Gwen Ifil on Imus.
Sject: FW: Trash Talk Radio Op Ed by Gwen Ifill - New York Times
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:14:25 -0400
From: To: "Anita Fleming-Rife" <[log in to unmask]>
Thought you'd be interested.
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 12:40 PM
Subject: Trash Talk Radio Op Ed by Gwen Ifill - New York Times
New York Times
April 10, 2007
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Trash Talk Radio
By GWEN IFILL
Washington
LET'S say a word about the girls. The young women with the musical
names.
Kia and Epiphanny and Matee and Essence. Katie and Dee Dee and Rashidat
and Myia and Brittany and Heather.
The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University had an improbable season,
dropping four of their first seven games, yet ending up in the
N.C.A.A.
women's basketball championship game. None of them were seniors. Five
were
freshmen.
In the end, they were stopped only by Tennessee's Lady Vols, who
clinched
their seventh national championship by ending Rutgers' Cinderella run
last
week, 59-46. That's the kind of story we love, right? A bunch of
teenagers
from Newark, Cincinnati, Brooklyn and, yes, Ogden, Utah, defying
expectations. It's what explodes so many March Madness office pools.
But not, apparently, for the girls. For all their grit, hard work and
courage, the Rutgers girls got branded "nappy-headed ho's" - a
shockingly
concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male
camaraderie by a group of amused, middle-aged white men. The "joke" - as
delivered and later recanted - by the radio and television personality
Don
Imus failed one big test: it was not funny.
The serial apologies of Mr. Imus, who was suspended yesterday
by both
NBC
News and CBS Radio for his remarks, have failed another test. The
sincerity seems forced and suspect because he's done some version of
this
several times before.
I know, because he apparently did it to me.
I was covering the White House for this newspaper in 1993, when Mr.
Imus's
producer began calling to invite me on his radio program. I didn't
return
his calls. I had my hands plenty full covering Bill Clinton.
Soon enough, the phone calls stopped. Then quizzical colleagues began
asking me why Don Imus seemed to have a problem with me. I had no idea
what they were talking about because I never listened to the program.
It was not until five years later, when Mr. Imus and I were both working
under the NBC News umbrella - his show was being simulcast on MSNBC; I
was
a Capitol Hill correspondent for the network - that I discovered why
people were asking those questions. It took Lars-Erik Nelson,
a
columnist
for The New York Daily News, to finally explain what no one else had
wanted to repeat.
"Isn't The Times wonderful," Mr. Nelson quoted Mr. Imus as saying on the
radio. "It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House."
I was taken aback but not outraged. I'd certainly been called worse and
indeed jumped at the chance to use the old insult to explain to my NBC
bosses why I did not want to appear on the Imus show.
I haven't talked about this much. I'm a big girl. I have a platform. I
have a voice. I've been working in journalism long enough that there is
little danger that a radio D.J.'s juvenile slap will define or scar me.
Yesterday, he began telling people he never actually called me a
cleaning
lady. Whatever. This is not about me.
It is about the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. That game had to be the biggest
moment of their lives, and the outcome the biggest disappointment. They
are not old enough,
or established enough, to have built up the sort of
carapace many women I know - black women in particular - develop to
guard
themselves against casual insult.
Why do my journalistic colleagues appear on Mr. Imus's program? That's
for
them to defend, and others to argue about. I certainly don't know any
black journalists who will. To his credit, Mr. Imus told the Rev. Al
Sharpton yesterday he realizes that, this time, he went way too far.
Yes, he did. Every time a young black girl shyly approaches me for an
autograph or writes or calls or stops me on the street to ask how she
can
become a journalist, I feel an enormous responsibility. It's more than
simply being a role model. I know I have to be a voice for them as well.
So here's what this voice has to say for people who cannot grasp the
notion of picking on people their own size: This country will only
flourish once we consistently learn to applaud and encourage the
young
people who have to work harder just to achieve balance on the unequal
playing field.
Let's see if we can manage to build them up and reward them, rather than
opting for the cheapest, easiest, most despicable shots.
Gwen Ifill is a senior correspondent for "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer"
and the moderator of "Washington Week."
By GWEN IFILL
Washington
LET'S say a word about the girls. The young women with the musical
names.
Kia and Epiphanny and Matee and Essence. Katie and Dee Dee and Rashidat
and Myia and Brittany and Heather.
The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University had an improbable season,
dropping four of their first seven games, yet ending up in the N.C.A.A.
women's basketball championship game. None of them were seniors. Five
were
freshmen.
In the end, they were stopped only by Tennessee's Lady Vols, who
clinched
their seventh national championship by ending Rutgers'
Cinderella run
last
week, 59-46. That's the kind of story we love, right? A bunch of
teenagers
from Newark, Cincinnati, Brooklyn and, yes, Ogden, Utah, defying
expectations. It's what explodes so many March Madness office pools.
But not, apparently, for the girls. For all their grit, hard work and
courage, the Rutgers girls got branded "nappy-headed ho's" - a
shockingly
concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male
camaraderie by a group of amused, middle-aged white men. The "joke" - as
delivered and later recanted - by the radio and television personality
Don
Imus failed one big test: it was not funny.
The serial apologies of Mr. Imus, who was suspended yesterday by both
NBC
News and CBS Radio for his remarks, have failed another test. The
sincerity seems forced and suspect because he's done some version of
this
several times before.
I know, because he apparently did it to me.
I
was covering the White House for this newspaper in 1993, when Mr.
Imus's
producer began calling to invite me on his radio program. I didn't
return
his calls. I had my hands plenty full covering Bill Clinton.
Soon enough, the phone calls stopped. Then quizzical colleagues began
asking me why Don Imus seemed to have a problem with me. I had no idea
what they were talking about because I never listened to the program.
It was not until five years later, when Mr. Imus and I were both working
under the NBC News umbrella - his show was being simulcast on MSNBC; I
was
a Capitol Hill correspondent for the network - that I discovered why
people were asking those questions. It took Lars-Erik Nelson, a
columnist
for The New York Daily News, to finally explain what no one else had
wanted to repeat.
"Isn't The Times wonderful," Mr. Nelson quoted Mr. Imus as saying on the
radio. "It lets the cleaning lady cover the White
House."
I was taken aback but not outraged. I'd certainly been called worse and
indeed jumped at the chance to use the old insult to explain to my NBC
bosses why I did not want to appear on the Imus show.
I haven't talked about this much. I'm a big girl. I have a platform. I
have a voice. I've been working in journalism long enough that there is
little danger that a radio D.J.'s juvenile slap will define or scar me.
Yesterday, he began telling people he never actually called me a
cleaning
lady. Whatever. This is not about me.
It is about the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. That game had to be the biggest
moment of their lives, and the outcome the biggest disappointment. They
are not old enough, or established enough, to have built up the sort of
carapace many women I know - black women in particular - develop to
guard
themselves against casual insult.
Why do my journalistic colleagues appear on Mr. Imus's program?
That's
for
them to defend, and others to argue about. I certainly don't know any
black journalists who will. To his credit, Mr. Imus told the Rev. Al
Sharpton yesterday he realizes that, this time, he went way too far.
Yes, he did. Every time a young black girl shyly approaches me for an
autograph or writes or calls or stops me on the street to ask how she
can
become a journalist, I feel an enormous responsibility. It's more than
simply being a role model. I know I have to be a voice for them as well.
So here's what this voice has to say for people who cannot grasp the
notion of picking on people their own size: This country will only
flourish once we consistently learn to applaud and encourage the young
people who have to work harder just to achieve balance on the unequal
playing field.
Let's see if we can manage to build them up and reward them, rather than
opting for the cheapest, easiest, most despicable
shots.
Gwen Ifill is a senior correspondent for "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer"
and the moderator of "Washington Week."
Anita Fleming-Rife
I lift up mine eyes from whence cometh my help. . . .
Looking for earth-friendly autos?
Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center.