Today we take time to examine the recent statements by shock jock Don Imus regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team.

"There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or "fighting" words those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace..."

In lay-terms, calling someone a "nappy headed hoe" is not covered under the First Amendment.

There are some who would argue that there was no racist intent behind Imus' remarks. One blogger, Just a Girl... thinks that Imus was simply distinguishing between "the cute femmes [who] were gonna get their silly asses walloped by the dykie butches." Presumably the "dykie bitches" are the women of Rutgers and the "cute femmes" were the Lady Volunteers. Putting aside Just a Girl's ignorance for another discussion, Imus’ statement was obviously racist, as evidenced by his assertion that the predominately white Tennessee team was cute.

And by the way, nappy is not a mere adjective to describe the natural state of Black hair. It is a negative and derogatory term meant to denigrate the beauty of tightly coiled hair, used as a means to juxtapose white beauty (the standard) against the unruly, unkempt nature of Black hair and therefore Black culture.

First, Mammy, everyone's favorite aunt or grandmother, sometimes referred to as "Aunt Jemima," is ready to soothe everyone's hurt, envelop them in her always ample bosom, and wipe away their tears. She is often even more nurturing to her white charges than to her own children. Next, there is Jezebel, the bad-black-girl, who is depicted as alluring and seductive as she either indiscriminately mesmerizes men and lures them into her bed, or very deliberately lures into her snares those who have something of value to offer her. Finally, Sapphire, the wise-cracking, balls-crushing, emasculating woman, is usually shown with her hands on her hips and her head thrown back as she lets everyone know she is in charge.

We do not necessarily think that Imus is consciously racist - he is just as much a victim of socialization as his ill-informed supporters. According to Rebecca Ann Lind, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Communications at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and contributing author of Race/Gender/Media…, racism takes on several forms including modern ( or enlightened) and passive.

An enlightened racist “assumes that minorities’ struggles for equality are a thing of the past…[or that] discrimination is a thing of the past. Many gains by minorities are seen as undeserved, with minorities receiving more attention and status than they deserve.” Passive racism is much deeper. The passive racist assumes that “the continued existence of racist practices is irrelevant. Racism, ultimately, has little relevance for these people because it doesn’t intrude into their social reality.”

By pretending that racism is dead, all we do is sweep the issue under the carpet. It is a sad state of affairs when television and radio personalities and society feels free to claim that the offended groups need to get over it. If we are ever to successfully overcome the systematic racism in this country, it will require more than the outcry of the Black community or the offended groups. As we have seen, when minority groups denounce something as racist (remember the Native American mascot issue or Rosie ‘Ching Chong’ O’Donell), they are often told that they are pulling the race card; there is something terribly wrong with this.

Was a two week suspension enough? Was Imus’ half hearted apology enough? We think not. As Al Roker said, “The ‘I’m a good person who said a bad thing’ apology doesn’t cut it…Don Imus should do the right thing and resign. Not talk about taking a two-week suspension with dignity. I don’t think Don Imus gets it.’” Niether do we, Al.