Is Don Imus an Innocent Victim?

Recent "racial slurs" said on Don Imus' nationally syndicated radio program have caught the attention of the nation, the press, and certain well known and always available publicity seekers.

America is now blessed with fresh dose of Jesse Jackson's and Al Sharpton's self-righteous posturing over comments made on Imus's show. Jackson and Sharpton are both demanding Imus be fired from his show. This may or may not be appropriate but as talk radio host Larry Elders pointed out, dunderheaded comments by the two, like Jackson calling New York "Hymie-town", racist remark against Jews, goes mostly unnoticed and gets by with a simple, single apology. Imus has apologized three times publicly and is still feeling the repercussions.

The offending comments occur in THIS context: a discussion about a basketball game last Wednesday. I was shocked at the reports of the slur until I saw the context in which they were made.

DON IMUS: So I watched the basketball game last night between a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.
SID ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night, seventh championship for Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by thirteen points.
DON IMUS: Some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they've got tattoos and -
BERNARD McGUIRK: Some hardcore hos.
DON IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm going to tell you that. Man, that's some -- ooh! And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so -- like kind of like a -- I don't know.
BERNARD McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
DON IMUS: Yeah.
BERNARD McGUIRK: The Jigaboos versus the Wannabes -
DON IMUS: Yeah.
BERNARD McGUIRK: That movie that he had?
DON IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough -
CHARLES McCORD: Do the Right Thing.
BERNARD McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DON IMUS: I don't know if I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not. But they did, right?
SID ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.
DON IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah.
LOU RUFFINO: Only tougher.