Chicago, about 50 protestors called for the radio host's dismissal, wielding signs, and chanting "Imus must go and Rosenberg, too." Sports announcer Sid Rosenberg likened the Rutgers women's basketball team to the NBA's Toronto Raptors during the notorious April 4 broadcast of Imus in the Morning.

"These people are making money off bigotry," Jackson said, "so we must remove the profits earned from that bigotry." He added that daily protests would persist at NBC stations across the country until Imus is taken off the air.

www.essence.com