Rick Santorum Say What?!

Having yet another controversial moment on the campaign trail (remember his "blah" controversy earlier this year?), GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum appears to have almost called President Obama a "nigger".  Santorum was speaking at a rally in Janesville, WI last week when the incident occurred.

In the clips below Sam Seder (host of "The Majority Report") and The Young Turks give their takes on what Santorum may have said.





After listening to the clip several times, I think Santorum caught himself just in time before he completely derailed any chance he might have of becoming POTUS. Although a part of me finds it hard to believe he could be so stupid as to come that close to making a racist remark in public, I can't come up with another word that he could have intended to say that makes any sense. Also, the nervous transition leads me to believe he's guilty. Because the evidence isn't conclusive, Santorum will be able to remain a thorn in Mitt Romney's side for at least a couple more months.

Do you think Rick Santorum almost called President Obama a "nigger"?

Final Results of the Recent Jeremy Lin Polls

In the recent poll in which I asked people to give their primary reason behind the Jeremy Lin hype, almost half of you said it's due to the underdog factor. Here are the final results:

The "underdog" factor: 46%
His talent: 26%
His race: 20%
The fact that he plays in New York: 6%

Although I think Lin's race is the primary factor for the hype, I don't feel it's by an overwhelming margin.  If I had to break down the reasons behind Lin hype percentage-wise, I'd say it was 35% race, 30% each talent and the "underdog" factor, and 5% because he plays in NY.

I look forward to the day when seeing Asian stars in the NBA is a common occurrence. In addition to Jeremy Lin's success possibly being a gateway for more Asian players into the NBA, I think it'll also cause coaches to look a little closer at the end of their respective benches. For all they know, the next Jeremy Lin (regardless of race) could be riding the pine just waiting for a chance to shine.

Below are the results for the second poll in which I asked for your thoughts on ESPN's disciplanary actions against Anthony Federico and Max Bretos for their use of the term "chink in the armor" (on ESPN's mobile website and ESPNews, respectively):

Federico deserved to be fired:	57%
Federico should have been suspended:	0%
Bretos deserved to be suspended:	14%
Bretos should have been fired:	0%
No action should have been taken against Federico	:  28%
No action should have been taken against Bretos:	28%

I wavered on the Federico portion of this poll. Although part of me thinks he deserved to be fired, I wouldn't have been up in arms if ESPN had just suspended him. On the one hand, Federico's actions could have been intentional. However, it's also possible that this was a simple case of ignorance.

As for Bretos, I think he got caught in the crosshairs of ESPN not wanting this to spiral out of control. Since he was speaking on live TV about a legitimate question regarding Lin's play, I think ESPN should have cut him a bit more slack. Bretos only has about a week left on his suspension. Best wishes to him for when he does return to the airwaves.

Thanks to all of you who participated in and commented on these polls.

Please Take A Moment To Vote In the Two Jeremy Lin Polls ... Thank You

Please note that this post is "future dated" because it's poll-related. For posts which were written after this one, but have their actual date attached to them, please scroll down. Thank you.

Ever since "Linsanity" took the world by storm, I've been planning on writing a post about the man who inspired the term... New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin. As of this writing, the New York Knicks are 8-1 since February 4 (the date Lin began playing substantial minutes for them). The superb numbers Lin has put up in his first eight NBA starts had the crew on NBA Sunday comparing his stats to the first 8 pro starts of Hall of Fame point guards Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Isiah Thomas, and John Stockton.

Lin's success hasn't gone unnoticed by the non-sports media either, receiving coverage on regular newscasts, inspiring jokes by late night TV hosts, as well as a skit on the 2/18 edition of SNL. The meteoric rise of Jeremy Lin and the way his success has captured the imagination of sports fans and non-fans alike is a combination we don't see too often in sports. The other similar instances in my lifetime that come to mind are Mark "The Bird" Fidrych and William "The Refrigerator" Perry.

Jeremy Lin's "out-of-nowhere" success is all the more amazing given his previous "underdog" status:

• Despite being named first-team All-State and Northern California Division II Player of the Year during his senior year in high school, Lin failed to receive any college athletic scholarship offers. He wound up attending Harvard (which like other Ivy League schools, does not offer athletic scholarships)

• Although he had a successful hoops career at Harvard, Lin was undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft

• After his first year, he was waived by the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets in the preseason before joining the Knicks early in the 2011-2012 season. 

• The Knicks considered releasing Lin before his contract became guaranteed on February 10 so they could sign a new player.

Because Lin is one of the few Asian Americans in NBA history, his phenomenal success has brought the often uncomfortable subject of race into the conversation. On Lin's Wikipedia page, there already is a section on the racial issues that have come up before and after Lin's rise to prominence in the NBA.

Two of the stories which have arisen in the wake of "Linsanity" are the subject of the two poll questions I've posted. One involves whether or not the Jeremy Lin hype is caused by race. The question first arose after heavyweight boxer Floyd Mayweather wrote the following on his Twitter page, "Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise."

The other poll deals with ESPN firing one employee and suspending another over the use of the term "chink in the armor" in relation to Lin.  On the night of February 18, Anthony Federico posted the following headline on ESPN’s mobile website: "Chink in the Armor: Jeremy Lin's 9 Turnovers Cost Knicks in Streak-Snapping Loss to Hornets." By Sunday afternoon, Federico was cut loose by ESPN. Also on 2/18, ESPNews television personality Max Bretos posed the following question about Lin live on the air: "If there is a chink in the armor, where can he improve his game?" As a result, Bretos was given a 30-day suspension.

After voting in the polls, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post. In the clip below, the panel of ESPN First Take discuss the role that race plays in the Jeremy Lin hype.

Racist Incident Ruins A High School Basketball Game in Pittsburgh

From Yahoo! Sports

By Cameron Smith

Vile racism raised its ugly head during a boys basketball game near Pittsburgh on Friday when fans of a nearly all-white suburban school ran on the court in banana suits and made monkey noises to taunt the players for their rivals, who play for a school which is predominantly African-American.

As reported by a variety of Pittsburgh media outlets, the Monessen Valley Independent and WPXI prominent among them, the annual basketball rivalry game between Pittsburgh (Pa.) Brentwood High and Monessen (Pa.) High turned extremely ugly when the two teams tried to head to their respective locker rooms for halftime. Before the players could leave the floor, three fans from the visiting Brentwood student section ran onto the court in full-body banana suits.


The fans surrounded the Monessen players and allegedly began making monkey noises and hurling racial epithets at the Monessen players, with no one entering the fray to stop the horribly inappropriate catcalls.

"I was appalled and shocked," Monessen parent Terri Payne told WPXI. "I was like, 'I can't believe they're doing that, and they didn't do anything about it.'"

Disturbingly, other Monessen parents claim that the Brentwood players hurled similar racist epithets themselves, calling the Greyhounds "monkeys and cotton pickers," as one Monessen fan told WPXI.
Meanwhile, Valley Independent staff writer Jeremy Sellew claimed that Brentwood Director of Security Joseph Kozarian, who was on duty at the game, refused to intervene, instead sitting back and at one point smiling and laughing with the Brentwood fans in the stands.


As more media attention has swirled around the disgusting incident, Brentwood officials have scrambled to try and alleviate pressure on the school and district as a whole. As of Tuesday the three students involved had been identified and disciplined, though their punishment was not disclosed to the media. Similarly, officials claimed they were "reviewing school policy to make sure a similar incident doesn't happen again."

Clearly, that's not strong enough. If the banana suit incident and subsequent racist abuse from Brentwood players occurred as numerous witnesses claim it did, the entire Brentwood season should be put under much deeper inspection before moving forward.

This is legitimate hate speech, after all, and the teenagers who were responsible need to realize just how damaging that is, both to their victims, themselves and society as a whole. At the very least, any players who made racist comments during the game itself should be punished significantly.

Despite being a cynic, I'm still amazed this disgusting incident went down in 2012. Then again, it sounds like some of the folks in Brentwood have a 1952 mentality.  I can just imagine them listening to their Patti Page records while waiting to catch that week's episode of "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet".

For the news story which aired on WTAE in Pittsburgh, click here.

In a side note, Monessen defeated Brentwood by a score of 59-45.

"One, Two, Three, N****r!": High School Basketball Players Suspended for Pre-Game Chant

From the Daily Mail:
  
A girls high school basketball team is in trouble in Buffalo, New York after one team member alerted teachers that they used an offensive racial curse in their pregame cheer.

Tyra Batts, who is new to the team and the only black player, was shocked and offended to learn that there was a tradition of chanting 'One, two, three, n*****!' before heading out to the court. 

Ms. Batts could not believe that her team-mates, who are all white, continued the supposedly long-standing tradition even after she made a point of telling them that she found it offensive. 

'I said, "You're not allowed to say that word because I don't like that word." They said, "You know we're not racist, Tyra. It's just a word, not a label." I was outnumbered,' Ms. Batts told the local Buffalo News. 

Apparently the chant has been used by the Kenmore East High School girls team for years, but coaches and school officials never knew because the team would sing the offensive chant in the locker room when there were no adults around. 

The issue was only brought to the attention of school administrators after Ms. Batts, 15, got into a physical fight with another team-mate at school after an argument at a practice game last Friday followed over the weekend and moved from the court to the hallways.

Before Friday's practice, Ms. Batts argued with her team about the chant, and then she 'said something stupid' to one team-mate, who proceeded to call her 'a black piece of [expletive]'. When Ms. Batts saw that team-mate at school on Monday, she slammed her into a locker, punched her, and choked her. 

Both girls were promptly suspended, and that was when she told school officials about the chant.

'It was a build up of anger and frustration at being singled out of the whole team,' Ms. Batts told The Buffalo News. 

Upon hearing the news, the team's coach, Kristy Bondgren, said that she had heard the girls make the occasional comment that Ms. Batts was black but had no idea about the chant. 

Ms. Bondgren, who has not commented on the issue, apparently missed some other barbs, as Ms. Batts said that the team-mates would often make racially-charged comments during practice. She said that they often made remarks referencing slavery, picking cotton, and shackles. 

'The minute an adult knew, we started our inquiry and investigation,' said Mark P. Mondanaro, the superintendent of the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda school district.

As a result of the allegations, practice is suspended for the team for the week, a game has been postponed, a college visit was cancelled and a previous sportsmanship award was taken away.

All of the girls that participated in the chant were suspended from school for two days and they will all have to sit out one game each over the course of the season. All of the team members will have to undergo cultural sensitivity training.

Barbara & Co. Give Their View On a Recent Controversy and the Use of a Racial Slur

On Monday morning's episode of The View, the cast discussed the "Niggerhead" controversy. As you may know, this nickname was painted on a rock at the gated entrance of the hunting camp of GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry. You can read more about the controversy in a Washington Post article on the story. 

The discussion took an unexpectedly interesting turn when co-host Sherri Shepherd took offense to Barbara Walters' use of the term "nigger". 




I think Sherri is off base on this one. Since Barbara used the term within the context of the news story, I don't think she did anything wrong. Recently, I was in a similar situation with the host of the radio show that follows mine. As me and him often do, we had a conversation towards the end of my show/the beginning of his. We were discussing WAMM 1420 AM (a Flint soul station from back in the day). My colleague (who is white) was telling me how he loved listening to WAMM as a kid back in the late 60s. Once while he was staying with his grandmother, she caught him tuning into WAMM. As a result, she whupped him and said something along the lines that he better not ever listen to "nigger" music in her house again. When he detailed the story, I could sense his reluctance as he said the word "nigger". Because it's not a word I often hear in everyday conversations, I was caught off guard by his use of the term. However, I wasn't offended because he wasn't directing it at me or anyone else... he was giving an account of what went down between him and his grandmother.

Before I published this post, I sent him an email to gauge his feelings on me retelling the story of our conversation. In addition to him being OK with it, he expressed his apology for using the term. I assured him that it was all good.

Do you think it was OK for Barbara Walters to use word "nigger" in the context of the news story involving Rick Perry's hunting camp?

Martin Luther What?!

On the Monday January 18th (MLK Day) edition of the ESPN Radio program Mike and Mike in the Morning, co-host Mike Greenberg had a controversial slip of the tongue in which he said "Martin Luther Coon".



As you may know, this is a racist term used by some when they refer to the iconic civil rights leader. As you can hear from the audio clip, Greenberg quickly corrected himself. He also later issued the following statement:

I just came home from the Knicks game and found out about the mess that was created by my garbling a sentence on our show this morning; I apologize for not addressing it sooner.

And I'm sorry that my talking too fast - and slurring my words - might have given people who don't know our show the wrong impression about us, and about me.

I feel horrible about that, because nothing could be further away from who I am and what our show is about.

I would never say anything like that, not in public, or in private, or in the silence of my own mind, and neither would anyone associated with our show, and I'm very sorry that my stumble this morning gave so many people the opposite impression.

Some feel an apology isn't enough and that Greenberg should face suspension or be fired. Because we can only speculate as to what might be in Greenberg's heart when it comes to race, I'm giving him a pass. Maybe I am more willing to give Greenberg the benefit of a doubt because I know how it is to talk live on the air and get my words tangled. Although I've never used a derogatory term on the air when I've garbled words, I can see how it could happen. For example, ABC news personality Elizabeth Vargas is known in circles by the derisive nickname "Elizabitch". Someone could have knowledge of this and mistakenly slip and say on the air "Elizabitch Vargas". It doesn't mean they are sexist or even think that Ms. Vargas is a bitch. All it shows is that at the very least, they have knowledge of the nickname. My feeling is that Mike Greenberg is aware of the term "Martin Luther Coon" and had a brain cramp on live radio.

Although I'm giving Mike Greenberg a pass on this one, I've got my eyyees on him!

Does Mike Greenberg get the benefit of the doubt from you?

The History Lesson

The following essay ("The History Lesson") is one I posted on my own blog "Lori's Old School Mix" in June of 2008. Recently, while re-reading the piece, I realized I'd neglected to mention the race of the teacher in question. For the record, the teacher was White. While pondering my original omission of that bit of information, I realized something--for the most part, it didn't really matter. In all honesty, had the teacher been Black, Asian, Latino or Other, the internal angst and discomfort I felt in that particular situation would have been the same.


THE HISTORY LESSON

Back in high school, I had a favorite teacher, who, with his big grin, jerky movements and small, wiry frame, reminded me of a cricket--Jiminy Cricket to be precise. He was an older fellow whose wisdom and intellect I'd accepted without question, until the day he opened his mouth and spat out the words, "Those dirty Japs!"

The first time I heard him say it, I was stunned. I thought to myself, Surely, I must had misheard him. I didn't want to believe that my favorite teacher, a man whom I'd admired for his quick wit and keen sense of humor, not to mention his command of American history, had actually made such an offense comment.

But it was true. Again and again, while covering the U.S. involvement in WWII, one of my high school teachers used the terms "Japs" and "dirty Japs" in reference to the Japanese. And each time he uttered the words, I squirmed in my seat, made uncomfortable not only by his use of the ethnic slur, but by my own hesitancy when it came to voicing my objections.

Some memories stay with one always.

No, I'm not Japanese. I'm not even Asian. (Well, as far as I know *smile* According to the hubby, I do sorta kinda look Asian when I'm asleep). By self-definition, I am an African American of the female persuasion.

But if it matters, and in this instance it did, there was a young woman of obvious Asian ancestry in that particular high school history class. I don't recall her name. She and I weren't friends or even acquaintances. The possibility exists that she was no more Japanese that was I, as does the possibility that she took no offense to our teacher's comments. But the fact remains that we were both young women of color, bound together in one sense by our vulnerable status as the only two visible minorities in a classroom full of young, White students, and bound together in another sense by our silence.

I can't help but think we should have said something, if only to one another. Why didn't we? Was it youth? Shyness? Fear? Ambivalence? Embarrasment? Or was it simply too far an emotional distance for either of us to cross. Twenty-plus years later, I still don't know.

Looking back on the incident, I now find it both unnerving and somewhat ironic that the teacher in question reminded me of a cricket. The truth is, I have a fear of crickets, a fear that involves my not knowing where the little critters are bound to jump next.

And indeed, it is a small jump from Jap to nigger/from faggot to coon/ from spic to jigaboo/

If I, as an African American, wait until the slur turns from slanty-eye bastard to big-lipped baboon, then have I not, in fact, waited too late? Of course, I have. I think even way back then, I somehow sensed it was so.

"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't Communists. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up for me."
(Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984)

"If they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night."
(James Baldwin, 1924-1987)

And for those who still don't get it, the "History Lesson" here is--just as there is no safety in silence, there is no safety in drawing the lines of intervention around our own ethnic, racial, sexual or religious identities.

(Written while listening to Erykah Badu's "Honey," "The Healer" and "Master Teacher" from the CD entitled New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War). Check the refrain from "Master Teacher":

"What if there was no niggas only master teachers?"

"I stay woke . . ."

What about you? Have there been times in your life when you wish you'd spoken up? What were your reasons for not doing so?