DON IMUS AND THE TRUTH
CBS and MSNBC have taken a stand for human dignity and yet, strange as it may seem, Don Imus doesn’t get it. After being fired for his comments about the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University, he showed no remorse for harm done and continued to speak defensively during a half-day live fundraiser on the radio yesterday. The shock-jock seems oblivious to the impact of his derogatory comments on race, gender, and sexual preference, although he can no longer deny the impact—what he called a “perilous predicament”—on his career and public life.
How does a man like Imus hide from the pain in Serena Williams’ eyes over being compared to a jungle animal on his show? Does he stuff cotton in his ears when Della Reese talks about the effect of racist talk on a young girl whose athletic gift and hope for the future is shut down in the face of exploitation and humiliation on the world stage?
Unfortunately, the antidote to racism and sexism is not as simple as pulling a couple of cotton balls out of our ears. Like so many of us, Imus evidences a deeply held unconscious belief about women and people of color. What came out of Don is exactly what is inside Don.
The Imus affair is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s not just about Imus—this is about deeply held prejudices that live inside us all. The Imus incident is a wake-up call, a chance to examine our own conscience. Do we believe that some group, because of color or accent or sexual preference is somehow not as good as we are? When we hear the word “doctor,” how many of us automatically assume it’s a man? Do we assume that anyone who has a menial job must be Hispanic and should feel lucky to work so hard for so little? Do we secretly believe that someone who is gay and has AIDS probably deserved it?
We can use what happened to Don to get to our own personal and collective truth about how we really feel about others. Don showed his shadow side, but like all “shock jocks” he is the product of his listeners. His downfall opens the door for all of us to heal.