See this excerpt of a column written by African American writer Earl Ofari Hutchinson:

"Imus Got His Trash Talk Pass Yanked, Now Yank it for Blacks Who Talk The Same

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, New America Media. Posted April 10, 2007.

.. [rappers'] contempt reinforces the slut image of black women and sends the message that violence, mistreatment, and verbal abuse of black women are socially acceptable.

Despite lawsuits, protests and boycotts by women's groups, gangster-themed films and rap music continue to soar in popularity. Hollywood and the record companies rake in small fortunes off of them, and so do the rappers.

...enter shock jock Don Imus. He's the latest white guy to be transformed into a racially and gender incorrect punching bag for his Michael Richardsesque racial and gender tirade against a group of young black women. He, of course, has been verbally mugged, battered, abused, and momentarily dumped from his radio and TV show.

Imus has genuflected, no groveled, to the Reverend Al Sharpton, civil rights leaders, the Rutgers women's basketball team, begging forgiveness. Imus certainly deserves the kick in the shins that he's getting. In his very public self-flagellation, even he admitted that he rocketed way past the line of what even by the raunchy and low road standards of shock jockism is considered acceptable.

But again, Imus, as a white man that spewed racial bile, is the softest of soft targets. The same can't be said for the black rap shock jocks. They made Imus possible. They gave him the rappers bad housekeeping seal of approval to bash and trash black women".

-snip-

Fwiw, I very much agree with these comments.

See also this comment written in response to Hutchinson's column:

"Earl Misses-- Again!
Posted by: sincere on Apr 11, 2007 11:59 AM   

...When Michael Richards made his N-word comment, the media (and our guy Earl) focused on his use of the "n-word." What was often glossed over, were Richards references to historical lynching and even sodomy/mutiliation of black males (a time honored ritual in white racial violence). So the context is lost, and it quickly degenerates into a typical white apologist (and their black allies) stance of, "well blacks use it!" Never mind that the n-word is a white racist creation tied to black degredation, slavery, death, rape, oppression etc. and that its continued use by blacks reflects this toll this tormented legacy has on the psyche. Instead, by leaving out Richards allusions to historical real-life racial violence that is synonymous to the n-word, Earl and the mainstream media treated us to a side-show of "it's black people's fault for using it."

In this case, Imus is called to the carpet for using "nappy headed-hos." And as quickly as someone can say FOX News, white apologists were out en masse screamin bloody murder at the hypocrisy of black use of the term "ho" in music, etc. And Earl continues in this. What he and the media leave out, is the lager context of Imus's statements. Right after this offense comment, his guest McGuirk alludes that the Rutgers women are "Jigaboos" going up against "Wanabees" from the Spike Lee film School Daze (which they mistake for Do The Right Thing). And he and others and Imus go on to talk about the lack of femininity of the Rutgers players.

Of course, this larger context brings up an entirely different angle...that what we have here are several white men indulging in an age old intersection of sexism and racism that posits that black women are either sexually exotic or physically unattractive--at least in comparison to white women. The use of the term "Jigaboo" is probably more offensive than the "nappy headed hos." But it's left on the media cutting room floor. And so the conversation is simplified into, "well don't rappers use ho' too?" Because the white apologists (and Earl) would have a hard time talking about the use of "Jigaboo" in rap music.

So here we are, having a simple argument, because the media is lazy--or willfully lazy--and it seems, so is Earl".

-snip-

For what it's worth, I also very much agree with these comments.