Originally published at: Watch: Commentator tries to apologize after mocking baseball player's accent | Boing Boing
…
7 Likes
“I’m sorry you outed my racism because that means I could lose my job.”
Yeah, I can’t see how that could go badly.
19 Likes
Once again, a clueless white person thinks that if they didn’t intend to be racist, well then of course they didn’t do something racist.
What matters is effects. Not intention.
24 Likes
More like: “Commentator tries to weasel way out of an apology” by adding qualifier (“if I offended”). Not offended - just disgusted by garbage people.
7 Likes
See. It’s not SYSTEMATIC racism, just ACCIDENTAL. So that makes us all good right?
5 Likes
“Sorry if I just punched you in the face.”
“You did just punch me in the face.”
“By your definition, yeah. But not by the one true definition.”
10 Likes
This kind of thing always reminds me of a bit the comedian Rick Overton used to do about white people mocking Asian accents and pulling on their eyelids when ordering food at a Chinese restaurant, but they don’t know that the Asian folks are in the back holding their eyelids wide open saying things like, “I want some may-o-nnaise! Bring me a cheese-borger!”
9 Likes
for what I said about pitching and being careful to Shohei Ohtani
The aboutness of your statement wasn’t the problem.
6 Likes
A sports commentator says a stupid thing.
Also, water is wet.
1 Like
Sports commentating is SUCH an old boys club, it makes me want to puke. Aside from Southern politicians making laws governing women’s bodies, you won’t find another group so ingrained in protecting their little shit empire more than male sports broadcasters. All this young gender-spanning woke talent is a HUGE threat to them.
A friend of mine has broken a few “first female” barriers on several national sports broadcasts and recently landed a major league top-spot gig - something old dinosaurs said would never happen. I am SO fucking proud of her.
.
15 Likes
Good for her!
She must have really perfected her deep, serious vocal tones.
I kid, but it’s often been another turnoff to professional spectator sports in general that the announcers seem to lower their voices an octave or two whenever the mics are on. It’s such a macho put-on.
7 Likes
I like watching sports with the sound off and some ambient/electronica/techno playing. It works pretty well, occasionally brilliantly.
I love hearing the sounds from the game, but I just can’t take the announcers’ chatter.
3 Likes
Jack Morris should take a page from Greeneville submarine skipper, Scott D. Waddle, and apologize directly to Ohtani, as well as bow deeply. That would communicate honest contrition.
2 Likes
And it reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons where Krusty bombs a joke in a stand-up routine, and does the racist “me so solly” bit to try to recover. The audience looks on in shock, and his fellow comedians can’t believe that he would do such a lame, racist attempt at humor in this day and age. That episode first aired in 1998 so you’d really have to be unbelievably out of touch to think that that kind of humor would fly today.
9 Likes
That may be the case where you are watching but in much of the world for a start women commentate on the big events, like the World Cup or whatever. Ex football or rugby playing women are becoming more and more common as the experts, not just the media people. We had Hope Solo for the last, men’s, World Cup and she was the star in the room (I mean Didi Hamann doesn’t have that star quality!)
I shared a video here during the European championships of ex footballers lambasting the corruption and hypocrisy of UEFA over homophobia and politics. They were genuinely angry and outspoken. I could share lots of others.
When I was a kid hearing the names of all the players from all over the world helped me learn. Like the commentator would explain, because of viewers questions the difference between the letter J for Spanish players and Brazilian and the history of that. Sport doesn’t have to be knuckle dragging. Remember when they passed off Trumps “grab em by the pussy” stuff as locker talk and an American footballer came out to say, not any locker room I’ve been in. Not acceptable.
I watch sports and I do recall the old days. Culture has changed. Sport has to be part of that, and it is in much of the world.
I’m sure you know this. If media won’t take leadership, and in my experience money never takes leadership on progressive causes, the people must.
5 Likes
Kind of ironic Jay Leno was presented as the image of a modern/hip/woke comedian in that episode.
The same Jay Leno who just recently apologized for… well…
9 Likes
Not ‘stupid’; bigoted and xenophobic.
These people who make these ‘gaffs’ aren’t ‘crazy,’ nor are they dumb - they’re racist assholes, even if they don’t consciously realize it until they eventually face negative consequences.
12 Likes
I think it’s important to note whether the joke is punching up or punching down, too. I’d assume Overton was siding with the Asian folk with that joke.
3 Likes
I think in context it’s clear that The Simpsons writers intended that scene to make fun of racist out-of-touch comedians (which Krusty represented) rather than to make fun of Asian people. Though it’s not that hard to find examples of jokes on The Simpsons that feel cringey and racist themselves nowadays.
7 Likes
I live just outside Detroit but grew up in Detroit. I lived through Jack Morris’ heyday when the Tigers won the 1984 World Series. I was actually there. If you’re bored google the final game, it was not pretty outside the stadium. I fell of the roof of a moving bus and broke my ankle 3 weeks before my wedding. Reason 456 why I don’t drink anymore.
I was reading the comments in the two major Detroit news papers, the comments defending him were remarkable but not unexpected.
Many people said he was just imitating Elmer Fudd and people should quit being so easily offended.
It’s 2021 for gosh sake.
