The Rutgers University women's basketball team started their season with four losses and two wins. Despite a rocky start, they overcame adversity on the court and made it to the NCAA championship game. Although they lost to Tennessee in the finals, the underdogs were proud of how they came together as a team.
Their moment of glory didn't last long. On April 4, 2007, the morning after Tennessee walked away with the national title, radio talk show host Don Imus went on air and called the Rutgers women's team "nappy-headed hos."
Since that morning, Imus's comment has created a firestorm of controversy. With many people calling for him to be fired and taken off the air, MSNBC cancelled his televised simulcast, Imus in the Morning. Then, on April 12, 2007, CBS, the company that syndicated his program, cancelled his radio show.
The Rutgers team did not call for Imus to be fired. "We didn't have a purpose or an agenda, so to speak, as to whether or not he's hired [or] fired. … My appeal was more to the American people [and] our sense of social consciousness, because his remarks are certainly racist and sexist," Coach Vivian Stringer says. "It was clear to me that by the cancellation of the Imus show, it shows that we do have a moral fiber and we as a people are speaking up."
Published 04/12/2007
