On Friday, it will be one year since Don Imus and his band of boobs uttered the words that ignited a firestorm, inspired discussions on gender and race and robbed two stellar women’s basketball teams and their fans of the unfettered celebration that should have followed the close of a season well-played.
Friday also marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. While it might be hard to draw rational comparisons between the two events, I can’t help but think that the character assassination that the Rutgers women suffered at the mouths of Imus and his pals was borne of the same ignorance and fear that drove the killer of King.
Let’s recap: Rutgers, under the steel-willed coaching of C. Vivian Stringer, turned around a season that started 2-4 and advanced to the national title game against six-time champion Tennessee. Rutgers, which used a stifling defense led by the Big East’s top defender Essence Carson to dismantle opponents, fell short of its first championship. But they still were winners in the eyes of their fans, their coach and themselves after life and basketball lessons learned brought them together as people first and players second.
Then it all came crashing down in the din of Don.
But Stringer and her players rose above it all in that extraordinary news conference that showed the world what a woman athlete looks like and sounds like. Carson, the quietest of them all, was the player whose message resounded the loudest.
“It has stolen a moment of pure grace from us,” she said.
“You don’t get too many opportunities to finally stand up for what you know is right,” Carson said. “I know we’re at a young age but we definitely understand what is right and what should get done and what should be made of this. We’re happy — we’re glad to finally have the opportunity to stand up for what we know is right.”
And, in the weird twist of reason that governs society and sport, Imus unwittingly gave Rutgers, women’s basketball and proponents of racial and gender equality a platform to gain the kind of recognition never before afforded.
In the year since, unfortunately, the spotlight has faded and the conversation the Rutgers women so eloquently started has trailed off.
Sure, Rutgers has benefited from the attention: Stringer inked a lucrative deal for her autobiography, released just in time for this year’s NCAA Tournament; and she’s recruited a freshman class for 2008-09 that some have called the best in the country. Rutgers didn’t lose anyone from last year’s team and put together another magnificent season, only to run into the University of Connecticut buzz-saw in the Greensboro Regional Final this week.
Imus has returned to the air. Sponsors and high-powered guests have come back. The soul-searching has not. His promise to continue talking with and working with Rutgers has not been fulfilled.
What lessons have been learned? Well, what we already knew: Money talks. Imus is money, and so he keeps talking, though in a smaller national forum than before. And the bigotry that he perpetuated continues, whether in the form of comedian D.L. Hughley, who repeated and sharpened Imus’ comments on the Jay Leno “Tonight Show” in the weeks that followed, or in the not-so-subtle relegation of woman athletes to second-class status. Inasmuch as sports are a mirror on society, the reflection as seen in those who dismiss the quality of a game based simply on the gender of the people playing it is unacceptable.
As we reflect on the anniversary of King’s assassination and all the ugliness of this country’s race history and the continued vileness as symbolized by the Imus outburst, let us resolve to get off our butts and do something about it. Talk about race, gender and inequality, no matter how uncomfortable the discourse is. Challenge those who let their ignorance be known through cutting, bigoted commentary, even if it’s cloaked in the guise of comedy.
And watch some women’s sports, especially if you’ve resisted before. They play with the same passion and love for the game as men do. You just might be dazzled by a no-look pass, a high-arcing three or an ankle-breaking crossover.
The women’s Final Four -- LSU vs. Tennessee and UConn vs. Stanford -- begins Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN.
Comments (1)
Miss Bailis...did you ever actually listen to Imus...have you in the past few months. The only person who has actually kept his word is Imus. He has diversified his cast...as he promised...he has talked more about race relations since he has been back than anyone in the main stream. He has had on distinguished black authors and spokes people to discuss racial issues. Tomorrow on the anniversary of MLK's murder he will play the complete I have a Dream speach...which he has done for over 20 years. What have you done to further the discussion? How many articles have you written on racial or feminist issues that anyone would find interesting enough to read. Or do you recycle the same politically correct trite information that does nothing but show your moral superiority and political correctness that society ignores as more of the same?
And by the way...one of the women from Rutgers started to sue him and then backed off. Would you keep inserting yourself into a situation where you are still not wanted? where the pain still might be too fresh? Of course you would, your perfect and you know exactly how everyone else should act.