So Don Imus is in trouble again. Seems he's made yet another incredibly stupid comment relating to African-Americans. He says that he was misunderstood, that he was actually standing up for troubled NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones.
I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt insofar as I do not believe he's a racist. I do think he's an idiot though. I mean wow... how dumb do you have to be to even hint at someones race after what happened in the last episode. Also getting the idiot nod from yours truly are Imus' many critics... all of those that are calling for his head. Just as in the Rutgers incident, there will be no winners.
In his first well publicized incident, rather than simply apologizing earnestly and taking his lumps, Imus, flush with white guilt, snivels and grovels his way through repeated attempts to repent... as misguided as they are pathetic. All that this did was energize and in a sense validate his critics. And now he's snivelling and grovelling again... Imus says this time that "What people should be outraged about is that they arrest blacks for no reason". I'm not going to run down Pacman's record here but suffice it to say that his issues are neither imaginary nor trumped up.
So was Imus insincere or grasping at straws in his attempt to explain his latest goofy statement? I'm not so sure. I think that once again his strange sense of white guilt is showing through and he may actually believe what he is saying. As for the many other losers... The Rutgers Women's Basketball Team, in allowing themselves to be used by Imus' critics in this mess came out looking less than stellar. Ladies, you can fight your way to a national championship but some PG-13 crap from Don Imus is going to ruin your day? Oh, please.
Then there are the hundreds or thousands of kids that could of been helped in the way of scholarship dollars. Don Imus, his then employers and sponsors were desperate for a positive and low impact resolution to the first public relations nightmare. Imus is a proven fundraiser (
http://www.imusranchfoods.com/) and has established "a working cattle ranch for kids with cancer". How many millions of dollars could have been raised for tuition in a positive, reasoned and respectful effort to raise awareness and promote dialog on race? It would seem that, at the hands of a group of very narrow minded and agenda driven folks, we'll never know.