The Word History of Nappy Story aired: Monday, April 16, 2007
A new ABC News Washington Post poll shows 51 percent of Americans thought that Don Imus should have lost his job over his racially insensitive remarks.
But there is a racial divide within that divide. The poll says that 73 percent of African Americans support the firing while only 47 percent of whites do. Perhaps because the phrase Imus used, "nappy-headed" is for many African Americans an historically derogatory term that according to researchers, became the proof that social inequities, like racism, even slavery, were justified.
We speak to Zine Magubane, associate professor of sociology at Boston College, about the roots of the word.
