Stuart Scott Says Calling a Woman a Ho Is 'Affectionate'

On ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning show, guest Stuart Scott discussed the Don Imus controversy. Hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic asked Scott whether it's fair for Imus to be in so much trouble for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" when rap lyrics frequently use such language.

Scott's response was bizarre, to say the least. He said rappers who use those words "mean it in an affectionate way."

Huh? It's affectionate to call a woman a ho? According to his Wikipedia entry, Scott has a wife and two daughters. I'd love to know what context there is in which Scott would consider it "affectionate" to hear a man call his wife and daughters hos.

To their credit, Greenberg and Golic both indicated that they didn't buy Scott's rationalization. It's always wrong for a man to call a woman a ho, and for Scott to suggest otherwise is insulting.

UPDATE: If you have an ESPN.com Insider account, you can listen to the interview. The relevant passage comes at about the 10:20 mark, when Scott says,

"Here's the thing: There are some people who can use the n-word, who can use those words like b---- and, and the things that Imus said, and they mean it in an affectionate way. It's one of the ideas of taking something that's negative, so bad, so ugly, and making it a positive. I'm going to take the power out of that word and make it a positive. If a white person says it, he's not really doing it."

If you can listen to the whole interview, I urge you to do so and make up your own mind about whether Scott's comments were out of bounds. But again, I disagree strongly with Scott. I absolutely do not think that you could say "the things that Imus said" and "mean it in an affectionate way." What Imus said was wrong, and those words are wrong no matter whose mouth they're coming out of.

UPDATE 2: Snoop Dogg says when he calls women "hos," he's not the same as Don Imus calling women "hos." (But Snoop doesn't show much affection for those women, either.)

UPDATE 3: Stuart Scott on 'Ho': 'I Didn't Say That It's a Good Thing'