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Apr 10, 2007 5:52 pm US/Eastern
Rutgers Basketball Team To Meet With Imus
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (CBS/AP) ―
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Rutgers female basketball players have agreed to meet with Imus, forward Essence Carson said Tuesday.
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"These young ladies before you are valedictorians, future doctors, musical prodigies," coach C. Vivian Stringer said Tuesday.
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Radio show host Don Imus waits for the Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show to begin, where Imus talked about charges that he made racially charged comments in a recent broadcast April 9.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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Don Imus and the Rev. Al Sharpton went at it on Monday on Sharpton's nationally syndicated program.
CBS
Rutgers women's basketball team will meet with embattled radio host Don Imus, and their coach on Tuesday called his comments "racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable and abominable and unconscionable."
"We have agreed to have a meeting with Mr. Don Imus," said forward Essence Carson.
While players stopped short of saying whether they thought Imus should be fired, they were clearly frustrated over the attention brought by his comments and the insensitivity of being called "nappy-headed hos."
"Unless they've given 'ho' a whole new definition, that's not what I am," said sophomore center Kia Vaughn.
Imus was suspended for two weeks for his comments, and has sought forgiveness for statements that have caused widespread condemnation.
Rutgers' athletic director, Robert E. Mulcahey III, thought a meeting with Imus offered the team's players a chance to listen to him and hear what he has to say. Several players agreed, and said they wanted to ask the host why he would make such thoughtless statements.
"Right now I can't really say if we have come to a conclusion of whether we will accept the apology," said guard Matee Ajavon, a junior at Rutgers. "What I can say (is) I think this meeting will be crucial for us, the state of New Jersey and everybody representing us."
Imus started the firestorm after the Rutgers team, which includes eight black women, lost the NCAA women's championship game to Tennessee. He was speaking with producer Bernard McGuirk and said, "that's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos ..."
"Some hardcore hos," McGuirk said.
"That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm going to tell you that," Imus said.
MSNBC, which telecasts the radio show, said Imus' expressions of regret and embarrassment, coupled with his stated dedication to changing the show's discourse, made it believe suspension was the appropriate response.
Several Rutgers' players and coach C. Vivian Stringer said they were hurt by Imus' comments.
"We have all been physically, mentally and emotionally spent, so hurt by the remarks that were uttered by Mr. Imus. But, you see, we also understood a long time ago that, you know what? No one can make you feel inferior unless you allow them," Stringer said.
"It's not about them (players) as black or nappy-headed. It's about us as a people," Stringer added. "When there is not equality for all, or when there has been denied equality for one, there has been denied equality for all."
Sophomore forward Heather Zurich said the comments overshadowed what should have been nothing other than a celebration of accomplishments.
"We fought, we persevered, and most of all, we believed in ourselves. But all of our accomplishments were lost, our moment was taken away.
Ajavon said Imus' remarks, and of the ordeal of having to publicly defend herself, "will scar me for life."
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
