When you go on that show, if you could talk about the misogynist nature of the comments, the objectification of female athletes in a way that objectifying male athletes is not acceptable, that would be a good thing. Part of that is getting lost in the story of making this all about race.

Glad to see that you're unhappy with the other guy who was chatting with Imus. He hasn't been all over the airwaves apologizing and that seems just as offensive as Imus's insincere apologies.

What do you think of Matt Lauer's comments on The Today Show this morning about the situation? Do you think he has a valid point about what people not being able to talk about people? I frankly found that kind of weirdly offensive and racist in its own slight way. White people can talk about race. Black people can talk about race. It is when you start belittling them because of their race (and 2 of the "nappy headed hos" were white.), that is when the line is crossed. I don't understand why Matt Lauer doesn't get that.

so i did a search for you |sharpton rap| and went to the first site, but when i read the first quote, [Both shoot-'em-ups occurred outside the SoHo studios of radio station Hot 97, which Sharpton accused of stoking the violence by having rappers taunt each other over the air.] "At what point does it go from programming to inciting?" he asked. i stopped. i remembered the crown heights riot and i checked |sharpton yankel| and at *that* first site i read, "At Gavin's funeral he rails against the "diamond merchants" -- code for Jews -- with "the blood of innocent babies" on their hands. He mobilizes hundreds of demonstrators to march through the Jewish neighborhood, chanting, "No justice, no peace." A rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum, is surrounded by a mob shouting "Kill the Jews!" and stabbed to death."

Of course I agree that Imus deserved to be punished, but when one thinks about all the hatred and bigotry spewed daily by ALL of the right wing talking heads I find it curious that his stupid words on this occasion have drawn all this special attention. Why direct all the anger specifically toward him and why now when it's gone on for so long by so many?

I’ll second Garry.

I saw the show, and I really respected what you said. You took some punches, but you were in the right.

By throwing a fit about a phony double standard, the media is putting Black America in a sadistic cycle. I will be the first to say that gangster rappers damage impressionable young women, and that they have no right to be respected in polite company. But let’s face facts. Popular rap music, like all entities in a capitalist driven economy, is dictated by the buying market. The majority of people who buy the popular gangsta garbage are suburban white teenagers. I go to school in Bellingham, and I can hear the de rigeur gangster rapper coming out of the car stereo’s of rich white kids every time I walk to class. These brats don’t listen to Common, Mos Def, or Talib Kweli. They listen to Joe Budden bragging about kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach. They listen to Young Jeezy and 50 cent bragging about brutalizing their own people. They, and MILLIONS, of other suburban teenagers, listened to the Ying Yang twins spew a “catchy” little number about rape 2 years ago. ( According to Ridley, the fact that these teenagers trip over themselves to buy the most dehumanizing garbage is somehow my fault, a assertion containing a logic that escapes me.)

When I go home to Tacoma, Washington, however, I talk to black people who are bone weary of hearing this music. I lived in the hilltop section of Tacoma Washington when it was f*cking scary to live there, and although it is getting better, the people in that neighborhood are still traumatized by the memory of gangs, drugs and violence. To us, the romance of crack rap and gangster rap is just another way for white Americans to pour salt on our wounds. I believe this is one of the reasons that, according to the last census, only 23 percent of black people have a favorable opinion of hip hop. I also believe it’s the reason you see Jesse, Al, Michael Eric Dyson, Roland Martin, Mark Anthony Neal, Essence magazine, Clarence Page, Gregory Kane, Cynthia Tucker, Mary Mitchell, Trisha Rose, Joan Morgan Skip Gates, Byron Hunt, Kevin Powell and numerous others go after this music so vehemently and so vociferously. For Joe Scarborough and John “N-word manifesto” Ridley to deny this is insane.

I repeat, a disproportionate amount of African American men listen to this music. That fact is a sin, perhaps one of the greatest sins that black America has ever committed against itself. The anger and hatred for women that these men have, combined with their immersion in self pity, will rob them of the ability to love anything, not even themselves, and it will reduce them to empty vessels of rage and deep, deep regret. Even if a mass of black men got their sh*t straight, however, Young Jeezy would still be rapping about selling crack, 50 cent would still have videos where he puts women in chains, and Lil Wayne would still be rapping about shooting innocent people for fun..

And I am sorry for rambling and I am sorry for repeating myself, but the indignation that conservatives now have over the misogyny issue is driving me haywire. Where was Joe Scarborough in numerous other incidents where black rappers brutalized young black women? Where was Scarborough when R Kelly’s sales skyrocketed after he got charged with sexually assaulting 9 pre teen girls from the projects? Where was his indignation when the bootleg tapes of those sexual assaults sold rapidly in suburban and black households? Where was his outrage in the five years it has taken to EVEN get this to trial? Why didn’t anybody say that “ these are 9 young girls that R kelly assaulted, 9 young girls already disadvantaged in their own right, who are going to be traumatized for the rest of their lives because R Kelly and video companies made millions off their rape”? Where the hell was everybody’s newfound concern for the well being of black women then?

Because there is no ratings in sticking up for poor black women, that’s why. No cheap talking point about a black and white liberal conspiracy to oppress the poor white man. That and maybe men would have to have and honest discussion about race and gender in America, and face the fact that too much of our cultural exchange has been one pathetic cuckold party. You can see it in the interplay that the beats had with Amiri Baraka, the interplay that the SDS and the New Left had with Eldridge Cleaver and the Panthers, and you can see it the way that too many young white and black men today gulp down the sickest and most violent imagery in hip hop. And I’m tired of it. I’m so tired of it. Joan, I don’t care if any of your self-pitying macho stalkers call me crazy. I got nieces and cousins who are growing up and it tears up my gut to see what a great deal of America thinks of them. I know I’m not alone.