Op-Ed The Iman gave us something to talk about

Author: Daniel Roberts

I don't like Don Imus very much. I see his appeal for some people (like my Dad) but I wouldn't say I'm a fan. And no, I'm not just saying that to avoid being crucified by Imus haters here on campus, though I am sure that will happen anyway.

Anyway, regardless of my personal opinion of Imus, the cancellation of his show was the wrong move. Careful, stay seated. Don't get heated yet. Yes, Imus made a mistake - a foolish one. Okay, it was utterly moronic. He slipped up in a very real way. Yet Imus is a shock-jock. He is a classier, slightly more likeable Howard Stern, with a guest-list composed of respected politicians, rather than strippers. So Imus called the Rutgers women "nappy-headed hos." Yup, he said it. Awful, I know. Still, his fiasco led to a game of "shun the bigot," where his employers should have taken pause and seen the enormous opportunity that his words could have fostered.

Now that he has been fired from his post of nearly thirty years on the air, he will probably be relegated to XM satellite radio. Once he gets there, he will still be a more legitimate pundit than Howard Stern, who was similarly banished to the likes of XM radio, but that's because Stern's show involves farting contests. Still, being on XM will establish Imus' show as even more of a joke, and he will be largely ignored.

This lets Imus off too easy - he and every other recent villain of offensive utterances. Think about Mel Gibson. He let slip his belief that the Jews are "responsible for every war in the world." Guess what? He's still making movies. Unfortunate, yes, but why give Imus such a lethal injection of public slander when his comments were lighthearted in comparison? Is it because Gibson was drunk or because Imus is already a controversial figure, so people were waiting to have a good reason to hate him? It's probably just that Mel Gibson is handsome and Don Imus looks like an old wrinkled leather wallet.

Regardless, back to my real point: with the increasing growth of political correctness, people are far too eager to toss someone in the stocks for one poor decision, and this only lets the person off the hook. The anti-semitic comments of Gibson, the homophobic rant of Isaiah Washington and the racist comments of Michael Richards and now Imus, have all come and gone - wasted opportunities to discuss very important issues.

The same opportunity was wasted with the comments of presidential hopeful Joe Biden, the Delaware senator. His statement about Barack Obama being the first "clean-cut, fresh Black candidate" was taken to be racist and offended many people, despite his innocent intentions. Biden insisted he only meant that Obama is innovative, interesting and sophisticated. Still, the outrage generated from his comments represented a very real tension between certain races and classes. This could have fostered interesting discussions, but nope. Instead, Biden was simply made out to be a villain and his hopes at the presidency were dashed to the concrete.

I don't see how anyone benefits from the mass demonization of Imus, including the "wounded" Rutgers athletes. Justice was not served.

Leaving Imus on the air could have led to an ongoing discussion about race that our culture desperately needs right now. Instead, firing him simply closed the lid on this incident and set a standard that any comment or joke that is slightly offensive to any minority group will not be tolerated.

If anything, the rush to silence him shows cowardice, rather than a brave willingness to debate the topic further.

Daniel Roberts is a sophomore who hails from Newton, Mass.