What do Don Imus and Tony Soprano have in common?

If Don Imus is surprised by the reaction to his controversial comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, he should have been paying atten-tion during the season opener of The Sopranos last Sunday night.
Don Imus, of course, is the political shock jock who finds himself embroiled in controversy after referring to the student athletes in a derogatory manner.
The whole situation reminded me of a scene during Sunday night’s episode of the Sopranos. Tony Soprano, the mob boss, is eating dinner with his wife, Carmella; his sister, Janis, and Janis’ husband, Bobby. Bobby works for Tony and is one of his right hand men.
Fans of the show know that Tony and his sister, Janis, share a love hate rela-tionship. So, as he often does, Tony begins launching into a series of jokes about Janis referring to her as what might be euphemistically known as a “ho.”
Bobby, Janis’ husband, is visibly annoyed and complains to Tony that he’s crossed the line. Tony agrees and apologizes. Then Tony launches into a song that carries on the derogatory theme about Janis.
Out of nowhere, Bobby slugs Tony across the jaw. A nasty fight ensues and doesn’t end until Tony is lying flat on his back, practically unconscious.
As I watched the brawl between the Black community and Don Imus on Monday morning, it struck me as similar.
Don Imus has poked the Black community before and apologized. Almost always he has launched into continued derogatory “fun.” The proverbial right cross he got in response seems to have caught him off guard but it shouldn’t have.
Of course, Imus has since apologized and accepted a two-week suspension. But the offended community wants to keep the fight going, not satisfied until they have knocked him flat on his back, unconscious.
As the situation plays itself out, Black leaders say nothing short of a dismissal will right the wrong. Imus, pleads his case that he is a good man who said a bad thing.
I saw a couple interesting lessons. First what struck me as interesting in the range of responses was how much each group was willing to forgive their own sins.
I’m sure this is an overgeneralization but I heard many white people coming to Imus’ defense that he deserves forgiveness. To the observation that rap and many Blacks often use the same language against each other, many of the Black leaders seemed willing to treat the inward assaults as a lesser offense than Imus’.
The lesson is that we won’t have a true opportunity for healing until we judge ourselves honestly. It’s hard to expect other people to feel strongly about a cause you selectively enforce.
The second and probably more obvious teaching moment should be that you can’t continue to poke someone in the eye and not expect a retaliation at some point.
Tony should have seen that coming.