Don Imus Should Take a Look in the Mirror Before Criticizing Anyone's Hair
Timothy Sexton
April 08, 2007
Did you hear the latest example of Don Imus’ utter lack of social graces? First the dude wears a cowboy hat around like he’s freaking John Wayne—or, I guess Gene Wilder from Blazing Saddles would be more appropriate—and then he somehow manages to wrangle a job on talk radio despite being less coherent than Mushmouth from the old Fat Albert cartoon. Now Don Imus has the gall or balls or gumption or stupidity to refer to African-African members of a college basketball teams as “nappy headed hos” on air. Since the only people who actually listen to Don Imus are NASCAR-watching, beer-swilling, gun-totin’, Bush-voting walking lobotomy patients, I can only assume that he thought nobody with more than half a brain left in his head would hear this terminology and be offended.
Most definitions of “nappy” that I have found agree that the term is used almost exclusively to describe hair that tightly coiled or curled and unkempt. Almost undoubtedly that does describe some of the black girls on that team. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt, however, that nappy headed describes Don Imus to a tee. I mean, just look at the guy. Talk about your irony, or your potbelly calling the kettle black. Don Imus’ hair almost makes that fright wig that Phil Spector wore in court last year look dainty. Yeah, that nappy haired ho Don Imus has some kind of nerve insulting someone based on their hair. It would be the same kind of deal if I took some guy to task for having a big nose.
Even more egregious is the story that lies behind the fact that Don Imus could have made this observation. I mean, let’s face it, ten years ago women’s college basketball rarely made it onto television. While more money is spent on the average men’s college basketball team than is spent on making sure every poor kid in America gets a free lunch at school, women’s sports have gotten the fuzzy end of the lollipop every time. After decades of struggling to get noticed, these girls who have proven they can outshoot most NBA stars from behind the three point line every time are finally getting the recognition that has long gone to even crappy men’s teams. And what observation does nappy headed Don Imus choose to make about this progress? Well…you know.
Should Don Imus be fired? Well, yeah. But not just because of this idiotic statement. Don Imus has made more idiotic statements than Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington and Dana Perino combined. Heck, Don Imus is verging into Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld territory when it comes to completely missing the point on social, economic, and political issues facing America today. When you combine his utter inability to offer any kind of legitimate insight into those issues with the fact that he always sounds as if he’s talking with a Sparky Lyle-sized wad of chewing tobacco inside mouth, the question is whether he should still be employed. The question is why he was ever employed in the first place.
Always remember: Don Imus criticizing someone else’s hair is like a supermodel calling someone else an idiot.
Most definitions of “nappy” that I have found agree that the term is used almost exclusively to describe hair that tightly coiled or curled and unkempt. Almost undoubtedly that does describe some of the black girls on that team. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt, however, that nappy headed describes Don Imus to a tee. I mean, just look at the guy. Talk about your irony, or your potbelly calling the kettle black. Don Imus’ hair almost makes that fright wig that Phil Spector wore in court last year look dainty. Yeah, that nappy haired ho Don Imus has some kind of nerve insulting someone based on their hair. It would be the same kind of deal if I took some guy to task for having a big nose.
Even more egregious is the story that lies behind the fact that Don Imus could have made this observation. I mean, let’s face it, ten years ago women’s college basketball rarely made it onto television. While more money is spent on the average men’s college basketball team than is spent on making sure every poor kid in America gets a free lunch at school, women’s sports have gotten the fuzzy end of the lollipop every time. After decades of struggling to get noticed, these girls who have proven they can outshoot most NBA stars from behind the three point line every time are finally getting the recognition that has long gone to even crappy men’s teams. And what observation does nappy headed Don Imus choose to make about this progress? Well…you know.
Should Don Imus be fired? Well, yeah. But not just because of this idiotic statement. Don Imus has made more idiotic statements than Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington and Dana Perino combined. Heck, Don Imus is verging into Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld territory when it comes to completely missing the point on social, economic, and political issues facing America today. When you combine his utter inability to offer any kind of legitimate insight into those issues with the fact that he always sounds as if he’s talking with a Sparky Lyle-sized wad of chewing tobacco inside mouth, the question is whether he should still be employed. The question is why he was ever employed in the first place.
Always remember: Don Imus criticizing someone else’s hair is like a supermodel calling someone else an idiot.
Print
Email
