Who are you calling a Ho?

Radio talk-show host Don Imus was having a conversation on his show about the recent NCAA women's college basketball championship game between Tennessee & Rutgers. ( Tennessee won that game).

Imus was comparing those 2 teams, their image, etc. Then Imus called the mostly African-American Rutgers team "nappy-headed hos".

That's where the controversy started!

Imus offended African-Americans and women by that comment!

I don't really know much about Don Imus, though it has been said that Imus had a long history of shallow, bigoted remarks.

1) Imus needs to grow up already! Imus is 67 years old! That means he should've been more mature than that before I was even born!

A mature adult shouldn't be making insulting remarks about how someone looks!

Even if Imus was just "joking", he's supposed to more mature than that!

2) Many have pointed-out that Don Imus "nappy-headed hos" comment is very similar to how many rappers describe women in their song.

Here's Snoop Dogg's comments on that issue

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1556803/20070410/id_0.jhtml

First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them [expletive] say we in the same league with them. . . . [Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about ho's that's in the 'hood that ain't doing [expletive], that's trying to get a [expletive] for his money. These are two separate things.

I grew up as part of the hip-hop generation. When I was a teenager, gangsta rappers like Snoop Dogg, 2pac, Biggie, Westside Connection, EAZY-E, etc were very popular, and I was listening to their CD's

Also, booty music by 2 Live Crew, Uncle Luke, etc were popular at school dances and I was a big fan of their music.

It was obvious that those rappers weren't calling their moms, grandmas or daughters "bitches" or "hos". However, they bragged about having sex with "bitches and hos". They made songs like "Me & My Bitch" So they were basically referring to young women as "bitches".

It was also obvious that they were just joking around when they calling young women "bitches". However, that doesn't make it OK!

3) I also remembered during my freshman year, my friend was joking about a male classmate "hanging out with the bitches", and I thought that was funny. I then made similar jokes, writing in classmate yearbooks about "hanging out with the b******s"

Obviously, I wasn't going to refer to my female relatives or my favorite female teachers as "bitches"!

It wasn't like I believed women had "inferior status".  I NEVER believed that men should rule over women. It was just my generation's version of using the words "chicks" or "babes", just with a more "gangsta" edge to it.  However, it doesn't erase the fact that the use of the word "b*****" was totally innappropriate!
I can't be going along with jokes that irritate innocent people. (This show I matured a lot faster than Don Imus)

I admit I'm taking a big risk admitting all this on the Internet, since not everyone who knew me back then (and definitely no-one who 1st met me afterwards) knew I was joking with my friends like that!

So if anyone heard me joking around in that manner, and was offended, I sincerely apologize.