Don Imus Picked The Wrong “Cleaning Lady” To Mess With

Gwen Ifil’s New York Times Op-Ed piece about Don Imus cuts like a razor through the fog around the radio talk show host’s racially and sexually charged comments about the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team, who had surprisingly fought their way into the NCAA finals:

[from Trash Talk Radio by Gwen Ifil]

For all their grit, hard work, and courage, the Rutgers girls got branded “nappy-headed ho’s” — a shockingly concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male camaraderie by a group of amused, middled-aged white men. The “joke” — as delivered and later recanted — by the radio and television personality Don Imus failed one big test: it was not funny.

Ifil goes on to detail a non-surprising episode in the past, where Imus had characterized her role as White House reporter for the New York Times in 1993 in this way:

“Isn’t The Times wonderful,” Mr. Nelson [a columnist for The New York Daily News] quoted Mr. Imus as saying on the radio. “It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.”

Ifil wonders, given this history, why do journalists, authors and politicos continue to visit Imus’ show? I doubt they will, after this newest mess.

Ifil concludes:

So here’s what this voice has to say for people who cannot grasp the notion of picking on people their own size: this country will only flourish once we consistently learn to applaud and encourage the young people who have to work harder just to achieve balance on the unequal playing field.

Let’s see if we can manage to build them up and reward them, rather than opting for the cheapest, easiest, and most despicable shots.

One thing is certain in this new skirmish of the seemingly endless border war between our ugly past and the promised beautiful future, always receding just as we seem to approach it: Gwen Ifil has clearly established that she is altogether of a greater size than Imus, as a journalist, a role model, and a human being.