A lot has been written/said - too much, really - about the whole Don Imus situation. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last week-and-a-half or so, here’s a quick recap: Don Imus was watching the Rutgers women’s basketball team on television and referred to them, on air, as “nappy-headed hos”. This obviously derogatory term should clearly never have been uttered, and it was quickly determined Imus was insensitive and should never have said “nappy-headed hos” over the air. I know this because there has been a media shitstorm around this controversy for over a week now, punctuated by the re-broadcast of the taboo term “nappy-headed hos” over the air several hundred thousand times. For his part, Imus reached out to just about everybody, appearing on Al Sharpton’s radio show to apologize, appearing on national television to apologize, meeting with the Rutgers women’s basketball team to apologize, and generally groveling at every opportunity. For his trouble, Imus - who has 40-odd years in the business and is involved in charity work everywhere, including a “cancer ranch” with his name on it (I’m too lazy to look up the exact name) - was shown the door.
This “issue” has been capitalized upon by everyone “fortunate” enough to have a camera pointed in his/her direction. There’s been some “discussion” over whether the term is “racially charged”, sexist, misogynistic (which is apparently different than “sexist”), “classist” (whatever that means), etc. The Rutgers women have been very publicly “hurt” by all of this, and their coach managed to turn this whole thing into either a recruiting video or a video resume (time will tell). Oprah has predictably gotten into the act, although the timing of it all presumably meant she had to postpone the show in which she teaches hip-hop and makes fun of white people (seriously), which is fine for some reason.
There is an interesting issue that seems to have gotten no attention at all, though. My parents taught me to admit when I’m wrong and to apologize, and everything will be okay after that. Those of you who are veteran husbands have probably figured out the path of least resistance is often to admit when you’re wrong and to apologize, even if you think you’re right and have nothing for which to apologize. However, sometimes you can just tell that apologizing won’t do a bit of good, so you don’t waste your breath, and everything works out pretty much the same.
Imagine if Imus had said what he did, then there was an outcry, then he held a press conference in which he said something like this: “I understand I said something on my show which has given offense. I guess I should apologize, but when I thought about it I realized you n****rs need to grow some thicker skin. It was just a stupid comment, like I and hundreds of other DJs make on our shows every morning. I’m not taking it back, I don’t give a shit if your feelings got hurt, and I don’t care what you think of me. If you can’t live with that, go fuck yourself. The rest of you, I’ll see ya’ll on tomorrow morning’s show.”
I submit the result would have been exactly the same. Should Imus have been fired? That’s an economic question, and unfortunately it looks like we have our answer. But if we’re looking at the non-economic ramifications of his termination, I would submit the most important effect will be the general realization that apologizing and attempting to take responsibility for one’s screw-ups will soon be seen as a complete waste of time and something with basically no upside at all. If there is no possible benefit to a public mea culpa, and indeed it can be deemed as an admission of sorts, then it would seem it would actually be prudent not to apologize in situations like this. Frankly, that worries me a little.