Edwards deplores Imus’ comments
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- April
- 11
During his Q&A with reporters in Mamaroneck, Democrat John Edwards condemned the remarks radio personality Don Imus made about the Rutgers women’s basketball team but stopped short of calling for the so-called shock jock to be fired or ruling out a future appearance on his program.
“If you tolerate this kind of language in your presence, you are essentially sowing the seeds of intolerance,” Edwards said. “And I think all of us have an obligation to speak out and condemn this kind of language when it’s used, no matter who uses it.”
Edwards, though said “we need to see what happens,” in response to questions about Imus being fired or whether he would ever appear on the program again. He noted that Imus intends to meet with the basketball team to express his apology.
“We need to see how this works out, before I make a judgement on that,” Edwards said when asked whether he would appear on Imus’s how. “But the language was absolutely wrong.”
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on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 11:34 am by Glenn Blain.
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Hooray for John. He just got my vote from Obama. Obama got a nasty-gram from me. I had no clue that Obama was an hypocrite.
Thank you John for taking a thoughtful attitude toward the Imus situation. I thought Imus should have been gone long ago for some of his nasty remarks but when a man says he is sorry and asks for forgiveness, then Christians need to listen and forgive.
I used to respect Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson but no more. Have they heard the phrase that “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”? They are supposedly Christians but yet they can’t forgive? Have they ever asked for forgiveness and not been given it? Hypocrites! I believe they care more about the publicity they are getting than the issue itself.
If the media doesn’t stop perpetuating this issue now, it will put race relations years backward because I see white people angered at the attitudes of these black speakers who are exploiting this issue for their own benefit. They need to get over it. Don Imus didn’t shoot anyone! The girls will continue on with careers, marriage and children and will not be suicidal or sit on a psychiatrist’s sofa. Yet, Don Imus will go on without forgiveness or a job.
This is 2007, blacks and whites are equals and can’t we please act like it? Let’s look at ways we can become friends and get to know each other better instead of this ugly dialog going on now.
A contorted response that is clearly intended to straddle both sides of the issue until he can get an idea of the prevailing political winds is not a “thoughtful response”. The man simply doesn’t stand for anything and that’s clearly reflected in his verbose “no comment”.
Whilst Imus’ comments were certainly counter-productive to society as a whole, as a Black woman myself, I have maintained for years that the Black community NEEDS to urgently address the images, perceptions being perpetuated by blacks themselves under the guise of art/music. Black people have been psychologically scarred from slavery and its ensuing years, as the image of black people from those times has become a part of the psyche we inherited from previous generations (“the sins of the fathers shall be passed on to the children”). History taught us about the sub-human conditions we endured, the prejudice and hatred against us, the depiction of our color, our hair, our bodies as ugly and undesirable… as children we see magazines, commercials showing whites as beautiful and even within our own race we do things with our hair and skin in an effort to recreate these European projections of beauty. There is no doubt the black race has been deeply psychologically scarred from its interaction with white socities. However, when are we going to take the responsibility to re-create and perpetuate a strong, positive self image for our children to emulate? Why do we waste so much energy and anger trying to make white people take responsibility for re-defining who we are? The truth is, children who are born and grow up listening to the music of our own people referring to strong black women as “hos” and other derogatory names will grow up believing that is the way it is. When our highest aspirations are to drink crytal, wear designer clothes, drive fabulous cars, have unlimited money and women then we create a generation of superficial people with no concern for the greater good of our own race. Children do live what they learn….that is psychology 101. It is time black people stop being angry with whites and take the responsibility for raising our children with a sense of pride, integrity and deep appreciation for everything we have overcome and the limitless potential within every one of us.