NEW YORK—At the end of a week of revelations about racism on the radio came a final decision many were hoping for. On Friday newspaper headlines on the streets of one of our country's most racially diverse cities screamed in triumph with the news of talk show host Don Imus' dismissal from CBS. "Heave Ho!" declared the daily tabloid New York Post. "Imus in the Mourning" taunted AM New York, with a photo of a dejected looking Imus. Throughout the city, similar headlines were repeated with competing levels of vigor.
You could almost feel the satisfaction of city residents who had been following the story. Imus was out. The streets were safe again from racists with microphones and a license to broadcast. In a high-rise towering above the city, CBS executives might have even felt that ousting Imus would preserve their reputation and status as a trusted source of news.
So it seems that all is well that ends well. But there is one problem with this whole picture—the American public hasn't stopped to look at itself. The case of Don Imus is but a shadow of America's continuing struggle with race, on the air and off.
In fact, Imus was not a disc jockey broadcasting on the fringe of society. He has had a decades-long career, is a member of the Radio Hall of Fame, and was syndicated across the country by media giant CBS. His show was backed by major sponsors like Procter & Gamble, American Express, General Motors, and many others—household names to most Americans.
If the American dream of equality is real, where was the shock and sense of indignity of it all when this now infamous radio personality was cracking wise in past years? In his heyday, Imus made on-air racist and sexist remarks—targeting Jews, Catholics, Arabs, and African Americans. And more than a few thousand people were listening.
According to Talkers magazine, Imus' listener numbers ranked somewhere around 2.2 million per week, far below Rush Limbaugh's 13.5 million and Sean Hannity's 12.5 million. But that is still more than 2 million Americans who tuned in to hear what Imus had to say every week.
Why did Imus' final brief racist interlude generate such an enormous national furor? You could blame it on the advent of YouTube and the fact that this particular slip of the tongue was broadcast and viewed by users over 525,000 times. You could blame it on Imus' luck running out and say his choice to pick on the Rutgers basketball team was the "last straw." That's how the media has been spinning it and what the public has been so readily repeating during the past week.
But another possibility is that Americans want Imus to be a scapegoat. They want to load onto his very fallible back all of the sins of racism, and, by driving him out, prove to themselves how blameless they are.
In America we struggle with racism on a daily basis. Race is an issue that we continue to face, generation after generation, it is just that it takes different forms. Whether it is slavery, race riots, police brutality, the education gap, immigration, or airline travel problems—the list of challenges goes on and on.
To think that our demons on the issue of race can be battled in one round with a character on the radio might be a dangerous assumption. Too many of us have come too close to this issue in our lives to dismiss it so readily. With Imus gone, maybe there will be another debate and round of questions—but this time we should ask ourselves for some answers.
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