DThe head of the group representing African American journalists said Wednesday that Don Imus, the radio DJ who lost his job for calling Black women basketball players “nappy-headed hos,” should not be allowed back on the air. With rising speculation that CBS is about to give the shock jock his old job back, Imus’ biggest critic, the Rev. Al Sharpton, has said he would not be against the return. But Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, told Richard Prince of Journal-isms that the network should not think about what Imus can mean money-wise. “NABJ and America applauded in April the decision of national broadcasters to remove his language from the national airwaves,” Monroe said. “We would hope that, just a few months later, they would not substitute a desire to cash in for the need to stand by their convictions.” Speaking to Radarnline.com, Sharpton, in a completely different mood than when he angrily called for Imus’ firing in April. “My position is that we never called for him to be permanently barred from being on the air,” Sharpton said. “We’ll see when he comes back, and if he comes back, what are the boundaries and what is the understanding. We’ll be monitoring the situation, but we wanted him to pay for being a repeat abuser, and he paid. We never said we didn’t want him to make a living.” Word is, Imus could be back by September.

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