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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2012 > February > 13 > Entry
Sports tweets bring charges of racism, homophobia
As one person after another in and around the sports world is finding out these days, one little tweet can bring a whole lot of trouble.
The latest to get clobbered by his own 140-character boomerang is Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock.
Over the weekend Whitlock apologized for a tweet taking an off-color, mean-spirited - many say racist — swipe at New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin, who is THE feel good story in sports right now.
After Lin’s magical 38-point performance against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers last Friday night - the fourth straight victory orchestrated by the previously-unheralded Taiwanese-American hoopster — Whitlock sent out a tweet that said
“Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight.” Whitlock - who I’ve know a good while and who isn’t a bad guy - said he meant it as a joke. He said it was an attempt to be funny. It was not and the backlash - rightly so - has come in on him like a tidal wave.
The Asian American Journalists Association called the tweet blatant stereotyping and asked for a public apology.
Whitlock has since offered the following:
“I get Linsanity. I’ve cried watching Tiger Woods win a major golf championship. Jeremy for now, is the Tiger Woods of the NBA. I suspect Lin makes Asian Americans feel the way I feel when I watch Tiger play golf
“I should’ve realized that Friday night when I watched Lin torch the Lakers. For Asian Americans and a lot of sports fans, his nationally televised 38-point outburst was the equivalent of Tiger’s first victory in The Masters. I got caught up in the excitement. I tweeted about what a great story Lin is and how he could rival Tim Tebow.
“I then gave in to another part of my personality — my immature, sophomoric, comedic nature. It’s been with me since birth, a gift from my mother and honed as a child listening to my godmother’s Richard Pryor albums. I still want to be a standup comedian.
“The couple-inches-of-pain tweet overshadowed my sincere celebration of Lin’s performance and the irony that the stereotype applies to pot-bellied, overweight male sports writers, too. As the Asian American Journalist Association pointed out, I debased a feel-good sports moment. For that, I’m truly sorry.”
Whitlock - a former Ball State offensive lineman - is a black journalist with notable clout who often has written and opined on TV on issues of race. He usually pulls no punches, but I thought he went soft on himself on this one.
He did have one thing right about Lin though. The Knicks guard is a feel good story. Linsanity is the new Tebowmania that swept the NFL last season. But Tim Tebow’s heroics, unlikely as they were, weren’t as unexpected as this. The Denver Broncos quarterback had been a national champion with the Florida Gators and had won the Heisman Trophy before his NFL heroics this season.
Lin is a true underdog.
Growing up in California, he had no big time scholarship offers to play basketball, ended up at Harvard, starred there while carrying a 3.1 g.p.a. in Economics, then was snubbed by the NBA. Golden State finally picked him up last year, then exiled him to the end of the bench. He scored just 76 points during the entire season.
This year he was cut by the Warriors and Houston, too. The Knicks finally got him for a bargain basement price, then sent him to the D- League. After shining there he was brought back to the Knicks whose roster was decimated by injuries - most notably to Carmelo Anthony — and then further eroded by the absence of Amare Stoudemire due to the death of his brother.
Not much was expected of Lin or the Knicks, but the point guard took the team on his back and carried them to four straight wins, averaging 27.3 points and 8.3 assists a game.
Such a feel good story deserved all the well-intentioned salutes it got, but not the premature spew from Whitlock. If he had held onto his thought a little more he might have thought through the ramifications of his instant message.
That’s part of the trouble with twitter. There’s not much thought put into it. There’s no filter, often no context or cushion - and usually no excuse - once the tweets are out there.
Whitlock is just one of an ever-growing number of figures in and around sports to tweet himself into a jam.
Remember last year when the Pittsburgh Steelers Rashard Mendenhall tweeted his doubts that the towers of the World Trade Center towers were brought down by hijacked jets? He also cautioned that we had only heard one side of the Osama Bin Laden story.
When the tidal wave came his way he tried to down play the comments, but he still lost the endorsement deal he had with Champion sports apparel.
Last month, my good pal Tony Grossi, the longtime and stellar Cleveland Browns writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer got reassigned to a different beat by the paper because of a tweet he inadvertently sent out to all his followers about Browns owner Randy Lerner. It said:
“He is a pathetic figure, the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.”
The paper thought Tony had shown he wasn’t objective. I know him and his work and no matter how this looked, that’s not the case.
His sin may well be that he worded it wrong. I agree with our Browns afficionado, Sean McClelland, who opined after the Grossi incident:
“I don’t know enough billionaires to determine where Lerner ranks on the relevance scale, but I do know the Browns’ record since he inherited the team from his father in 2002 is far closer to ‘pathetic’ (56 wins, 105 losses, one playoff appearance) than not.”
Last week CNN commentator Roland Martin ended up on suspension for a Super Bowl Sunday tweet that many considered homophobic.
He was offering his take on the H & M commercial for David Beckham’s line of men’s underwear. The up close and personal ad featured the soccer star wearing only a pair of briefs.
To that Martin tweeted:
“If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad smack the ‘ish’ out of him!”
Martin claimed he was taking a jab at soccer fans, not commenting on the gay community or urging violence toward gays. CNN didn’t see it that way.
And so tonight Martin - like Whitlock - is feeling the pain.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Post your comment |
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Comments
By Jim
February 18, 2012 11:57 PM | Link to this
This guy has to go. Find the online petition to fox and sign it. Send it on to friends. I am white. My wife is Chinese. My daughters heard this kind of racist garbage, primarily from African Americans, but also from whites, and came home crying more then once. This is 2012 and this kind of trash was career killer on blacks, Jews, gays, and others more then a decade ago. Time to realize we have other minorities - and humans in America.
By Bill Gravano
February 16, 2012 7:01 AM | Link to this
Hey, Let people tweet what they want. There a many of us who don’t go for that politically correct garbage. If you say something about a homosexual- we do have freedom of speech left until Obama swindles us out of that, too. Obama hung out with crooks and radicals in Chicago. He certainly does not represent me. Instead of cutting our nuke missiles why doesn’t he get on Iran more aggressively and stop them from building nukes. They want to destroy Israel. Obama needs to be kicked out of the White House this coming election! He is not the America I want!
By justcause
February 15, 2012 4:56 PM | Link to this
al and jesse are liars.just google them or better yet youtube.they lie thru there teeth.reap what you sew……..
By Patrick Alvis
February 15, 2012 7:00 AM | Link to this
After reading several comments I gather comments can upset the apple cart when relating to racism or sexual preference. I don’t social groups or the government to tell me how to think or talk with my friends. I do try to be respectful online. I am opposed to homosexuality as it is wrong based on my religion.
By Vern Minor
February 15, 2012 6:41 AM | Link to this
People enjoy their sports and don’t want to have feelings of being attacked. I personally believe the homosexual scene is wrong based on my freedom of religion. Racist comments are wrong to make in public.
By Caden Seine
February 15, 2012 6:28 AM | Link to this
Obviously, the tweeting issue has the spotlight. That, however, does not take away our freedom of religion to believe the homo thing is wrong and teach our children it is wrong! On the racist issue, we should all love and respect each other
By JimboStalei
February 14, 2012 9:45 PM | Link to this
Whit was right on it ….
By just me
February 14, 2012 12:37 PM | Link to this
That’s what people get when they hit the comment/post comment button before reading their own post. It only takes a second or two to confirm if that is what you really want everybody to read.
By A brother
February 14, 2012 11:48 AM | Link to this
I haven’t heard any thing out of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Door don’t swing both ways.
By scott
February 14, 2012 10:51 AM | Link to this
Sorry James Mark, Obama going to be living at the White House 4 more years. GOP has nothing more to offer than guys who want our laws based on their hatred of Gays, teachers, blacks, and even each other. Seen the debates.
By johnbrisker
February 14, 2012 10:48 AM | Link to this
Glad I don’t live in Beavercreek, what a bunch of tools. As for Whitlock, he knew what he was saying and said it anyway. Freedom of speech means you can say it but it doesn’t mean there aren’t ramifications. However, I like reading Whitlock’s take on things sports oriented. He isn’t afraid to look at the dark side of issues and says alot of things many think but won’t say publically. His tweet wasn’t a example of his best work.
By Pete
February 14, 2012 8:02 AM | Link to this
Jason Whitlock is one of the biggest racists out there. Up there with Jessie & Al. But why is it when they say things like this, it was a “joke”, but when a white person says the say thing, its racist?
By jim
February 14, 2012 7:34 AM | Link to this
Whitlock should be suspended for his comments. The days when blacks could make racist remarks about other races is over. That stopped when Obama was elected president.
By James Mark
February 14, 2012 7:09 AM | Link to this
I think we need to be very careful not to hurt other people’s feelings with our comments. That said, we should be able to say what we want amongst friends that believe as we do. I will fight to maintain my freedom of speech! Obama should be moving back to Chicago in a matter of months!
By Kelly Huffman
February 14, 2012 6:55 AM | Link to this
It has been happening in sports off and on regarding remarks about color or the gay issues. I am like the comment before me believing that right or wrong you can be prejudice within your own group but not in public.
By Jeb Reinst
February 14, 2012 6:37 AM | Link to this
It is a given that we cannot make racist or homo comments online. I do, however, maintain that we, amongst our friends can be racist and/or homophobe because we have freedom of speech and the right to be prejudice if we so choose. I don’t support being prejudice against anyone of a different color but what is done in the privacy of friends is our business.
By rguy
February 14, 2012 5:56 AM | Link to this
While Jason Whitlock may claim he was trying to be funny, he is a racist. I have read it in many of his writings prior.