Don Imus: 1) Is He A Racist? 2) Um... Who Is He?

There was a time in the United States where the issue of racism was as black and white as the skin colors we separated drinking fountains over. The idea of being a "racist" was clearly defined; If your thoughts and beliefs coincided with the sociological mandate of the time, which was mainly based on the "Black People Will Rape Your Daughter's Fluffy White Pussy" Docturne and the book "Black People: And The Other Great Apes", then you were considered a racist.

But the lines have blurred. Racism went from it's formerly accepted definition; "The discrimination of people based upon their race", to it's current definition; "We feel mad that you pointed out something about our race that might or might not be true but since it's something about our race we're just gonna call you a racist and demand that you be fired because since people these days aren't really racist anymore we kinda get bored and need something to pick on to keep our careers". As is with the case with radio talk show host (and the way I can tell if I've been up too late since he comes on at five in the morning on MSNBC) Don Imus.

"That's some rough girls from Rutgers," Imus said. "Man, they got tattoos ... ."

"Some hardcore hos," McGuirk said.

"That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm going to tell you that," Imus said.

Scanning through the butchered remains of the English language, we can see that the context of this comment isn't unlike most of the dialog going on between two rubes anywhere in this country. And the statement can fit with any group of girls that are promiscuous and have very unkempt hair, (Much like Imus himself). Slutty white girls with dreadlocks would work. So does that make it a racist comment? Being that not all black women have nappy hair, does it really necessitate a protest by Jessie Jackson?

Well, apparently so.

With such a mix of people in our society, some people take EVERYTHING seriously, and some people will exploit the people that take everything seriously for their own gain. Trumping up something as harmless as this comment into the very thing that will tear apart society. It's lame, but the definition of words are mandated by the people who use them. That's Democracy for ya ;)