Washington Post:

Just the Beginning
Firing Don Imus should be the start, not the end, of the dialogue.
Saturday, April 14, 2007; Page A18


WHAT A NERVE radio shock jock Don Imus struck. His denigration last week of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" sparked protests that first cost him his deal with MSNBC and ultimately his perch at CBS Radio. But what Mr. Imus did is a symptom of a larger problem. And it didn't take long for the debate to move from his racist and misogynistic musings to gangsta rap, its artists and the record companies that have helped move hateful words and negative images of women and African Americans into the mainstream. Maybe now those who have been battling this for years will finally be heard.

The right to freely express one's views through art, music, writing and the spoken word is a jewel of American democracy. It is a right we cherish and will defend. But the right to express doesn't mean there is an obligation to consume. Degrading racist and sexist lyrics and images don't have to be celebrated and consumed. That's what led Tipper Gore more than 20 years ago to push for content-warning labels on record albums marketed to children.

When Mrs. Gore led that movement in 1985, it was in reaction to "Purple Rain" by Prince. Today, the lyrics of the songs on that album would seem quaint compared with the raunchy rhymes of rappers like 50 Cent ("P.I.M.P."), DMX ("My Niggas") Lil' Kim ("Shut Up Bitch") and Ludacris ("Ho").

In an appearance on MSNBC this week, Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, which has been criticized for airing coarse music videos, said, "I told the record industry, look, guys, if you guys want to stop making these kinds of video, believe me, I have no problems in not showing them." But more active leadership to try to get the industry to change was needed back when Mr. Johnson was speaking up. It is still needed now.

The common use of racist language and negative images of women, African American women in particular, won't end if those with the power to effect change sit on the sidelines. The late C. Delores Tucker railed against rap's misogyny. The Rev. Calvin Butts of New York used to bulldoze rap CDs on a Harlem street to protest their lyrics and lurid images of black life. And the Rev. Al Sharpton, who led the campaign to fire Mr. Imus, has spoken out repeatedly about this. If anything positive is to come from ending Mr. Imus's 30-plus-year-radio career, the revulsion at his comment will extend to the gangsta-rap artists and their record companies.