The contracts have been signed, and Don Imus will officially return to the airwaves December 3. The exact numbers weren’t disclosed, but it’s an 8-figure, multi-year contract with WABC. Must be nice. But don’t worry, NABJ. He’s on a 40-second delay. So the next time he says something awful, only people in the studio will hear it.
[Jossip]
Carolivia Herron wrote the children’s book Nappy Hair expecting a little bit of controversy. You see, the lead character, a child named Brenda, had “the nappiest, fuzziest, the most screwed up, squeezed up, knotted hair.” Brenda was special. Unique. Herron figured parents might not like that she was putting this young character on a pedestal.
“I was claiming uniqueness for my character,” Herron told Stereohyped, “rather than claiming that this child represented African American people as a whole.”
But the controversy Herron got was of an entirely different sort. In 1998, a white elementary school teacher in the predominately black and Hispanic Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, infuriated parents after she read the book to her class and sent students home with copies. They considered Nappy Hair to be a racial slur. The administration eventually backed the book and the teacher’s decision to read it in class, but it was too late. The teacher had to request a transfer because she feared for her safety.
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Alright, alright. Don Imus sucks — I’m not going to argue that. But it’s pretty clear that the public hatred of him is not of the long lasting sort. He’s $20 million richer, and major radio stations don’t seem at all afraid of the consequences of putting him back on air. So maybe naysayers, like the NABJ, should move onto another cause — or at least work on boycotting the guy once he’s back on air. Because it’s looking pretty good for him right about now.
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He’s baaaack — and richer than ever. Considering the fact that CBS had to pay Don Imus a $20 million dollar settlement for breaking his contract and now that man who popularized the phrase “nappy headed ho” is in talks for a new syndicated show with ABC Radio that could air as soon as early next year, it’s safe to say that the conservatives out there boohooing over the shock jock’s fate could have saved their tears. Imus is going nowhere but up.
Next stop — Sylvia’s with Al Sharpton!
[Jossip]
Quote of the Week
D.L. Hughley on Don Imus and his dumb joke:
I take exception to the fact that when in our community, we’ve got people dying in the streets, especially in your area, New Jersey and Philadelphia, one of the most violent in the country, kids are dying left and right, and this is the issue we’re wasting time on. It’s ironic, the things we think are important as a society. The governor [New Jersey] almost got killed rushing to an apology for a dumb joke. He literally almost lost his life. That’s the height of irony. In the end, if he’d have died, would that have been worth it? Over an apology for a stupid joke? Is that where we’ve come? That’s dumb.
Don Imus is literally getting away with the nappy-headed hoes controversy almost completely unscathed. Actually, he’s come up in the money and public opinion department. Not even the burned basketball players at Rutgers can find it in their hearts to sue him.
Marti McKenzie, a spokeswoman for Vaughn’s attorney, Richard Ancowitz, said in a statement that Vaughn had chosen to focus on her education at New Jersey’s Rutgers University as a journalism major and as an athlete with the basketball team.
“Her strong commitments to both have influenced her decision to withdraw the lawsuit at this time,” the statement said.
It’s probably a mixture of Vaughn’s strong commitments and her finding out that she probably wasn’t going to win.
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Don Imus was having a really good day yesterday, but it probably went south a bit when he found out that Kia Vaughn, a center on the Rutger’s basketball team, had filed a lawsuit against him. I doubt it will be his last.
Vaughn’s lawsuit, believed to be the first by a player in the case, says Imus and his former co-host Bernard McGuirk, along with CBS Corp. and CBS Radio, are legally responsible for damage done to her character and reputation. There is no dollar amount listed in the suit.
Vaughn was humiliated, embarrassed and publicly mocked for the comments, the lawsuit claims. Her attorney, Richard Ancowitz, said: “The full effect of the damage remains to be seen.”
“This is about Kia Vaughn’s good name,” Ancowitz said. “She would do anything to return to her life as a student and respected basketball player — a more simple life before Imus opened his mouth on April 4.”
Imus, no stranger to lawsuits, had just won $20 million from CBS in a deal that preempted the $120 million breach of contract suit he was threatening. If Vaughn wins the case — although it seems like a longshot to me — it doesn’t look like Don Imus will miss the money.
[ESPN]
- If you’ve been cheated by subprime lenders because you’re black, join the class-action suit. [HC]
- Chicago’s Color Purple hasn’t achieved the same success as Broadway’s. You think it’s karma for making R. Kelly an honored guest on opening night? [CT]
- I doubt Bush has let this federal official join his elite boys’ club. [BAR]
- It shouldn’t be surprising that mainstream media did not notice the issues surrounding black hair until Don Imus called somebody nappy-headed. Now black hair stories are all over the major papers. [CT]
- To diffuse the controversy over his n-word “slip up,” the former chairman of Roger Williams University wants his name removed from the university’s law school. How noble! []
It’s looking like Don Imus will be back on the air within a few months, and Al Sharpton, who almost single-handedly engineered his ouster, couldn’t care less.
My position is that we never called for him to be permanently barred from being on the air,” he says. “We’ll see when he comes back, and if he comes back, what are the boundaries and what is the understanding. We’ll be monitoring the situation, but we wanted him to pay for being a repeat abuser, and he paid. We never said we didn’t want him to make a living.”
I suppose he has a point. If the Imus utters the words nappy, headed, and ho in the same sentence ever again, he’s just got a death wish. Plus, Sharpton’s got bigger fish to fry. Has TMZ gone offline yet as a result of their “roboho” comment? Nope? Well then, Rev’s got some more work to do.
Meanwhile, Hot Ghetto Mess continues to plug along.
[Jossip]
