Sat, 04/14/2007 - 2:05pm

I couldn't believe my own eyes. As I waded through ESPN's dismal afternoon line up of television, the crawl at the bottom of the screen snapped me to immediate attentinon: "CBS Fires Don Imus". Surely this was a joke. A belated April Fool's trick, right? Alas, no. The first thing that popped in my mind was that this couldn't possibly lead to anything good down the road.

Imus had been fired from not only his MSNBC simulcast but also the radio show he's hosted for nearly 30 years. And for what? People have been yelling from the rooftops about how racist his remarks were, but who are these folks? Did they even hear what he said? At worst, his remarks were sexist, but not at all racist and certainly not firable. Last time I checked, "tatoos" are worn by all races; "nappy-headed" isn't a term exclusively about African-Americans; and "ho" absolutely isn't exclusively about black women, either. Let's not forget that Rutgers is made up of both black and white women, and that their opponents were also made up of black and white women. Imus referred to them as "cute". What IS racist is the insinuation that "ho" only refers to the black women on Rutgers, but not the white women. I guess "cute" only refers to the white women on Tennessee, eh?

With so much evidence that nothing racially insensitive has taken place, how is it that this situation reached such a conclusion? Unfortunately, there are some very public personalities who have decided to use this incident as a means to further their own agendas, namely Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Personally, as an African-American male, my blood curdles everytime I see either of these two men on TV holding themselves up as the representatives of all black people. Sharpton in particular, has proven himself to be a true to life racist on numerous occasions. This is the same guy who in 1992 while running for a senatorial seat, referred to his opponents as "recycled white trash". That type of racist tripe has been par for the course, but he's the guy leading the charge against so-called racism? I'm beginning to believe that we as black people feel as if we are above being racist, when in fact we are proliferating it at times.

Jackson has been a little less vocal on the Imus situation, but I suspect that's because he's feeling a bit shaky after all charges were dropped in the Duke rape scandal. Why? He was quite vocal in his support of the accuser, agreeing to pay her tuition in full because of what she had gone through at the hands of those three rich, white Duke boys. Ofcourse, her story was a total fabrication, and as of yet not much has been said by Mr. Jackson as an apology. He helped spur the issue along, but I guess he's above acts of contrition. Better to leave that to the 70 year old disc jockey making jokes about hair.

What charlatans like Sharpton and Jackson do is actually far more destructive than anything Imus has said on the radio or elsewhere. They aren't activists, they're opportunists. Every instance in which they are involved quickly devovles into an "us vs. them" affair. They've planted their faces in front of so many questionable issues, and played the race card so often without merit, that it's hard to believe them when real racism is at hand. They benefit by creating an imaginary demand for their services, which has brought them undue media attention, radio and TV jobs, money.....

What bothers me even more, is the way the Rutgers basketball coach is using this to further recruitment for her team. It's disgusting. Without provocation, she hoisted herself up on that stage for her little press conference to announce to us all that the team would now be "in the process of forgiving" and that "the healing process must begin". It's amazing just how many suddenly fragile people there are in the world that were just so broken up by all this.

The eye of scrutiny will undoubtedly turn it's myopic gaze on other forms of media to help "clean up the airwaves". Gangster rap will be dissected and analyzed, along with the radio stations that play it. The comparisons are patently absurd. We pay for the rappers we want to hear, and most radio stations edit out the offensive content of these songs. If this witch hunt is to actually take place, it's focus should be on the radio personalities who make comments as "offensive" if not moreso than Imus. Here in the nation's capital, we have a plethora of them. If one must be sacrificed to the hungry gods of political correctness, then so must they all. Soon we'll be left with nothing to parody, nothing to satirize, and nothing to joke about except pets and afternoon traffic. Sounds pretty dull to me. Sounds like old Gallagher stand up routines.

Hopefully, this situation can now be put to rest once and for all, but as I sit here watching Campbell Brown on NBC's Weekend Today show, it doesn't look like that'll be the case. I've never been a big fan of Don Imus, but I do hope he gets another radio job soon. Maybe on XM or Sirius. It's simply unfair that a man's career should be shattered by over something so flimsy. It's also not fair for others to benefit over what is a lose-lose situation for us all.

About the author
M. Travis Hopson is a member of the DC Film Society, as well as a screener for the American Film Institute in Silver Spring.