Team to meet radio host Imus after race remark

By Jon Hurdle

NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey (Reuters) - The Rutgers University women's basketball team slammed Don Imus on Tuesday but plans to meet with the U.S. radio personality suspended for two weeks for calling them "nappy-headed hos."

Public apologies by Imus for his remarks, widely condemned as racially provocative and sexist, have been coolly received by black leaders who have called for a boycott of sponsors of his popular show and for him to be fired.

The predominantly black team will meet privately with Imus to discuss his comments, and members were noncommittal on the suspension or calls for his ouster. Rutgers Athletics Director Robert Mulcahy said the players can play a part in the U.S. debate about racism.

Racial comments by white entertainers and degrading racial and sexual lyrics in black-dominated rap music have provoked a growing debate over the limits of expression about race in American public life.

"We need to get to the point where we don't call women hos, we don't classify African American women as 'nappy-headed hos,'" said team captain Essence Carson.

Imus made the comments last Wednesday after the Rutgers Scarlet Knights team lost the national collegiate championship game to Tennessee. "Hos" is slang for whores. "Nappy-headed" is steeped in racism and viewed as a vile slur describing African American hair.

"We have experienced racist and sexist remarks," Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said at a team news conference. She called the comments "despicable" and "abominable" and contrasted them with academic accomplishments and professional potential of the team members who flanked her.

"These young ladies are the best this nation has to offer," she said.

CBS Corp. unit CBS Radio and MSNBC, which broadcasts the "Imus In The Morning" show on television, suspended Imus on Monday in a rebuke for the personality whose program draws top political and media figures.

"I think it is appropriate and I'm going to try to serve it with dignity," Imus said in an interview with the "Today Show" on NBC. "This two-week suspension is not insignificant."

Carson said the team has not yet decided whether to accept repeated public apologies Imus has made. She added she wanted to ask Imus: "After you meet me as a person, do you still feel that I'm a ho?"

Imus' radio show had about 3.5 million listeners per week in 2005, according to media research firm Arbitron. The MSNBC simulcast pulls in about 330,000 viewers per week, according to trade publication Talkers, which ranked him as the 14th most influential U.S. radio talk-show host.

Imus has said he would not resign, but black leaders including Jesse Jackson who led a small but vocal public protest in Chicago on Monday insist he should go.

"I think it is not nearly enough. It is too little too late," said civil-rights leader Al Sharpton, who interviewed Imus on his own radio show on Monday.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said President George W. Bush "believes that the apology was the absolute right thing to do," but it would be up to Imus' employer to decide on any further action.