Transcript: Imus puts remarks into context

Two years ago, he came to the ranch and he desperately wanted to win that ranch belt buckle.  And I knew what—he was terminal then.  And I have the stopwatch and I could have let him win, easily.  But he would have known that and I would have known that.  And so, he was pissed at me and everybody else because he didn’t win.  And he came back last year, he came back last year, and he tried with all his heart to win and he didn’t win again.  And I could have let him win, but he—well, I wouldn’t do that, and he wouldn’t have wanted me to do that.

And then he went home and he died on Christmas day, so—and these kids come out there and—with sickle cell anemia.  So I know—I know African American children.  And—so I don’t need a come-to-Jesus experience.

And you might say, Well, if that’s all true, why would you say this?  You know, I don’t know why I said it.  We are trying to be funny, but does that make it okay?  Of course not.  My wife and I were stunned, this past summer, at the number of kids with sickle cell.  I came on this radio program, when I got back, talking about sickle cell.  I talked to politicians about it.  I said, Well, how much money is being spent on sickle cell?  I don’t know.  I said, Well—and I ask doctors, doctors at the ranch and others, Is there any research being done? 

Nobody—nobody—nobody called me, nobody called me.  No black journalist called me.  Nobody ever called me about any of that.

So, my wife and I took a child with sickle cell, who we had to send home because he was so sick.  So we had to take him to the hospital, which is 120 miles from the ranch, so we all got in the pickup, because he liked the pipes on the pickup, and we roared on down to—with the doc sitting in the back with him… And we roared on down to the University of New Mexico hospital, which is a marvelous place.

And Charlotte (ph) was getting a hold of his mom—we were flying her out from New Jersey.  So he was holding my wife’s hand, because my wife was his surrogate mother for the time being, and he said, Am I going to die here?  And she said, No, you are not.  And he did not.  And so that’s when I came back and talked about this.  Does that—does that mean that I should be forgiven for saying what I said about the Rutgers women?  That’s not what this is about.  But that’s what I’m about.  Because I’m a good person who said a bad thing.

Do you want to know what people called me for supporting Harold Ford, Jr.?  Do you want to know the mail I got that called me a ‘n-lover’ and—do you want to know what people said to me for the years that I played Bishop Patterson’s sermons?  People telling me, they didn’t want to hear that—well, you can imagine.  Do you know what people said to me when I booked the Blind Boys of Alabama here years ago, and they have been on fairly regularly ever since then?  About what they said about them and about me having—about all of the African American musicians, over the years, who I have had on this program, and so on?  Does that mean that it’s okay for me to say what I said about these Rutgers women?  I hope you don’t think that, because I don’t think that.

So I’m going to go talk to these women, if they will let me, and tell them what I have just told you.  And what have I learned from this?  Because Reverend DeForest Soaries said, I want you to tell me what you have learned.  Here’s what I have learned:  that you can’t make fun of everybody, because some people don’t deserve it.  And because the climate on this program has been what it has been for 30 years doesn’t mean that it has to be that way for the next five years or whatever, because that has to change.  So—and I understand that.

And wouldn’t you think—our job at that ranch is to restore the self-esteem and the dignity and the confidence of these children.  Why would I think then, it’s okay to go on the radio last Wednesday and make fun of these kid, who just played for national championship?  Well, I can’t answer that.  I’m sorry I did that.  I’m embarrassed that I did that.  I did a bad thing.

But I’m a good person.  And that will change.