Richard Sherman and the ever evolving N-word.

It has been almost a week since Sherman gave his adrenaline laced pro-wrestlingesque interview to Erin Andrews and I thought by now the indignation and analysis would have died down. I guessed wrong. I opened up my espn.com app to see these words "Goodell not a fan of Sherman's comments" Really? Now the commissioner has to weigh in on a post-game interview that included zero curse words, zero references to gender, orientation, age, lifestyle etc. etc. None of the usual trigger words that one would think would require a pronouncement from on high. In fact it was not even a white CB vs a Black WR or vice versa (okay, okay you do not need to point out that there is no way it could have been a White Corner Back…that is a different discussion) I am just saying there were no racial implications in Sherman's insult of Crabtree except one – 'The Angry black man'.

Let's make it clear, I do not think Sherman is an angry black man, I am saying that I have seen him labelled as such in many venues, for giving a hyped up post-game interview or RANT as it is so unnecessarily being called. I have never seen a proclamation from Goodell on any PhillipRivers post game or (as is often) in game trash talking. I never saw Goodell discuss the instance of Phillip running down the sidelines yelling at the opposing team's bench in a 'menacing' manner. You could also say the stakes were never as big as the Super Bowl (but that would be me just taking shots at my Charger Friends…hey guys – Still no Super bowl???? Ouch). 

This is not an anti-commish post, in fact he should not have been asked the question, but once asked did he have to resort to such coded language (even if he did not realize it or mean to) as "He is extremely well-spoken"? Why am I never told how "well-spoken" the white trash talker is? Why am I never reminded of the great college the white player went to? Should it not be impressive that Tom Brady went to Michigan a difficult college to get into (or reminded of his child out of wed-lock)? Should I not be impressed by how "well-spoken" he is right after he and his coach pointed out that they targeted a defensive player because they knew he was easy to beat?

Sherman has been called a thug in so many places that Deadspin.com even took note of the number of occurrences "The day after the Seahawks' win, the word "thug" was uttered 625 times on American television, or more than on any single day in at least three years."

 Hmm why on earth would it need to be said that many times about a guy who had just made the play that saved his team's season and voiced a NON-VIOLENT opinion about his competitor? I know it was certainly not used because he was wrong – Crabtree is not a mediocre receiver, but what if he was mediocre? Would we then have seen all this uproar?

As Sherman himself has stated, the use of thug has just become the new way of saying the N-word to him. Now not everyone saying he is a thug means to call him a n-word, but a lot of people are certainly towing the line.

I am now going to comment on the fact that he went to Stanford. THANK GOD he went to Stanford, or any smart school, because hopefully (and it certainly seems so) he will have that strong educational background to rise above the backlash and to see it for what it is, small minded people taking shots at someone because he happens to look different from them. I hope that Stanford background contributed to his strength of character and intelligence to let him know, to avoid the easy bait that the race instigators want him to take.

Finally, I could not believe that some persons were claiming that he scared Erin Andrews in that interview? Wha-wha-WHAT? This is a woman who has worked for years in the sporting arena (and in video that was cut is seen hugging Sherman) she was certainly not afraid of the athlete yelling into the camera NOT at her. Nor was she afraid of the athlete who was amped up after his game and clearly acting wildly because of the game, not because of her. To suggest she was afraid again plays on the 'angry black man' stereotype or on the 'jungle savage' hysteria that is so often played on when a heavily muscled man with dreads happens to show up on a TV screen. J.J. Watts routinely does interviews with bloodstreaming down his face and a manic look but I never hear anyone claim his interviewers are scared. But if you doubt me, ask Erin Andrews she made it clear she was not scared.

Please can we stop immediately dissecting every black man's actions as a means of finding out how close he is to being a 'n-word' and just stop associating all black actions to that word. I would also just love if we would stop using that word entirely…but one cause at a time.

Happy MLK Jr. day 2012!

Oh Dr. King your sacrifice got us greater racial equality (we are close but not all the way there yet) and a holiday! I sadly suspect more peeps are grateful for the holiday now than the equality.

I wish you were still around to see (and since you are famous probably meet) Tim Tebow. He is this amazing phenomenon (for an average football player) that dominates sports headlines and pop culture.

He is a slower Michael Vick, a less accurate Vince Young, a weaker Warren Moon, a less dynamic Randall Cunningham, he isn't even as gifted as Rodney Peete seriously don't laugh Rodney Peete was "drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays out of high school, and the Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers while in college" per wikipedia (grain of salt added for taste).

Tim Tebow just lacks something all of the above players had...

But because it is your day Dr. King I will go with some 'equality' and point out that Tebow is no more religious than Kurt Warner, or Steve Young or Ray Lewis (if you want to go non-Qb).

He has captured imaginations while giving fodder to both sides of any argument that involves discussing his skills. He will look absolutely incompetent for 58.5 minutes of a game that only last 60 minutes and then for just that last minute and a half engineer a drive that will win the game! Seriously Dr. King he will only be good for 2.5% of the time he is doing his 'job' and yet get praised like he was the best player ever. I cannot imagine a doctor botching a surgery so badly that at the end of it all he manages to do is save my life while costing me a limb or 2 then he gets praised for his life saving abilities!

He replaced a guy called Kyle Orton who is a much more accurate passer than Tebow ever was or probably ever will be yet somehow could not ever win with the same team that Tebow now wins with.

Many are beginning to believe in the unbelievable because they cannot explain the 'lucky' coincidences in his wins. They refuse to consider things like small sample size (where if one looks at the fact that Tebow has only played a few games is woefully inaccurate and has a bad QB rating, over time he would be more likely to lose more than he would win), or the joy of scheduling that placed the Broncos up against incompetent teams and teams that did not make the playoffs during Tebow's win streak. They ignore things like; when Tebow went up against Orton (yest the QB he replaced) in a virtual must win game for the Broncos he lost! Of course divine intervention stepped in and the Raiders who could have kept Tebow out of the playoffs lost too...

Divine intervention, yes sir you heard me correctly people now think that God is interested enough in American Football games to intervene in John Elway's teams games. Oh did I not mention that? Yup the same team that John Elway captained to 2 super bowls and also is now the Exec VP of has a fan base that believes so firmly in Tebow that they are comparing him to Elway and...Elway is not always coming out favourably. But do not just take my theories for fact, check out this poll and this article in USA Today.

The breakdown amuses me
Among ethnic groups, the Hispanic/Latino demographic was the biggest believer, with 81.3% saying yes. Among African-Americans, 59.5% said yes, and for whites it was 38.3%.
Politcally speaking, 54.2% of Republicans said yes, as did 38.2% of Democrats and 35.1% of independent voters.
...wonder why that is.

The thing about it is...almost every athlete after a good performance praises God so I cannot imagine he has chosen to favour Tim and his left hand. (Vick is a lefty too and the religious Steve Young just saying). And let me give a little plug to Ken Stabler a great lefty that too few show love to.

Yes Dr. King on this day when I think of you, I just wonder what you would think of the hype surrounding this (insert colour here) Quarterback.

What is weird though Dr. King, is that while I am not a fan of Tebow and I hate the hype around him, I am starting to feel sorry for him because  no player, no QB white, black, hispanic or any colour could live up to the burden that fanatic fans and media personalities are placing on him. And certainly no one with mediocre skills.

Oh one more thing Dr. King (no one ever calls you Martin do they?) in a rare display an athlete named Stevie Johnson actually blamed God for a loss so of course it made news. He did it on Twitter which is a micro blogging site that will for years to come cause severe cases of foot in mouth disease. If you could still do it I would tell you to follow my friend @swalloween. Anyway here is Stevie's tweet after he dropped a pass in an OT game. "I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO..."

Enjoy the rest of the day, in a display of unity I am about to go meet my white friend, pick up my Persian friend and then go to the Asian grocery store so we can cook some Italian food later.

Best,

Cali J.

Spanish racism rears its ugly head again!

Ok in the grand scheme of things, the pictures of the Spanish team 'slanting' their eyes is not the worst thing! Problem is, when you realize that it is the Spanish team, it seems so much worse. This is the same country that chants 'Monkey' at black football player, that rains Racial abuse on Lewis Hamilton every time he drives there, and the same damn country whose former national coach used a racist remark about Thierry Henry as "MOTIVATION" to one of his players!

Forgive me if I cannot see the light side of things when this country has made a sport of racism!

The pix are here for you to make your own decisions but I suspect that while not all the team is racist, they all showed such extraordinary bad judgment that they should be ashamed of themselves...instead they are going around defending their actions.

Don Imus has got to be a moron. (again)

I would have thought that the one thing he would have been very and I mean VERY careful about talking about would be racially sensitive topics.

Note I am not saying he should not discuss race, I am saying he needs to be wary when he broaches the subject that caused him to be fired. Remember he previously called the Rutgers' female basketball team 'nappy headed hos'. It cost him his job, then this morning on his new morning radio show Imus, and his sports announcer had the following exchange which I quote from the AP story that is linked here:

"During an on-air conversation Monday about the arrests of suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones, Imus asked, "What color is he?"

Told by sports announcer Warner Wolf that Jones, who used to be nicknamed Pacman, is "African-American," Imus responded: "There you go. Now we know." "

Imus has quickly defended his remarks, saying they were misunderstood "I meant that he was being picked on because he's black," .

The problem for Imus as I wrote ages ago, is that he has a history of saying the wrong thing, at some point, maybe the only person with a misunderstanding is Imus.

If Imus wanted to make a commentary on Jones being picked on he could have, he could have made a great stand there, in fact I would have applauded him if he had, but his "There you go. Now we know" even if it was a stand was a poor one. In fact it comes off as flippant and not something that I would expect from someone who is commenting on someone being picked on. Rather it seems like he is piling on Jones too.

This story will break more starting tomorrow and later in the week, but for now I am just surprised that Imus could have been so reckless.

Of course Al Sharpton is looking into it, and early word is that sponsors are upset (no shock). I think if you are a sponsor of the Imus show, you pretty much have to be willing to dodge bullets anyway, so this is just part of the package.

As JT the Brick noted on radio tonight, Imus is in a sticky position, if he comes out and apologizes for his remarks it means that he has acknowledged that he did something wrong, and that comes on the heels of the Rutgers mess. If he tries to ride it out, he will lose sponsors, he has to address it, and he has to address it in a better fashion than the 'misunderstood' release.

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Transcript from AOL Sports
Wolf: "Defensive back Adam 'Pacman' Jones, recently signed by the Cowboys. Here's a guy suspended all of 2007 following a shooting in a Vegas night club."

Imus: "Well, stuff happens. You're in a night club, for God's sake. What do you think's gonna happen in a night club? People are drinking and doing drugs, there are women there, and people have guns. So, there, go ahead."

Wolf: "He's also been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005."

Imus: "What color is he?"

Wolf: "He's African-American."

Imus: "Well, there you go. Now we know."