IMUS DOESN'T SEE REAL RUTGERS.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

Twenty years is a long time. Right?

We'd sure like to believe so. But all of a sudden, it doesn't seem like that long ago since Al Campanis made his racist remarks about blacks on 'Nightline'.

Almost 20 years to the day after Campanis' infamous remarks -- blacks "may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager" -- to Ted Koppel, broadcaster Don Imus went and called the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" in the name of comedy.

Campanis was gone two days after his comments. But Imus seems to have learned a thing or two about damage control from his numerous disgusting scrapes with the culture police over the years, and it looks like he'll get off with a week-long public flogging by going on the mea culpa circuit and a two-week suspension from hosting his nationally syndicated radio show beginning April 16, despite numerous calls for his resignation.

"Don Imus has shown a continuous pattern of making racist and sexist statements on his show and then apologizing for them later," said Donna Lopiano, the CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation. "The comments of Mr. Imus were intolerable and despicable. He should be removed from the airwaves."

Unfortunately, that doesn't look like it's going to happen. In fact, it's looking more like Imus will walk away as a redeemed sinner.

He got the Rutgers women's basketball team to agree to a meeting Tuesday at an undisclosed location so he can ask for their forgiveness.

The team stopped short of promising the notorious shock-jock its forgiveness, but judging from the articulate, intelligent face they presented at their press conference Tuesday, you have to believe that coach C. Vivian Stringer and her Scarlet Knights are way too classy not to forgive him, whether he deserves it or not.

It remains to be seen if the American public will.

The daily ESPN Sportsnation poll, which does not claim to be scientific, asked whether the punishment Imus received was too harsh, just right or too severe. More than 54 percent of the nearly 40,000 respondents said the punishment was either "too severe" or "about right."

Only 39.4 percent of respondents thought Imus should be fired, while 69.3 percent said they wouldn't think less of a sports figure who subsequently appears on Imus' show.

And in case you're wondering, only 12.6 percent claimed to be regular Imus listeners. So essentially, calling a group of 18- and 19-year-old women "nappy-headed hos" on the morning after they played for a national title isn't grounds for firing.

Maybe Campanis should have waited 20 years to pop off, because it seems like we're a whole lot more forgiving these days.

A lot of people are going to hold up the FirstAmendment in defense of Imus. That's essentially the defense he employed Monday in an appearance on Rev. Al Shaprton's radio show.

OK, so speech is free, but the consequences of what you say can cost a lot.

Other people are excusing him by lumping him in with gangsta rappers like 50 Cent or Snoop Dogg, who regularly refer to women as much worse than what Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team.

One word: context.

That's not to excuse 50 Cent and Snoop. But it's a whole lot different to call a nameless, faceless woman a "bitch" or a "ho" than to call a group of young women, who just reached the pinnacle or their sport, a digusting racial slur in the name of comedy.

"What hurts the most about this situation is that Mr. Imus knows not one of us personally," said Rutgers player Heather Zurich, who is one of only two white players on the team. "He doesn't know that Matee (Ajavon) is the funniest person you will ever meet, Kia (Vaughn) is the big sister you never had but always wanted, and Pipf (Epiphanny Prince) would make an unbelievable lawyer one day."

He doesn't know that Stringer, the third-winningest women's basketball coach of all time, went before the school board as a teenager so she could become the first black cheerleader at her high school.

He doesn't know that Stringer played Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on a classical piano during captain Essence Carson official's recruiting trip to show respect for Carson's musical talents. Or that Carson plays four different instruments.

He doesn't know that point guard Ajavon came to America from Liberia when she was six. Or that she's majoring in African-American studies so she can one day help change things in her war-torn nation.

He doesn't know that last November, Rutgers canceled a big game against Arizona State, rather than force a forfeit, after Sun Devils forward Aubree Johnson's brother, Jordan, was found dead in his hotel room from an enlarged heart.

"Let me bring a human face to all of this, ladies and gentlemen, people of the nation," Stringer said Tuesday. "I want you to see 10 young women who accomplished so much that we as a coaching staff, as a university, are so proud of. These women seated before you are valedictorians of their class, future doctors, musical prodigies and, yes, even Girl Scouts."

It's hard to imagine what these 10 women will say to Imus when they meet next week. Here's guessing that they teach him a thing or two.

It's sad though, because we'd all like to believe we learned these lessons 20 years ago.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Radio personality Don Imus will meet with the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Richard Drew/Associated Press

(2) Members of the Rutgers women's basketball team listen during a news conference Tuesday.

Mike Derer/Associated Press