Jock Says He Was Noting Unfairness of Arrests
Radio host Don Imus opened his show Tuesday morning expressing amazement that some of his critics didn’t realize he was being sarcastic when he asked on Monday’s program what color suspended defensive back Adam Jones was. He said he was trying to make the point that blacks were arrested unfairly.
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“My point was there’s no reason to arrest this kid six times,” he said.
During his syndicated radio show, which originates at WABC in New York and is televised on the rural-oriented RFD-TV cable channel, Imus was listening to a report from anchor Warner Wolf that Jones had dropped his nickname, “Pacman.”
Wolf had said of Jones, “He’s also been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005.”
Imus replied: “What color is he?”
Wolf said: “He’s African American.”
Imus replied: “Well, there you go. Now we know.”
Obviously, he knew what color Jones was, the shock jock told listeners on Tuesday. “What people should be outraged about is they arrest blacks for no reason,” he said. “They shoot blacks for no reason. We already know that in New York City.”
Imus’ Monday comments circulated quickly. After a reporter played Jones a tape of the remarks that night. Jones told Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, “Obviously Mr. Imus has problems with African Americans. I’m upset, and I hope the station he works for handles it accordingly. I will pray for him,” the Dallas paper reported on Tuesday.
“I find the inference of [Imus’] remark disturbing because it plays into stereotypes,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a message posted on his National Action Network Web site.
“Any use of stereotypes is always counterproductive. We will determine in the next day or so whether or not his remark warrants direct action on our part as we did in April of last year.”
Imus’ show begins at 6 a.m. Eastern time. He said e-mails from New York media writers were waiting for him and that about five local television trucks were parked outside New York’s Madison Square Garden, near the usual site of his broadcast — except that he was 3,000 miles away in New Mexico, at his 3,500-acre cattle ranch that hosts sick children.
“No white man has had more discussion of race relations since Dec. 3 than I have,” Imus said, referring to the day he returned to the airwaves after being fired in April for calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”
“Why not report on that?”
He noted that his television producer and his co-hosts were black, and that Dick Gregory was there to discuss the life of fellow stand-up comedian George Carlin on that day’s show. Carlin died Sunday of heart failure at 71.
“Like Warner Wolf was saying, it’s like a witch hunt with you,” one of the co-hosts said. Gregory praised Imus and called him “brother.”
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Feedback: Profiling Is Bigger Problem Than Imus
Why not accept Don Imus at his word?
If he says he’s highlighting unfairness, let’s hope he’s sincere and applaud it.
In the Black community, we note how we are singled out for uneven and often excessive enforcement all the time. If Imus wants a piece of that action, have at it, Buddy, there’s more than enough to go around.
Besides, even if his critics are correct, I submit that law enforcement stereotyping, and acting on it, is just as Imus suggests: a bigger and more salient problem than anything Imus has to say.
Greg Fuller
Detroit
June 24, 2008