Team to meet with radio host after 'racist and sexist' remarks

Don Imus's recent comments, universally being called racist and sexist,"stole a moment of pure grace from us," the captain of Rutgers University's women's basketball team said Tuesday.

Essence Carson added that the players are set to meet with the controversial U.S. radio host.

The Scarlet Knights will have a private meeting with Imus in the near future at an undisclosed location, Carson told a noon press conference held at the New Brunswick, New Jersey, campus on Tuesday.

Carson, a junior at Rutgers, said she and her fellow players hope to come to an understanding about what possessed Imus to call the team "nappy-headed hos" and to "express our great hurt" to the syndicated broadcaster, whose show isbeamed across the U.S.

Imus made the comments last Wednesday, a day after the 10-member Rutgers team — eight of whom are African American — lost the NCAA women's championship game to the University of Tennessee.

Speaking with producer Bernard McGuirk about the final, Imus pointed out tattoos on some of the Rutgers players and described the team as "rough girls."

He then said: "That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm going to tell you."

'We cannot stand silent'

Rutgers president Richard McCormick denounced the host'sremarks on Tuesday.

"We cannot stand silent and let these young women be unfairly attacked," he said, adding that Imus's comments were offensive to every member of the Rutgers community.

'I don't know how anyone could have heard this and not been personally offended.' —Coach C. Vivian Stringer

The team's head coach, C. Vivian Stringer, echoed his sentiment and characterized the comments as an attack on not only her players, but on all female athletesand women in general.

"I don't know how anyone could have heard this and not been personally offended," she said.

"We had to experience racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable, and abominable and unconscionable. It hurts me."

Most of all, the incident has shifted the focus from the team's great accomplishments this season, Stringer said.

After suffering several big losses early in the season, the Scarlet Knights — with half its team consisting of first-year players —reached the championship final.

"Less than 24 hours after they had accomplished so much, and when they should have come back to Rutgers and have all people exult … they came back to this," she said.

'These aren't political figures'

Though the cantankerous Imus has a reputation for making offensive comments, his Imus in the Morning show frequently welcomes a host of prominent guests, including presidential candidates, other politicians, authors and journalists.

In the past few days, Imus has repeatedly stressed the comedic bent of his show and that facthe has unleashed his outlandish insults equally on everyone from senators to the New York Knicks.

However, "these aren't political figures, nor are they professionals. These are 18, 19-year-old young women who came here to get an education," Stringer said of her team.

In an interview with NBC-TV's Today earlier on Tuesday, Imus said he felt that the two-week suspension his CBS Radio and MSNBC bosses have served him — and which he will begin on Monday — is appropriate.

"I am going to try to serve it with some dignity," he said.

For the past week, Imus has issued multiple apologies for his remarks, on his own show, its website, as well as during a testy appearance on civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton's radio program on Monday. Sharpton is among the many calling for Imus to resign, or for his bosses to fire him.

However, "we haven't personally received an apology," Scarlet Knights captain Carson said.

"Reading it in the newspaper, watching it on television or hearing it on the radio doesn't serve any justice to what he said."

MSNBC said late Monday that Imus has expressed regret and vowed to make changes to his show.

"Our future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word," the network said.