On Imus and Crossing the Line

April 12, 2007 — -- In the chorus of critics calling for the hide of radio talk show host Don Imus, there is a persistent refrain.

"He's crossed the line," former NAACP chief and CBS Corp. board member Bruce Gordon told The Associated Press. "He's violated our community."

"He didn't just cross the line," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told ABC News. "He fed into some of the worst stereotypes."

The popular drive-time shock jock not only strayed where he didn't belong, when he got there, he behaved badly.

An apologetic Imus admits to passing into dangerous territory when he described the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos"on air last week. "[I] went too far," he said.

The language being used to describe and decry the offensive speech by the 66-year-old suggests that boundaries outline the minefield of hate speech and that they are recognizable and perilous to cross.

But some observers argue those borders may not be clearly marked, in part, because there are those who appear to set up shop on the dangerous ground without consequence. Take for example the use of the N-word in popular -- and lucrative -- rap or hip-hop music, or the frequent portrayal and characterization of black women as hos in music videos.

"If you want to be upset -- and I am upset with what Don Imus said -- then let's have our moratorium on black women being [portrayed as] whores in music videos," said John Ridley, author and a National Public Radio commentator.

Ridley, who is black, continued. "You can't get upset at a white guy saying it when we will turn around [and] pimp that same stuff to ourselves. If you are going [to] get upset, get upset all the way around. When we allow these lines to get blurred, I think it's a little difficult under all circumstances to say we are the victims, because we victimize ourselves as well."

The Rutgers players are aware of the dichotomy. "I know that rap, hip-hop and any of the music of that genre has desensitized America. I understand that," said Rutgers team captain Essence Carson during Tuesday's news conference, "but that doesn't make it any more right for anyone to say it."

The comparisons of his art form with Imus' characterization of a group of black female athletes has angered one of the seminal artists of rap music Calvin Broadus aka Snoop Dogg.

"It's a completely different scenario," Snoop Dogg told MTV News. "First of all, we ain't no old-a-- white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them mother--s say we in the same league."

Part of the confusion may lie in the use of offensive speech outside an artistic context. The list is long of comedians and actors who defiantly thrust U.S. racerelations into the glare of a hot stage light.

Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Sarah Silverman, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock and Carlos Mencia are among comedians, past and present, who have taken dead aim at the provocative issues of gender and race.