If it comes out by "accident," either he is pandering or really like that, or both!
Pressure grows for Imus to resign over racial slur

By Ellen Wulfhorst 18 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Calls for Don Imus' head sounded loudly on Wednesday, as the ranks of advertisers dropping their support and activists vowing not to rest until he is off the air grew.

The apology by the syndicated U.S. radio host, his suspension, the canceled advertising and media uproar are not enough, say many who want Imus fired. His comments show just how sensitive and unresolved issues of race and racism remain in America, they say.

Major advertisers -- General Motors Corp., GlaxoSmithKline and Ditech.com, a unit of GMAC Financial Services -- yanked their advertising on Wednesday. They joined Procter & Gamble Co. and Staples Inc., which previously said they were pulling out.

Imus referred to the mostly black women's basketball team at Rutgers University as "nappy-headed hos" last Wednesday after the team lost the national championship game.

The word "nappy" is viewed as a vile slur describing the tightly curled natural hair texture of many African-Americans, while "ho" is slang for "whore," usage of which has exploded in hip-hop music and popular culture in recent years.

"Imus' bigoted remarks are indicative of the entrenched racism found throughout the corporate news and entertainment media in the United States," said Viola Plummer, chief of staff for New York City Councilman Charles Barron, at a demonstration on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday.

"The black women of this city, this state and this country will not rest until Don Imus is fired," she said. "We are saying that we don't accept his apology."

Despite Imus' apologies, CBS Radio and MSNBC, which broadcasts the "Imus In The Morning" radio show on television, suspended him for two weeks starting next Monday. Black leaders
Al Sharpton and
Jesse Jackson have demanded he be fired.

"If there is any integrity in the media business, then Don Imus must be fired," said Betty Dopson of the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People.

PROGRESS ON RACE, OR DENIAL?

To some, the uproar shows how far race relations have come, said John Bunzel, senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and an expert in civil rights and race relations.

"The outrage is a sign that people are far more sensitive, they understand that language can hurt and, as each generation passes along to another, this kind of prejudice diminishes," he said. "That's something that in my lifetime, 40 or 50 years ago, would have been very different."

Look at the uproar over comedian Michael Richards, who came under heavy criticism for racial epithets he made, and look at the support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) has made in his bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, he said.

"Don Imus is in trouble because times have changed," Bunzel said.

But Michael Dawson, a professor of political science at The University of Chicago who researches public opinion on race, disputed that assessment of race relations.

His findings show most blacks think racial equality will not be achieved in the United States during their lifetimes, while most whites think it has been achieved or will be soon.

"I think the amount of progress made is dramatically overstated," he said. "What we really have is a divided society with startlingly different assessments of how much progress has been made."

Activists note that blacks in the United States, fare dramatically worse than whites in terms of infant mortality, high school dropout rates, average earnings and poverty rates.

At least the Imus uproar gives Americans an opportunity to talk about race and racism, said Karen Hunter, a former radio talk show host who is a professor in the film and media department at Hunter College in New York.

"We can't miss yet another opportunity to discuss racism in this country," Hunter said. "Until people who make racist remarks admit to being racist, we as a country will continue to deny there is a problem.

"Don Imus was wrong for what he said. I just for once want to hear someone admit they are racist instead of making excuses," she said.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan)