“Nappy headed hos???”

That’s how radio superstar Don Imus described Rutgers University’s Scarlet Knights, after they lost the NCAA Women’s Basketball title to the University of Tennessee’s Lady Vols.

“That’s some rough girls from Rutgers,” Imus said. “Man, they got tattoos …”

“Some hardcore hos,” said [Imus Show's Producer Bernard] McGurk.

“That’s some nappy headed hos there, I’m going to tell you that,” Imus said.

As you might expect, lots of people were unhappy with the racist, sexist characterization of the college athletes.

[National Association of Black Journalists] President Bryan Monroe asked Thursday if Imus had “lost his mind” and called for the veteran radio host’s dismissal.

I agree, but I must say Imus made a good apology.

Imus said he wanted to “apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning referring to the Rutgers women’s basketball team.”

“It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry.”

So many people would have said they were apologizing to anyone they “might” have offended, as if whoever found their bad behavior offensive was the problem. At least Imus owned his backward stereotyping.

Imus, according to Wikipedia, hails from Riverside, Calif. I shudder to think what people would have made of this if he were from, say, anywhere at all in the South.