Apr 12 2007
Beyond Imus’ Racism and Sexism
GUEST: Jill Nelson, journalist and activist, and author of “Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-Up Black Woman” and editor of the anthology “Police Brutality.” Nelson also contributes to a group blog with Women in Media and News
Radio Shock Jock Don Imus recently exposed his racism and sexism by calling the all-female and mostly black Rutgers women’s basketball teams “nappy-headed hos.” Initially Imus was suspended from his TV and radio show, Imus in the Morning for a two week period from NBC and CBS. But after most advertisers pulled their support, including Staples, General Motors, Sprint Nextel, GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble, PetMed Express, American Express and Bigelow Tea, NBC decided to drop his show altogether. Executives from the network had called his comments “racist and abhorrent.†Interestingly enough, most of the mainstream criticism of Imus has focused on its racism, but not sexism. The Rutgers Basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer responded, “It’s not about them as black or nappy-headed… It’s about us as a people. When there is not equality for all, or when there has been denied equality for one, there has been denied equality for all.†Imus has been making the rounds of talk shows offering apologies. He appeared on Al Sharpton’s show claiming that he “went too far.”He also met face to face with the Rutgers team earlier in the week. But this is not the first time Don Imus has let his prejudices slip. Some years ago, he called PBS’s African American talk show host, Gwen Ifill a “cleaning lady.”
Read Jill Nelson’s blog on Women in Media and News here:
http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?author=34
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:
Sistahs: Speak! on Media and the Continuing Disrespect of Black Women
Sponsored by the Ida B. Wells Institute
This Thursday, April 12, 2007, at 7 pm at the Lotus on the Nile Wholistic Wellness Center, 4307 Crenshaw Blvd., near 43rd Street in Leimert Park. Call 323-314-4937 or email idabwellsinstitute@gmail.com for more information.
There will be a screening of the 7 minute film “A Girl Like Me” by 16-year old film maker Kiri Davis, examining the “standards of beauty imposed on today’s Black girls and how this affects their self-image.”
(PLEASE NOTE ON-AIR ANNOUNCEMENT WAS INCORRECT)
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