"If you lost a job, you'd be a little slower on that trigger." it's a very HARD problem. the next time you think of Islam's reactions, remember our particular outrages over "just words".

The Chinese have a saying:

"Disaster comes from the mouth".

I would like to ask those who defend Imus how they would feel about radio, TV, or print sports reporters describing female student athletes in their local high schools and colleges as "nappy-headed ho's".

Different story, huh? Imus not to be taken seriously because his radio show is not journalism, but a form of satire that has different rules of engagement? Or different story because in the current vernacular of hip-hop jargon such language is a term of affection and no longer has a pejorative connotation?

There is probably a generational gap here, with we older folks seeing such language as very offensive, and our younger betters perceiving it as part of everyday discourse.

It seems a given that Imus's choice of language was influenced by knowledge of hip-hop culture, where the earlier social injustice concerns of the dub poets appear to many to have been replaced by attempts to glamorize criminal underclass mores. Possibly the intention of the rappers, like George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four, is to offer ironical warnings rather than an ideal model, but there is little doubt that many of their followers miss the irony.

There is a very amusing video of Bill Maher providing a translation of hip-hop lyrics into literary English (which he calls "White"). Probably making rappers figures of ridicule is as good an approach as any to diffusing their influence on the young and on impressionable radio talk show hosts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vl9FHTanKs

perhaps even politicians will eventually go there. the fact that racially insensitive words mean you have to go through a sharpton gauntlet - someone whose words *actually* incited to riot TWICE! causing DEATHS (both in harlem and crown heights) is simply insane. why would *anyone* agree to this? (this, to me, is proof Imus is, sadly, demented)

Imus is a victim.... . I have to be concerned when all these intellects do not understand the basics of our culture and the direction it is going. When you have a culture and the basis for the society you have known in the past..... change for the worse.....its easy to attack the messenger.

Thoughts are things....Thoughts change the future....Thoughts are the light and the darkness.

If you are going to take a stand on what is right and what is wrong.....take the stand and follow through on the completion of your thought process. Freedom comes with many responsibilties and we "have not been responsible" with what we have thought and allowed to be aired in our culture. What we have done is taken actions and placed negative thoughts in the minds of millions of people world wide and these will not go away anytime soon.

Many of you have used poor Imus as your scape goat and this is because you can not control the culture you allowed to grow and slip into your immedate world around you. You are deperate and have no where to turn and Imus was an easy hit to make you personally feel better about what you have failed to stop! Your thoughts have allowed the present and will certainly shape the future. If blacks want respect they must earn it and that starts at home and that starts with a movement of thoughts that turns into action and results. Like a virus... negative thoughts and images will invade all cultures and all races equally based on the freedoms we allow in our cultures. Wisdom is knowing that thoughts are things and that these things can be positive or negative.....your thoughts shape your reality and together we shape the world and the environment we live in......I would like to some more light!

Obewan.

I am reluctant but willing to keep an open mind on the blacklash and blowback I have read about from those claiming a double standard exists with Imus and rappers, Al, Jesse...

I do not understand the logic of those who invoke this underdeveloped logic in defending the hate speech of Imus. What does the ignorance of other have to do with the Imus hate speech? When does a elderly white male like Imus allow rappers to define his morality and drive his conduct and themes of his shows.

Why do those who excuse Imus not understand Imus is responsible for his pathologies not a hip-hop ebonic rapper whose genius is in flipping verses and words??

Is it a human condition to defend a person in your group who creates a ulgy reflection of your group. I recall when black folks were under the gun to distance themselves from and antics of black criminals many were were attacked as playing the race card and being pitiful victims. I hear very little in the white community blaming white music for white crime or white thuggery.. really now what kind of music was Tim Mcveigh listening to or catholic priests, or NYPD cops when they murdered innocents..

I need to know is it a cultural pathology in the white society or a human condition??

Please - the U.S. Constitution is a limit on government power. It states what the government can and cannot do. It does not apply to private actors.

What a deplorable cop-out. The right to say unpopular or offensive things isn't dead words on a sheet of paper. It's a principle that defines a national identity. When you're willing to make an exception because you're offended, don't cry and scream foul when the blowtorch is turned on a personality you enjoy/admire.

hahahahahaha

I heard Stuart Scott talk about a deep right field fly as 'Tro some D's on dat B!!!'

Other than the fact that sportscasters usually get lost in their stupid metaphors and references, the fact is you can never black up sports enough. Double standard? Yeah - sucks to be you if you don't like that.