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April 20, 2007
mop-headed corpse
I've avoided the whole Imus affair, as it seemed like there was little to say that hadn't been said simultaneously in 172 media outlets. But I have four observations that I haven't heard elsewhere:
- Have you actually seen the Rutgers women's basketball team? They look like a church choir. Lovely, glowing young women, every one. WTF was he even mocking?
- College athletes are easy targets because they're often frauds. Specifically, male college athletes. The Rutgers women? They're serious students. They have to be. They're not doing a required bogus year of college and then skipping town for a $70 million contract, a la Roethlesburger or Durant. They're doing four very real years. They get their degrees, and they don't have a university escorting them through easy teachers and basket-weaving classes while they do it. They don't get $1000 handshakes from boosters. They don't have a wealthy future in basketball. They're the scholar-athletes we all wish our male athletes were, working twice as hard as everyone else to keep their grades up, knock out the rent, and win a championship. Clearly, they need to be derided.
- Quick: who won the women's tournament in 2007? Right. No one will remember Tennessee's great season. They're a secondary victim of all this.
- On one hand, I recognize these post-outrage apology tours for what they are: 21st century dancing. A guy says something offensive? Let's make him dance. The more obsequiously and publicly, the better. On the other hand, I just can't make myself feel sorry for Gibson, Richards, Hardaway, and Imus when guys like Sharpton and Jackson start clapping a beat. In tormenting and humiliating their ilk, aren't the latter doing us all a huge favor, really?
posted by john at 1:09 PM • permalink