Should Imus Be Fired?
A lot has been made about Don Imus’s insensitive comments about the Rutgers womens basketball team. On his morning radio show last week Imus referred to the players as “Nappy headed hoes”. Over the last couple of days Imus has lost many sponsors and his television simulcast deal with MSNBC. Many groups are calling for him to lose his job over the comments.
While I don’t support the comments that Imus made I have to question how firing him would make things any better. If his comments were racist then what message are we actually sending to our children about making racist comments in public? We’re teaching them that making such comments publicly can cost them their livelihood. Fair enough but is that going to help us stem racism? I don’t think so. In fact it could make racism even more of a problem.
Here’s an example from my own life experience. Several years ago I was working a job when a new employee was hired. I am Jewish. The new employee was black. The new employee was unfamiliar with the neighborhood our office was in and was in need of a bank. He asked the person in the cube next to mine where he could find a bank in the area. The reply was ‘I don’t know but ask the guy in the next cube’. The new employee responded ‘I should have known to ask the Jew where the bank was’. When he asked me where he could find a bank I told him that I had overheard his comment and asked him what he meant by it. We talked about it for a few minutes before I helped him get the information he needed. I considered the issue dead and went about my business. The next day my manager told me that he heard what happened, fired the new employee and apologized to me on behalf of the company. I told the manager that termination wasn’t necessary as a pattern of racist behavior had not been established but was flattered nonetheless that the company sought to protect an employee from such insensitive behavior.
I always wondered what damage that firing may have done to this person’s state of mind and racial ideas. Did he realize that he had said something insensitive? Did he learn that his way of thinking was wrong? Did the experience reinforce the racial stereotypes he may have had in his mind already? Did it motivate any racism he may have had? (Please note that I have never accused this person of being racist and am not doing so now.) Was he thinking ‘I hate that damn Jew that got me fired’? I don’t know how he took it and what he did with it but the possibility that this may have made a non-racist into a racist remains.
I’m not saying that firing Imus would make him feel worse toward black people than he may already feel. (Note that I’m not accusing him of being a racist nor am I saying he is not a racist.) Nor am I saying that his firing would push others to become racist. But it certainly won’t teach our children that racism is wrong. That is something that a child learns from those who are around them and not from talk show hosts or those who protest against them.
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