Saturday, October 31, 2009

An Open Letter to Bob Griese

Dear Mr. Griese

The strength of the cult of victimhood in this country is growing every day, and I'm sorry to see that you have become a victim of it.

You made a joke - a joke - about a man of Latino descent eating a taco when he should have been working, and your joke has been recast into an "ethnic slur" for which you were forced to apologize, and get suspended for a week.

For what?

Does this mean every taco truck that serves the Latino communities around the US now have to change their names because it is racist? I'm reminded of the Beanery restaurant, named after coffee beans, that changed its name to something less evocative because they were afraid that Mexicans would think it was a racist slur because, stereotypically (and also, you know, culturally) they eat beans. A different kind of bean than the coffee bean, mark you.

I'm reminded of a case many years ago, when Lou Piniella was in the broadcast booth with some other guy, an explayer whose name escapes me. In the course of the conversation, rising out of it naturally, the guy said something about 'let me move my wallet to the other side,'. because he didn't want Lou to make off with it. A simple joke, that could be made of anyone, but because Lou was of Hispanic descent, that joke was racist and the guy was fired the next day! Ridiculous!

Then we have the case of Shaq, a few years ago. Stretched out his eyes slantwise and spoke in noises trying to sound like Chinese, just having some fun with Yao Ming. The Asian press erupted, calling for him to be suspended, but Shaq REFUSED to back down, saying it was just a joke. Well, of course if you're black (or any minority) you can't be racist, and so he was allowed to "get away with it." (Not that what he did was racist, but if he'd been any white player, up to and including Larry Bird, he'd have been suspended in a heartbeat.)

It's ironic, when I read the comment threads on YouTube that carry the snippet of your remark, that so many of them calling you a racist refer to others disparagingly as gay or retarded. So it's okay to be homophobic or handicappophobic, but racist...oh no!

That't the thing of course. By apologizing for "uttering a racial slur" (and I'm still waiting to find out where the slur was in that,) you have now been branded a racist. Because obviously someone who utters one racist slur is an out and out racist, no matter the context of when that slur was uttered.

I also think of the message boards of the UConn Huskies and the Tennessee Lady Vols. The north and the south. And the disparaging terms each set of fans says to the others about STEREOTYPICAL northern and southern behavior. Inbreeding in the south, wheyfaces in the north, for example. Of course, since these are white folks making these cracks about each other, it's not racist or regionalist... but let a black poster get attacked and decide to make an issue of it.... whoa nellie!

In short, Mr. Griese, I'm sure you made you joke in all innocence, and didn't expect it to offend anyone. And I regret that you allowed yourself to be intimidated into apologizing for something that didn't need to be apologized for. I regret that the news media is saying you said a "racial slur" when all you did was make a joke! (I don't watch comics on TV - white or black - but I'm willing to be that 90% of their comedy is based on stereotpyes and *that* is why it's funny.)

Please, Mr. Griese, stand up for yourself and unfortunate tellers of jokes everywhere. "No, I did not utter a racist slur. I just made a joking comment and since it wasn't about a white player sloughing off to have a Big Mac but rather a Latino player having a taco, everyone's got their knickers in a twist, and they should just lighten up."

That is what you should have said. Instead, your apology has just given yet more strength to the cult of victimhood that is in the process of destroying this country.

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