I wanted to take a moment and thank almost every single person who posted on the Imus situation on PFB for your civility and grace. To be completely honest, when Imus first made his now infamous comment, I was truly, honestly, deeply hurt. As a black woman with what I consider wonderfully nappy hair (I wear dreadlocks), it hurt me that my "crowning" feature, if you will, could be spat out of a white man's mouth as if he were describing a particularly vile pile of dog feces, and so easily connected to being a "ho." It also hurt because if these young ladies could be so easily (and worse, publicly) ridiculed and dismissed for their looks, where does that leave me and my two daughters? How do I know my employer or students of tomorrow aren't the very ones laughing it up with Imus over those funny looking nappy-headed hos today? I felt the need to get my disgust over this situation off my chest, preferably with those who could provide a different viewpoint, without the conversation being reduced to name-calling and childishness. There's been enough of that already.

So thank you guys for providing me with an opportunity to do that. Such classy, productive conversation is rarely found online. As for my hurt, I'm over it. One of my husband's co-workers (black) took a call from an irate customer yesterday who, just to hurt her, called her a nappy-headed ho. She stepped away from her desk, and she cried. My husband (always the realist) showed her no pity. He told her this is exactly what the guy wanted her to do, and by giving him the privilege of and power to hurt her so deeply, she was playing right into his hands. He's absolutely right. And so I here and now, officially and proudly declare myself a nappy-headed ho. I call myself this not because I am but because if that's how my sisters are seen, if that is the insult hurled at them, I choose to take it as well. I shared their hurt, and now I, like them, choose cast it off and walker straighter and stronger for it.

And so, Imus, I say to you, in the long ago words of a great and wise black woman: Yo mama.