There's an interesting column over on the cnn website that makes the point that Imus is being roasted in the media for being a racist, when his comments were really more sexist than anything else. If you have ever listened to Imus's show, it is a guy's show, about and for guys and filled with lockerroom humor. The culture of that show is sexist, not racist. Imus wasn't making fun of "black" basketball players, he doesn't have anything against black basketball players. What he doesn't like are WOMEN basketball players. He is an old school sixty something male who prefers women to have traditional roles and doesn't like women who braid their hair and act tough and athletic like men. He's a sexist. That's who Don Imus is, it is the key to his popularity among his overwhelmingly white male over 35 audience.

Yet since the media perceptions are far more sensitive to racial issues than sexist issues, he got called out as a racist. Imus called these girls "ho's", yet because he said "nappy headed ho's", the prevailing accusation is racism not sexism.
If he had just called them 'ho's', and left out the 'nappy headed', ask yourself, would he have been fired? I don't think so because in this day and age people are far more sensitive about racism than sexism. Sexism is still acceptable to many, sad to say. Look at the Augusta National Golf Club, which will not admit women, and yet CBS shows the Masters there every year. If that club did not admit blacks, CBS would not show the Masters. The sponsors would be in an uproar just like with Imus after his comments.

In any case, this whole episode shows that this country has huge issues with both racism and sexism. Which makes it all the more important, I think, to take dramatic symbolic steps to deal with it. Imagine what it would mean to little girls or little african american kids, to see the election of a black man, Barack Obama, or a woman, Hillary Clinton, as our country's next leader. Change starts at the top. Symbolism is important. What better way would there be to show that the time of Don Imus has passed then to elect somebody who isn't a WASP male, who isn't like Don Imus, as president? Don Imus after all, probably had his downfall because he never had any reason to change so long as the world was just like him. The world is changing. Imus knows it now.