[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 61 (Tuesday, April 17, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H3447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           DENOUNCING THE REPREHENSIBLE COMMENTS OF DON IMUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, first let me take a moment to offer my 
condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible and 
senseless violence at Virginia Tech. As they struggle to cope with 
their tremendous loss, we must give proper respect to their lives and 
the lives of the thousands of innocent people that are cut short every 
year in this country by gun violence. And let us honor their memories 
by committing ourselves to bringing an end to gun violence.
  Before I begin, I want to commend my colleague, Congresswoman 
Woolsey, because today is the 200th time she has come to this floor to 
speak out against this unnecessary war in Iraq. I commend your 
tenacity, Congresswoman Woolsey, and I thank you for your leadership 
and your commitment to ending the occupation of Iraq and to bringing 
our troops home. I am proud to serve with you in this body as your 
colleague and as co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, and I want to say 
to you that your voice has become the voice of America. Thank you, 
Congresswoman Woolsey.
  Let me also thank the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, 
Congresswoman Kilpatrick, and members of the CBC for their leadership 
in addressing and denouncing the latest reprehensible comments by Don 
Imus.
  First, I want to congratulate the Rutgers women's basketball team. We 
are so proud of you. Your record of achievement as women, as students, 
as athletes speaks for itself and no one can take away your 
accomplishments.
  As we all know, on April 4, the morning talk show host Don Imus, who 
has, for years, mind you, for years, made disparaging remarks towards 
people of color and others, referred to the very distinguished women of 
the Rutgers basketball team with such disgusting words that I don't 
even want to repeat them.
  Not only did his comments belittle the ethnicity of these women of 
valor, but he apparently felt entitled to denigrate these women as 
women. We are here today to say that there is no place for that kind of 
sexism and racism in our public discourse.

                              {time}  2000

  So while we acknowledge MSNBC and CBS did the right thing by firing 
Imus, we need to ask the question, what took so long? CBS's initial 
response, which was to suspend Imus 2 weeks with pay, suggested that 
they thought that a token punishment would appease the public outcry 
and demonstrated a complete disregard and insensitivity to both the 
women of the Rutgers basketball team and the millions of Americans who 
were outraged by the comments.
  The fact is, this incident is just one of many Imus should have been 
fired for a long time ago. For example, he should have been fired 14 
years ago when he referred to Gwen Ifill, who was then the White House 
correspondent for the New York Times, and he said, ``Isn't the Times 
wonderful? It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.'' The point 
is this was not an isolated incident.
  If you look back at what he said with regard to New York Times sports 
reporter Bill Rhoden, he said he was a ``quota hire.'' When you look at 
what he said about the tennis player, Amelie Mauresmo, he called her 
``a big old . . .'' And I don't even want to say what he said there, 
but go back and check the record. He even admitted that he picked one 
of his producers to do the ``N jokes.''
  You know, this is unbelievable. The point is, and I want to make this 
clear, this is not an isolated incident. And while I, for one, am glad 
that his show has been cancelled, I believe that we should be concerned 
with the fact that it took him so long to be taken off the air.
  It is also important to understand that this is just not about Imus. 
There is a tendency in this country to treat racism as an issue of 
personal ill will so that people can say to themselves ``I don't hate 
black people'' and ignore all of the ways that the status quo in our 
society today reinforces racial inequality as well as sexism. 
Institutional racism and sexism don't need any personal ill will in 
order to continue. They rely on indifference, and people like Imus 
promote that indifference.
  The grim reality is that women still earn 75 cents for every dollar 
earned by their male counterparts. The fact is that in the United 
States a woman is raped every 6 minutes, and women of color are 
especially vulnerable to sexual violence. The fact is that, in spite of 
all the progress we have made in America, an African American woman is 
still less likely to make it to college than a white woman.
  What is dangerous about people like Imus, and he is only one of many, 
is that their racist and their sexist commentary serves to celebrate 
and uphold the status quo, to make it okay to be indifferent to the 
racism and sexism that still surrounds us. That is unacceptable.
  Finally, let me just say to Imus's sponsors: Let me congratulate you 
again, you did the right thing. But before you get too complacent, let 
me remind you, Procter & Gamble and American Express and all the rest, 
that the makeup of your corporate board rooms reflects the indifference 
to institutional racism and sexism in this country, and we are looking 
to you to do more than stop sponsoring bigots. We are looking to you to 
help young women, young black women like the women on the Rutgers 
basketball team, to overcome the hurdles that face them and to find the 
opportunities that are too often denied them.
  So let me thank again Congresswoman Kilpatrick for her leadership in 
the Congressional Black Caucus. Also let me say thank you again, 
Congresswoman Woolsey, for your leadership.

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