While Imus is apologizing nationwide to the Rutgers women’s basketball team and to the African-American community at large for his stupid comments, where are the apologies from the African-American leaders to the Duke lacrosse students who "went to hell and back" as one of them stated today? Where are the apologies to the innocent students for presuming them guilty and for ruining their reputations? Where are the apologies to the country for creating a racial incident when none existed?
Why is no one — at the very least — saying sorry?
And, why do we allow this to happen in our country? It’s criminal for us to just let anyone get on a soapbox — and shout to the world — without having hard evidence as to someone’s guilt or innocence. In the Imus case, the disgust is justified and the evidence is as hard as it gets. But, in the Duke case, which is now similar in many ways to the Tawana Brawley case, there was no hard evidence that these boys were possibly guilty.
On April 19, 2006, Al Sharpton was a guest on the Bill O’Reilly Show on the Fox News Channel.
The topic was the Duke case. Toward the end of the interview, Sharpton admitted that he didn’t know yet what really happened, and said, "I don’t know yet and I think that the proper thing to do is to support those that want justice."
OK, Al, what justice now do the boys get? Don’t they, at the very least, deserve an apology.
The thing I don’t understand is how the media is able to say things like racially, sexually-charged remarks instead of alleged or perceived racially, sexually-charged remarks. If Imus killed someone they would put that “alleged” word in there. I’m not sure he was trying to be either – more just completely insensitive. The fact of the matter is he gained notoriety for being one of the original shock jocks – and he wants people’s jaws to drop when they listen to him. It just amazes me that individuals became so riled when they don’t listen to him to begin with… It didn’t bother me if he was sexist because I don’t listen to him, just like I don’t listen to other certain DJs – if I don’t like it I turn the channel. All it takes is one person to completely take words beyond its original context and the media are off like the Kentucky Derby.
I couldn’t agree with you more. When this case first broke it was almost like a modern day McCarthyism, accusations of guilt and wrong-doing left and right with no evidence to back it up. I hope the original prosecutor in this case (Michael Nifong, the Durham County district attorney) will be banned from any further positions where he has any hand in determining guilt or innocence. While it is unfortunate these kids were catapulted into the national media spotlight, perhaps the good to come out of it is the injustice that was brought to light.
Chris Rock once spoke about his mother who is a very proud and respectful woman who has high regard for education and character. Chris said that she is very much in favor of Black causes and the rights of African Americans…but that she has no patience or tolerance for “Niggers”. I wonder how Mrs. Rock would feel about Tawana Brawley, the Duke accuser and Al Sharpton.