Now that Don Imus has formally apologized for calling the members of Rutgers University's Women's Basketball Team a bunch of "nappy-headed hos", our story has now reached the resolution stage where the farce will become complete.
So now that Imus wants some racial absolution, who does he go to?
Imus said he hoped to meet the Rutgers players and their parents and coaches, and he said he was grateful that he was scheduled to appear later Monday on a radio show hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has called for Imus to be fired over the remarks."It's not going to be easy, but I'm not looking for it to be easy," Imus said.
Sharpton and the MSNBC television network announced Sunday that Imus would appear Monday on "The Al Sharpton Show," a nationally syndicated radio program.
"Somewhere we must draw the line in what is tolerable in mainstream media," Sharpton said Sunday. "We cannot keep going through offending us and then apologizing and then acting like it never happened. Somewhere we've got to stop this."
Meanwhile, the Rev. Jesse Jackson planned a protest in Chicago, and an NAACP official called for the broadcaster's resignation or firing.
This is simply too delicious to pass up. Because while the rest of the American media seems all too ready to paper over Rev. Shaprton's past, I'm certainly not. Just stop by Wikipedia for a nice overview of Rev. Sharpton's role in championing the cause of Tawana Brawley, a teenager who falsely accused six men of raping her back in 1987.
If you lived in New York that Summer, you'll never forget it and the racial animosity it stoked around the metropolitan area. And while what Imus said was beyond the pale (though pretty much in line with the sort of humor he's been performing for decades), Sharpton's role in perpetrating the Brawley hoax is something he's never apologized for, this despite the fact that a court held him liable for seven defamatory statements he made at the time, resulting in a $345,000 judgement against him.
As for Rev. Jackson, tell me this: Is what Imus did as bad or worse than the moment in 1984 when he referred to New York as "Hymietown" in a conversation with a Washington Post reporter?
One would think Revs. Sharpton and Jackson would have some sense of shame. But they wouldn't be in the business that they're in right now if they did, would they?
More from my AOL Fan House colleague, Michael David Smith.
UPDATE: After seeing that these guys are going to get their own HBO series, I guess this seems appropriate:
I'm sure Imus will be cured after his two week suspension too.
Thanks for the reminder, Eric. This should be mandatory reading for those who think that by just calling either one of these two hucksters to absolve you from your racial sins makes it okay. What a farce this whole thing is.