Burying Don Imus

Book excerpt: In Burying Don Imus, Michael Awkward provides the first balanced, critical analysis of Imus's comments on the Rutgers women's basketball team and the public outrage they provoked. Written from the singular perspective of a black intellectual with both a long-standing commitment to feminism and a deep familiarity with—and appreciation of—Imus in the Morning, this book contends that the reaction to the insult ignored the nature of Imus's contributions to popular culture and political debate while eliding the real and complicated issues within contemporary racial politics.