 From: Media Matters for America
Date: Apr 04, 2007
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On the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus
referred to the Rutgers
University women's
basketball team, which is comprised
of eight African-American and two white players, as
"nappy-headed hos" immediately after the show's executive
producer, Bernard McGuirk, called the team "hard-core hos." Later,
former Imus sports announcer Sid
Rosenberg, who was filling in for sportscaster Chris Carlin, said: "The
more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like
the [National Basketball
Association's] Toronto Raptors."
McGuirk referred to the NCAA women's basketball championship game between Rutgers and Tennessee as a
"Spike Lee thing," adding, "The Jigaboos vs. The Wannabees --
that movie that he had." McGuirk was presumably referring to Lee's
1988 film, School
Daze (Sony
Pictures), though co-host Charles McCord misidentified it as "Do the Right Thing"
(Criterion, June 1989).
In a June 2, 1991, review
of Lee's Jungle
Fever (Universal
Pictures), The New York Times described the rivalry
depicted in School
Daze:
"School Daze," his 1988
satire on an all-black college similar to his own alma mater, Morehouse, turned
the friction centered on color into a pointed burlesque. The college's women
divided into two camps, the dark "Jigaboos" and the fair
"Wannabees," who taunted each other in one scene with the epithets
"pickaninny," "Barbie doll," "tar baby" and
"high-yellow heifer."
Rosenberg's
comparison of the Rutgers women's
basketball team to the Raptors recalled comments he made in June 2001 about
Venus and Serena Williams, two African-American female professional tennis
players. According to a November 20, 2001, Newsday
article, Rosenberg
said on the air: "One time, a friend, he says to me, 'Listen, one of these
days you're gonna see Venus and Serena Williams in Playboy.' I said, 'You've
got a better shot at National Geographic.' " Rosenberg
also referred to Venus Williams as an "animal." Media Matters for America noted those
comments when Rosenberg
alluded to them on the March 28 edition of Imus.
Also, on the March 30 edition of Public Broadcasting
Service's The Charlie Rose Show, regarding the NCAA
"March Madness" basketball tournament, host Charlie Rose asked CBS
sportscaster Billy Packer: "Do you need a runner this Final Four? Because
I could jump on a plane and I could be there." Packer replied: "You
always fag out on that one for me. ... [Y]ou always say, 'Oh yeah,
I'm going to be the runner,' then you never show up."
In 2000, as noted by an article on
ESPN.com, Packer made comments that were viewed as disparaging to women, when
he said, "Since when do we let women control who gets into a men's
basketball game? Why don't you go find a women's game to let people into?"
Also, as noted in a March 4, 1996, article in The
Washington Post, Packer
"describ[ed] Georgetown
guard Allen Iverson as a 'tough monkey' during the Hoyas'
nationally televised game against Villanova" during that year's
NCAA tournament. Packer later apologized for both comments.
From the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning:
IMUS: So, I watched the basketball
game last night between -- a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.
ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night -- seventh championship for [Tennessee
coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers
by 13 points.
IMUS: That's some rough girls
from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --
McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.
IMUS: That's some nappy-headed
hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo.
And the girls from Tennessee,
they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
IMUS: Yeah.
McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the
Wannabes -- that movie that he had.
IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough --
McCORD: Do The Right Thing.
McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
IMUS: I don't know if
I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not,
but they did, right?
ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I
look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the
Toronto Raptors.
IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah.
RUFFINO: Only tougher.
McGUIRK: The [Memphis] Grizzlies would be more appropriate.
From the March 30 edition of PBS' Charlie Rose:
ROSE: Do you need a runner this Final
Four? Because I could jump on a plane, and I could be there.
PACKER: You always fag 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.
Video Comments:
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totallyappalled 04/06/07: "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! THIS MAN NEED TO BE FIRED!!! WHERE IS THE FCC WHEN YOU NEED THEM?? THIS IS A SAD DISPLAY OF UTTER AND TOTAL IGNORANCE!!!" |
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champ_24 04/06/07: "They need to be fired for making those ignorant comments. If they were black they would have been fired the same day they said it. This is a very sad world we live in." |
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MJJR07 04/06/07: "some one needs to call the NAACP and the FCC because those racist pigs needs to be taken off the air asap, talking about Jiggabos and wannabes.who the f%*k do they think they are that they can use those hurtful words without any regard. I bet on the weekends they have on whitesheets and hoods on there heads." |
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MJJR07 04/06/07: "And by the way isn\'t one of those men Jewish?" |
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pembrook 04/06/07: "What gets me is how the media can make one situation so mounuemental from one person when they say such offensive remarks as oppose to when a person of a minority group such as a Tim Hardaway when the media magnify it when he said his disdain for homo\'s, fags, or what ever offensive words" |
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pembrook 04/06/07: "the media , well white media tries to cover up when someone of this relevance such as billy packer & don imus say such of a thing" |
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tatoo99 04/06/07: "What do you expect from a white people, the most ignorent people on the planet" |
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star 04/06/07: "Why isn\'t he being fired? That\'s the question, I am always going to watch my back when it comes down to white trash. I will never trust a white person, this is what they do when there not in your face. Thats why the other countries don\'t like the U.S. because of white people." |
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benali2x 04/06/07: "It ain\'t going to happen!This stiff neck bastard has been doing things like this for years." |
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jmp 04/09/07: "I\'m white and agree 100% that people like this should be fired...... Some whites are ignorant, others of us are ashamed of the ignorant white people who make us ALL seem racist when we are not." |
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socrstud189 04/10/07: "When you say white people are ignorant. You make yourself seem to be the ignorant one. All you are doing is throwing every white person into one single sterotype and thats being just as ignoratnt as this Don Ismus moron. The color of your skin has nothing to do with how ignorant or rasict a person is, it is that single person who decides that." |
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dsd_renee 04/10/07: "I feel as if he was wrong for saying what he said but also we (meaning the African-American) have to look at the fact that our hip hop entertainers refer to black women as bitches,hoes,tricks, everything you could think of so why is this getting so closely payed attention to. Why is it that a black rap artist can demean the black women in his song but if the same thing happens by another race we turn it into a whole different situation. Is it because there demening their own race it\'s ok. No matter if your demeaning your own race or another\'s race it\'s not right!! Simple as that. As far as Don Imus he was wrong to call College Basketball Players any kind of hoes, when they are going to school to better themselves as individuals and are earning their colleges and universites millions of dollars and furthering their education all at the same time of being an ATHLETE! Why are they hoes? Because they don\'t fit you demeaner as \"cute\". Who is he to classify anybody in any category. I feel as if he should be punished for his acts but BLACK MEN HAVE GOT TO STOP DEMEANING THERE WOMEN AS WELL." |
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lia 04/10/07: "Those who call a different race with names , e.g., white trash etc, are the most ignorent people on the planet. Just because one white guy said something bad about other race does not mean you have to generalize to other white people calling them white trash. Similarly, black people also talk trash about whites or other race(and even their own women as was mentioned above) , now do we have to generelize it to all black people and call them names?" |
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howdy 04/11/07: "I think the people are right that we as black people have to learn how to respect each other and ourselves. But just a two week lay off that does not start till monday that is horibble. Let that be a black person that said anything that sounded out of line about a white person. All Hell would have broke loose. Everything would have been taken away from the black person. But no when it is a white man it is a slap on the wrist that is done just to say that something was done about the situation. And Rasism is suppose to be getting better. It looks like it is just in other forms. This was a basketball game where were they talking about basketball. Talking about how cute or not cute has nothing to do with the game. There are so many types of discrimination that was in this conversation. It is sad." |
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Obvious 04/12/07: "The second one (\"you always fag out\") wasn\'t offensive at all. You all need to grow up if you think anytime someone says fag they are refering to a homosexual! Here is the definition.
Fag:
Pronunciation verb, 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." |
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mmeiserpod 04/12/07: "Interesting comments.
@Obvios: Billy Packer is not British... there\'s no excuse for using the term in a demeaning or critical way, especially not on TV.
Had a british friend who used to smoke who would ask to bum a fag all the time... that was funny... but only because she was british and it was a non-derogatory and completely unrelated use of the term.
After finally seeing IMUS\' comment in context I can see why people are so steamed. It\'s more than an off-hand remark it\'s brutally racist. It\'s not a matter of him being white either.. a black sportscaster or radio personality would have been equally lambasted and it would have brought up all sorts of issues of how black men refer to women, which I might point out is equally at issue here.
It\'s not just racist... it\'s also equally sexist
IMUS\'s career is over... but I doubt he\'s going to find a whole lot of sympathy." |
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Obvious 04/13/07: "mmeiserpod- if you look, the first definition is the one that applies.
\" 1. to tire or weary by labor; exhaust (often fol. by out): The long climb fagged us out. \"
That is not a British term. The 2nd, 4th and 5h definition are British. The 3rd happens to be nautical. It was not used in a demeaning manner. It was used in it\'s propper manner. I\'ve heard a lot of people over 30 use it in it\'s propper manner, not the slang term (homosexual). You people need to use your brains and quit trying to stir this shit up.
As for the comments on here about all white people... those are just as racist and just as ignorant as anything that Imus said!" |
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