Where's the Outrage?

From www.tonguetied.us

An NFL player who made a wise crack about an opposing player?s penchant for watermelon and fried chicken was ?just being funny,? reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

When Miami Dolphin Junior Seau was asked by reporters how be planned to stop former teammate LaDainian Tomlinson, an African-American, on the field during a game, he reportedly said, ?Just kind of give him a couple of watermelons, load him up with some fried chicken and just say, you know, ‘Keep eating.’ "

Seau said there were no racial overtones to his comments. Former teammate Marcellus Wiley said: “I’m sure it was harmless. Junior has that side of him that we know and unfortunately maybe America doesn’t know. He’s not the new Rush Limbaugh, I don’t think.”

It’s interesting how the media chooses who to slam and who not to slam for shit like that. I guess it depends on whether they think the person is someone who needs brought down a few notches or not. All’s fair in racism and propaganda I suppose.

And to be clear, I don’t think anything big should have been made of Junior or Rush’s comments.

Junior Seau and Tomlinson are former teammates and good friends. They used to eat fried chicken together every Friday when they were teammates, which is where that comment came from.

Tomlinson caused some controversy by wearing Seau’s jersey as a show of respect to him 2 days before that comment. Seau wore Tomlinson’s jersey on Wednesday to show his respect for him.

I think the media made the right choice by not making a big deal about this one.

Couple of ESPN articles that give more info (right click and open in new window):
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1644266
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1644682

It basically works like this- If you’re white, you can’t say anything about a minority, or you’re a bigoted racist. If you’re a minority and you say something about a white guy, you are either a) a stand-up comedian b) stickin’ it to the man c) fighting centuries of oppression with your guaranteed right to free speech.

P.J. O’Rourke had a great take on this “If you want to really wound a liberal white person, call them a racist. They will go to great lengths to prove that they aren’t. Don’t try this on minorities. They don’t give a shit.”

The media is the problem here. They are dicks when it comes to things like this. They love to jump all over people for saying something that could be taken as “racist” because they are merely interested in sensationalism. Who cares?

Remember Fuzzy Zoeller? Give me a break. Tiger Woods was going to pick the meal for an occasion and fuzzy said something about eating “Fried chicken and collard greens”. Every PC asshole in the media immediately jumps all over him for saying something that, I suppose to defensive assholes who know he’s right, got offended. Its a black thing right? Well, I recall going down to NC about 6-7 years ago for the first time; it was my first time in the south. I stayed with a very nice white family (my girlfriend’s parents) over the Thanksgiving holiday; you know what we ate a few times down there? FRIED CHICKEN AND COLLARD GREENS.

I guess its just what “they” eat in the south. Bugger off you hyper-sensitive asshats.

D-lo,

I totally agree. Rush was making a point about media bias with his comments. I didn’t hear anything racial in his comments, but the friggin’ media sure did! If these two ball players are friends and have inside jokes on each other then who are the media to say otherwise? It’s all about creating some senationalism where there isn’t any. I wonder if minorities are really as sensitive about such comments as we’re all led to believe or if it’s all media hoopla. Anyone in the know here care to enlighten me? Most of the time it seems like “Wag the dog” shit to me…

no no no… QTip is completely right. They are good friends and it was a joke between the two of them, and I think Junior was hoping that the media would blow it up. Unfortunately, they realized that he was playing with them and they kept it quiet.

Phaedrus

Sick of the PC media!
Sick of the stinking Liberals!
Sick of Hillary Clinton!

(How did Hillary get in there?)

agreed. fuck the media. they’re soley out for ratings.

A few things to note:

Junior Seau is not a white guy, he is Samoan.

I’m not sure what it is like in America, but in New Zealand it is a pretty big stereotype that Samoans (and other Polynesian races) eat a lot of KFC. It’s not just an Afro-American thing.

so… southerners like cornbread, blacks like fried chicken, mexicans like tacos, asians like rice, and germans like chocolate.

i dont’ think this is a big deal. it says something about what each of these people/cultures like to eat.

racism is the implication that one race/ethnicity is better than another… it could be argued that rush made that implication of blacks (i dont need to argue this one). i dont see that with the watermelon/chicken comment at all.

Rathman-If one of my friends said something that might be construed as “racist”, I know that he meant to do it because that’s the way we are with each other. Pretty childish, I know, but that’s us. As far as saying that Asians eat rice, it’s pretty nuch a staple in their diet, but my dad hates it. Says he ate enough as a kid to last him a lifetime. As far as getting all offended because someone said something that I don’t like, well that’s total bullshit. There may be some people who really do take offense, but grow up! Look, if some white guy calls me a chink, dink, zip, nip, gook, or jap, I’m going to laugh at him for not being able to come up with anything better. Same goes for an Asian who calls me a banana. Bottom line, it’s an easy out to cry racism and put all the attention on someone else. I was in college in the early 90s’ when PC was at it’s height. I saw any number of well-reasoned, intelligent arguments be dismissed because a minority labelled them as “racist” and everyone turned on the offender making hissing noises. My personal feeling is this: some people may honestly not like me because of my ethnicity. So? People all over the world hate me because of where I live, my religion, or what I do on a Saturday night. Give me a break. At least get to know me, then you have a real reason to hate me… There are people out there who pre-judge us all the time. And when I say “us” I mean T-nation citizens. Because we work out and watch our nutrition, we’re narcissistic, shallow, self-absorbed, and obsessive. Hmmmmm, I seem to have rambled all over. Bottom line, if it works in our favor, we’ll cry “racism”

agreed the media is a bunch of a-holes. however having said that i think there is a big difference between fuzzy zellar, an old white guy that plays an elitist game that has been dominated by prejudice, sexist assholes for centuries, and a guy that plays nfl football.

So, P-Dog, you’re saying that the meaning of what one guy said versus what another guy said should be based on his profession? Or is it more based on his skin color?

no im not saying that exactly. but i think its a lot easier to believe that fuzzy’s comment was racist rather than junior’s. personally i dont think either one is racist. i hope you see where im coming from?

Fuzzy Zellar=Drunk Racist

We need to drop all this PC bullshit. If someone says that I am an “inbred cracker ass redneck” (insert insult) because I’m white and from GA, so be it. I only need to worry about it if it is true. If it is then I need to move to Kentucky or Alabama. If you cry over shit like this then you are f’n weak. Call Jessy Jackson, because I don’t want to hear you whine!

Me Solomon Grundy

Its usually white fatasses who get pissed over ‘racial remarks’ because they are trying so hard to prove that they are not racist. Take for example a previous post here on T-MAG. Someone said something as harmless as

“you have that in spades” referring to a guy’s great body.

It was taken as a racial slur, and taken completely out of context…

Too much BS political correctness has virtually ruined society, and made every person with any sort of media exposure to walk on eggshells whenever in an interview for fear of portrayed in a negative light.

P-Dog: Good, that’s what I hoped you meant. It’s too easy to go down the slippery slope when one begins to make analyses of what is racist and what is not based upon the race or class of the person speaking.

Anyhow, I agree with the general thrust of most responses on this thread. People need to calm down about perceived racism.

However, I think it’s also good to be aware of the double standard Doogie pointed out originally. I think it’s basically perpetuated by the media, but I think it’s undeniable that white people are painted “racist” with greater quickness and less analysis than are minorities, and I think that conservatives are painted racist much more quickly and with less analysis than are liberals. Just look at the whole incident this weekend with Howard Dean that the Confederate Flag. I don’t think Howard Dean is a racist at all, but you can bet the reaction would have been a lot different if it had been George W. Bush.