But my God... the endless rounds of picking apart which apologies were sufficient and which were lacking (and the attendant media circus) is really depressing when we're imprisoning black men at a dramatically higher rate during Prohibition 2 than South Africa did during Apartheid.

When Arianna wrote her scathing OpEd on the subject of politicians, race, and the drug war recently (mentioned here), where was the MTP panel?  Where are the demands for apologies from politicians on both sides of the aisle who created and have propagated an inherently racist drug policy?   How about a demand for even a response?!

Do we feel good now that we've stomped on a racist comment by an idiot?  Should we pat ourselves on the back and say "Job well done"?  Maybe so.  I've been told often enough that it's political suicide for Democrats to actually address the drug war, so we'll just have to live with it.  

Maybe, just maybe people will start to understand that outsiders to a culture are only allowed inside when they are invited inside. I'm tired of watching different cultures proclaiming that they themselves righteously hold the moral high ground crown and therefore need to interject themselves into everyone else's affairs believing that they are going to somehow "win the hearts and minds" of those different cultures.

She is so right.  The girls on the basketball team suffered the effect, even if the intent was absent.  Gwen felt the racist sting when Imus's words attacked her.

the group she was with is low-hanging fruit, i could easily have raped & pillaged them, with little intellectual strain. i fail to be impressed with her so far.

diogenes, stop spouting RNC nonsense about hillary, or provide a cite to support your idiotic claim.

that mr. imus is an incomprehensible moron isn't open for debate, it's demonstrably true. is he a racist/sexist pig? beats me. however, if a clear sign of being racist/sexist is your public statements, made over a fair period of time, then yes, mr. imus qualifies.

This whole incident has really made me think and what I've learned are there are no harmless jokes about race and sterotypes.    

The question of taste and being funny shouldn't determine if it's ok to say something you wouldn't say in normal conversation.  We wouldn't say it at all if we didn't on some level believe it and using humor to disguise it isn't an excuse.

He'd been sold on some level that those girls from Rutgers where ho's and that allowed him to make the bad joke.  It backfired and the smartest thing that Ifil got accross is it's no excuse to hide behind humor or entertainment when you say racial things.  

Brooks and Russert where trying to excuse his actions without dealing with the reality that whereter Imus is a "racist" or not he acted like one and that was why he was fired.

It is true that Ifill shamed Brooks and all of us really.