In the wake of Don Imus’s recent firing, many comparison’s have been drawn between his racially charged, sexist remarks and the misogynistic nature of contemporary commercial rap music. Even Barack Obama had his own mini Sister Souljah moment as he drew the comparison in response to a question posed at a recent campaign event:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday questioned the way some rappers talk about women in songs, saying the lyrics are similar to the derogatory language used by fired radio talk show host Don Imus.

“We’ve got to admit to ourselves, that it was not the first time that we heard the word ‘ho,’ Obama told a crowd of about 1,200 at a fundraising dinner for the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus in Columbia. “Turn on the radio station. There are a whole lot of songs that use the same language … we’ve been permitting it in our homes, and in our schools and on iPods.”

It’s a fair point, though I think the criticism of rampant hip hop misogyny is a somewhat separate issue from what has be going down in the whole Imus affair.

Don Imus managed to say something that was both incredibly sexist and insanely racist. That’s no easy task (though, as Media Matters has carefully tabulated, not a sin of which Imus is solely guilty). But, when it comes down to it, it’s the racism that got Imus into trouble.

The misogyny of Imus’ remarks certainly pales in comparison to what comes out of some commercial hip hop today; Imus, after all, isn’t the one “looking for a slut with a nice butt to get a nut” or observing “bitch ya’ pussy smell like Pepé le Pew.” But the racial slur incoporated into his “nappy headed hos” comment is really non-comparable to anything in hip hop. Snoop Dogg referring to a black woman as a “ho” is incredibly sexist, indeed, but not at all racist; Snoop is not disparaging her race from a perch of racial privilege. Imus, on the other hand, with his “nappy headed” qualifier, was doing just that, an “old-ass white man that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls,” as Snoop himself put it. Whether Imus is an actual racist or not, it is that blatant racial insensitivity that ultimately cost him his job.

Criticizing hip hop for it’s rampant misogyny is a justified and worthwhile endeavor (though it should not obscure the fact that true hip hop, in its purest form, is essentially the greatest thing to ever happen to United States of America). But to imply that Imus has been fired due to the result of a modern day double standard really misses an important nuance to his oh-so-not-nuanced comment.