Reading about Imus's chat with Sharpton, I am left wondering how many racist epithets do I use on a daily basis that I'm not even aware of...
His description of the basketball players as "ho's" was obviously out of line. I would never tell one of my student "My, you look like a nappy-headed ho today." Not that there aren't a goodly number of young ladies prancing about College Park who attire themselves in whorish fashions.
And I'll skip the argument that the assault on Imus is unfair because he is white, while gangsta rappers get away with refering to women in such derogatory terms all the time...and even get to sing songs about the sex slave trade during the Oscars. That would all be trite.
What really confuses me, however, is the outcry over Imus's use of the phrase "you people." Since when is that a racial slur? Now, if he had said "your people," it would definitely be a case for racism. But people (I'm one of them) use "you people" all the time without ever even thinking of race: "You people had better get your act together or you are going to fail your midterm!"; "You people had better make up your mind or we are going to miss the movie."
Thank goodness Imus didn't say, "Oh-boy, this is going to be tougher than I thought"..."Boy, what do you mean 'boy?'"
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