Calls mount for firing of shock jock Don Imus

The radio host, who made a racist remark about a women's basketball team, has been suspended for two weeks.

from the April 11, 2007 edition

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"There clearly seems to be enough outrage this time, and enough of a track record on Imus's part ... for his bosses to [punish him]," says Mark Jurkowitz, the associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism in Washington, D.C. "Is two weeks enough? My sense is that his bosses actually expect a change in behavior this time around."

Yesterday Imus again made media rounds insisting that he is "not a racist." On his own radio show Tuesday morning he said, "What I did was make a stupid, idiotic mistake in a comedy context." (His suspension starts next Monday.)

But his apologies are not going down well on the gritty streets of Manhattan. This is the city where Imus's outrages first gained him fame. It's a tough town where good-natured insults are routinely hurled and greeted with a smile. It's also the nation's richest melting pot, where there's both tolerance and an acute awareness of the nation's larger racial problems.

"What Imus said was extremely racist and he should be reprimanded," says Giselle Mitchell, as she walked to work on Canal Street. "But I didn't let it cut me too deep because I'm used to the racism in this country."

For Allen Wiggins of Queens, it wasn't just that Imus made a racist comment, but that it was aimed at high achieving young women. And he certainly doesn't buy Imus's excuse that it was just a stupid joke.

"No, for certain issues like that, you're supposed to think before you talk," says Mr. Wiggins.

But Imus still has some New York fans. Tom Ambrosio, who's from Long Island, thinks the issue has been blown out of proportion. "We take things too personally now. If a black comic were to make the same comment, it wouldn't be an issue."

Mr. Ambrosio is white. Both Ms. Mitchell and Wiggins are black. Their different reactions are reflective of the vast gap in perceptions between the races.

"For whites to say that it wasn't that big a deal is basically showing indifference to how African-Americans feel, in particular to how African-American women feel," says Mr. Bositis. "But if he's sufficiently punished, then I think there will be an appreciation for the hurtfulness of what he said."

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