Don Imus is taking his national scolding from his hypocritical, self-righteous fan club quite well. However, it is problematic that, as America’s “trash mouth jock” for the past 30 years, his loving, indulging and generously-paying army of corporate sponsors failed to be sufficiently shamed by his torrents of verbal waste. Despite his defamations of minorities, Jews, and women, his broadcasts-from-the-dumpster inanities never raised the eyebrows of his sponsors nor incited a rebuke from the Federal Communications Commission. Indeed, his income since 1977, according to KFI radio’s John Kobylt, has “ranged from $5 million a year to $50 million a year.” With sponsors like GM, American Express, Proctor & Gamble, and Target paying his exorbitant salaries, it would be ludicrous to say they were ashamed of their foul-headed boy. On the contrary, he was their pride and joy, their singularized corporate voice who knew and expressed their sentiments exactly. He was their judas-goat leading them dangerously close to the precipice. One can only wonder what a blast they must have had, teetering thus on the edge, for thirty years cheering on his blatherings. However, it was inevitable that Don Imus, Corporate America’s hornblower, would cut his own throat with his sharp tongue. He did just that with his totally off-the-wall remark that the hard-working, academically-outstanding Rutgers University women’s basketball team were “some nappy-headed hos.” The corporate sheep are now bleating. Frenzied, they now write their divorce decrees in a blizzard of press releases, and publicly separate themselves from their once-beloved judas-goat.
But how can we excoriate Don Imus, corporate America’s esteemed ignoramus, and yet remain silent about the verbal filth with which Hip Hop radio and television flood the airwaves? If we (including the reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson) are to conduct a moral court that is fair and non-discriminatory, then we must also put on trial the likes of Snoop Dogg, Ludikris, Game, MIMS, and a virtual nation of other Hip Hop “artists” who “make bank” by defaming women and objectifying them as nothing more than sex toys. It is the Hip Hop culture that invented the word “ho” (a corruption of “whore”), resurrected the word “nigga,” and raised “bitch” to the high altar of low taste. Thugs and criminals have formed and shaped the Hip Hop industry. Their music is funded by a segment of the same Corporate America that financed Don Imus for the past thirty years. Corporate powers-that-be continue to finance the Hip Hop nation. Chrysler Corporation jumped in bed with the notorious criminal Snoop Dogg, pairing him and Lee Iococca in painfully forgettable commercials. Coca-Cola has given Hip Hop icon Ludikris huge contracts. Estee Lauder blessed “P Diddy” with his own cologne brand. Simon & Schuster Publishers presented ex-felon “50-Cent” with his own line of books, saying, “We don’t care that he doesn’t write; we have editors who will write for him.” When Corporate America decides that principles of fair and equal treatment, decency and respect, and the safe pursuit of happiness must be accorded on an all-for-one-and-one-for-all basis, then perhaps advertiser and other corporate financial support will be better used to uplift rather than tear down people in this nation that prides itself on its acceptance of people regardless or national origin, creed, religion or race.
Don Imus may indeed be an ignoramus. But how smart was Corporate America to let him bind them in a 30-year marriage before they decided, under recent public pressure, to abandon this judas-goat in his hour of greatest need?
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