If the members of the Rutgers team can show that they do not listen to or own rap CDs, I will take their "hurt" seriously. I have, always , been offended by the term "ho" and I have never understood why black women have put up with it, all these years. I might add that Don Imus (who I find, both, unamusing and unedifying) was not, seriously calling the basketball players prostitutes, If he had meant to do so, he would have said "whores" or "harlots" or some other Eurocentric slur. One of the players said that she was permanantly scarred by Imus's insult. Does she, really, think that an eccentric talk show performer has more influence than a rapper?
Imus is a shock jock and, not even the most outragious. He, howard Stern and their wannabes are meaningless blips on the culture screen.
We have real problems in our cities, in our nation and in our world. Our Arican-American community has bigger fish to fry than wasting energy on clumsy banter. Black on black murder has robbed the inner city of its neighborhoods. Teenage pregnancy is epidemic and the inner city schools are arenas. In my city, 50% of the, available, workforce is unemployed and the percentage of scholl dropouts is embarrassing, and , now, everyone wants to lynch Don Imus for quoting rappers. There is a folksong about this very thing, I am sure.