Now that surly shock jock Don Imus has been fired by CBS Radio and dropped from MSNBC, I am wondering if the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will continue the dialogue on the repulsive, pernicious stereotypes that have plagued black women and focus on the misogyny that is continuously spewed by black rappers.

It's easy for them to chastise Imus and serve his head up on the public intolerance platter because he is an older white male who obviously has many racial issues, not just with blacks, but also other minority groups. Imus has been spouting ignorant and racist diatribes for more than 20 years, so none of us should have been alarmed that he would use the derogatory terms "hos" and "nappy-headed" on his radio program.

Those recent comments about the Rutgers University women's' basketball team weren't the first time Imus' show has riffed on black female athletes. Sid Rosenberg, the show's former sportscaster, once said Venus and Serena Williams should be posing for National Geographic rather than gracing the covers of fashion magazines.

Much of the outrage resulting from Imus' own latest disparaging comments, as most of us have come to agree by now, is that he chose to humiliate the Rutgers women athletes, who by far represent the brightest young minds this country has to offer. And just as Imus' comments about the Rutgers women were disgusting, so was his timing.

We've had a series of highly criticized racial offenses recently, from former Virginia Republican U.S. Sen. George Allen's "macaca moment" to former "Seinfeld" star Michael Richards' awful comedic rant, and we are finally beginning to draw some clear lines on what language will and will not be tolerated.

Jackson called Imus' firing by CBS a "victory for public decency," but this victory will ring hollow and hypocritical if he and Sharpton do not encourage more aggressive campaigns than they have in the past to end the excessive use of the h-word, along with the b-word, that the rap industry has used to build its lavish entertainment empire.

The fact that these vilifying labels used to describe black women are a constant part of the lingo many black youth use is very troubling, and it is an issue the black community must begin to consistently address. Imus even alluded to the fault the black community shares when he appeared on NBC's "Today" show to explain his use of the term ho.

"I may be a white man," he said, "but I know that young men and women all through that society are demeaned and degraded by their own black men and they are called that name." On this point Imus is correct, and while it by no means excuses him for what he said about the Rutgers team, the double standard to which he is being held is quite obvious.

Black women have traditionally been degraded, oppressed and placed in the center of jokes by white men, but black men also are guilty of this transgression. Those who have come to Imus' defense have pointed to the most notorious offenders: black rap artists. The Lil Scrappys, Lil Waynes and other rappers have inundated black youth with a litany of offensive and debasing language about black women in their lyrics. And in addition to the h-word that many young black boys use when addressing women, many young black girls actually call their female friends "bitches" as an endearing greeting.

I would like to see Jackson and Sharpton speak out more on the negative influences of hip-hop culture and how the pervasive and offensive stereotypes of black women in rap music stem from an oppressive past, but this is a course of action all in the black community must take.

We have rightfully condemned Imus, but now we need to focus on discouraging black youth from embracing an industry and culture that blatantly disrespects their mothers, sisters and aunts. A more concentrated effort on the latter will ensure fewer Imuses to contend with in the future.