Response to Imus

Days after Imus made his controversial comment, CBS, the company that syndicated his program, announced that he would be suspended for two weeks. For Bruce Gordon, former president of the NAACP and a member of the CBS board of directors, that wasn't good enough.

Bruce went on record saying that Imus should be fired. Less than a week later, Imus's show was cancelled. "It was an opportunity to make a very clear statement that his behavior was intolerable, and it would not be accepted. An extreme statement like his required an extreme response," he says. "It had to cost him his job…and it did. And that's good."

Now that the message is clear, Bruce says concerned citizens have to take a stand. "We have to get engaged," he says. "Too many Americans are asleep at the switch. Too many Americans are allowing things that they say are 'deplorable' to occur without speaking out. Too many Americans are coming up with simplistic solutions instead of in-depth solutions."