Rutgers women?s team to meet with Imus

Starting Monday, Imus will be suspended for two weeks for calling the Rutgers players ?nappy-headed hos.?

Rutgers? athletic director, Robert E. Mulcahey III, thought a meeting with Imus offered the team?s players a chance to listen to him and hear what he has to say. Several players said they wanted to ask the host why he would make such thoughtless statements.

?We all agreed the meeting with Mr. Imus will help,? Essence Carson, a member of the team that lost the NCAA women?s championship game to Tennessee last week, said. ?We do hope to get something accomplished during this meeting.?

Teammate Matee Ajavon said: ?I could say that we honestly don?t know what to expect from Don Imus and what we will plan on asking him is his reasons and how you could just say things that you have not put any thought to? Right now I can?t really say if we have come to a conclusion of whether we will accept the apology. What I can say I think this meeting will be crucial for us, the state of New Jersey and everybody representing us.?

?Unless they?ve given ?ho? a whole new definition, that?s not what I am,? said another player, Kia Vaughn.

Head coach C. Vivian Stringer said her players ?are the best this nation has to offer, and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers University. They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate, they are gifted. They are God?s representatives in every sense of the word.?

She said it?s not about the players ?as black or nappy-headed. It?s about us as a people. When there is not equality for all, or when there has been denied equality for one, there has been denied equality for all.?

She further said: ?While they worked hard in the classroom and accomplished so much and used their gifts and talents, you know, to bring the smiles and the pride within this state in so many people, we had to experience racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable, and abominable and unconscionable. It hurts me.?

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked if President Bush thought Imus? punishment was strong enough.

?The president believed that the apology was the absolute right thing to do,? Perino said Tuesday. ?And beyond that, I think that his employer is going to have to make a decision about any action that they take based on it.?

Imus started the firestorm after the Rutgers team, which includes eight black women, lost the championship game. He was speaking with producer Bernard McGuirk and said ?that?s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos …?

?Some hardcore hos,? McGuirk said.

?That?s some nappy-headed hos there, I?m going to tell you that,? Imus said.

Imus? comments about the Rutgers players struck a chord, in part, because it was aimed at a group of young women enjoying athletic success.

It also came in a different public atmosphere following the Michael Richards and Mel Gibson incidents, said Eric Deggans, columnist for the St. Petersburg Times and chairman of the media monitoring committee of the National Association of Black Journalists. The NABJ?s governing board, which doesn?t include Deggans, wants Imus canned.

?What I did was make a stupid, idiotic mistake in a comedy context,? Imus said on his show Tuesday morning, the final week before his suspension starts.

Asked by NBC ?Today? host Matt Lauer if he could clean up his act as he promised on Monday, he said, ?Well, perhaps I can?t.? But he added, ?I have a history of keeping my word.?

Of the two-week suspension by MSNBC and CBS Radio, he said: ?I think it?s appropriate, and I am going to try to serve it with some dignity.?

The Rev. Al Sharpton also appeared on ?Today? and called the suspension ?not nearly enough. I think it is too little, too late.?