ESPN Tennis analyst fired for "racist" comment
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Hamsterman11 — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 04:07 PM)
Hmm I could imagine that native American being changed to Samoan here and I think most people would just laugh it off as un pc humour. I don't pretend to understand the issues around race in America fully though, it seems to be a different animal to most of the other anglo celtic countries.
Edit: Oh, it's a reference to scalping? Right, that does change things a bit. Yeah that's bad then. -
Rey_Kahuka — 9 years ago(February 03, 2017 05:08 AM)
Oh, it's a reference to scalping? Right, that does change things a bit. Yeah that's bad then.
It's the only way that statement makes any sense. He had to have meant it that way. And specific racial connotations aside, imagine he had said the exact same thing about a black player. "He's black, don't take your helmet off around him, he could hurt ya." He would've been canned that night, no question, simply for using the player's race to suggest he's somehow more dangerous.
The future is in the hands of a man who has none.
(As in no future, as opposed to no hands.) -
Jep_Gambardella — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 04:16 PM)
If he meant "gorilla", in my opinion the firing is wholly justified. It is unacceptable to refer to a black person as a gorilla, no ifs and buts about it.
"Lynching" doesn't have any racial conotation to me, but then I am not American.
I am assuming that the one about the Native American player was a reference to scalping? That is pretty bad I guess, although it could probably be excused as a bad joke. -
knowlto — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 09:14 AM)
Whether or not you think it's racist (personally I think the guy has some ingrained biases like everyone does, and I don't think he should be fired for it), he definitely meant "gorilla". Guerilla fighters don't charge. They hide and ambush because they can't win a head-on conflict.
Tell the facts. Name the names. -
cosmic_surveyor — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 09:42 AM)
Martina Navratilova was the greatest, and most
opportune
, in her 'guerrilla' tactic of attacking the net against mostly baseline players. Yet, that adjective was never attributed to Martina, by anyone.
Adler could have recently read a book or watched a film that had 'guerrilla' as an integral part. The analogue trigger and response, unfiltered like many discourses nowadays, led him down this path.
A demotion is certainly warranted. A dismissal is over-the-top. But then again, he had no such reasonable excuse to explain his choice of word. Venus' play is nowehre in Martina Navratilova's realm of net play to earn the adjective, "guerrilla".
Is it the Devil in the whiskey, or is it the Devil in him? ???
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bh_tafe3 — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 11:08 AM)
In the article, Elder points out several recent (last 5 years) uses of the word "guerilla" in Tennis commentary. This is a ridiculous reason to sack somebody. He apologised, something I don't think he should have to have done. No further action by his employer was warranted. This is hysteria and nothing more.
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bh_tafe3 — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 05:10 PM)
I'm surprised anyone is defending the network here. This is utterly ridiculous. Idiots sitting around and looking for reasons to be offended, and in so doing, cheapening genuine racism, sexism and xenophobia.
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Hamsterman11 — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 10:27 PM)
I certainly can't imagine anyone in this part of the world getting fired for that comment. Paul Holmes comment on Kofi Annan "He is a cheekie darky" was far worse and I know Paul only got stood down for maybe a week at the most. That was like 14 years ago though.
There was a sports radio host last year who managed to make homophobic comments about AFL players (yawn), sexist comments about netballers (Probably kinda had a point but expressed in completely the wrong way) and racist comments about pacifc islanders (definitely racist, though not with malicious intent) and managed to keep his job initially, though he did eventually lose his monday to friday spot and is now on the weekends.
Then again, I just remembered Warren Ryan. -
markvoyager — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 08:32 PM)
Off course he meant gorilla. Gorillas charge. It's what they are known for. Christ, I was charged by an actual gorilla while in Rwanda. That was scary for a few seconds.
Do I have a problem with his comment? Not really. Willing to accept it was an honest mistake. -
haroldbaines — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 08:39 PM)
Yeah, he meant gorilla, not guerilla. He may not have meant it in a racial manner though.
Give him another chance, I say.
I agree. He could have said it in regards to anyone, this person just happen to be black and of course everyone is going to think he's making a racist comment because everyone looks for that stuff in every sentence uttered in public.
Only an idiot would actually call a black woman a gorilla on a public broadcast in a racist way and think it would be okay. -
Xeliou66 — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 09:06 PM)
This is one case where I support the firing. He meant gorilla, not guerrila, gorillas are known for charging, and he wouldn't have said it had it been a white player. I think this comment was pretty clearly racist, referring to a black person as a gorilla is unacceptable.
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Painbow — 9 years ago(February 03, 2017 05:47 AM)
Sounds like gorilla to me.
I think this might be more sexist than racist though as it focuses on the fact that she's a big tank of a woman rather than because she's black.
We live in a hysterical time where EVERYTHING is racist, sexist, homophobic etc and it's getting on my nerves. Give him the benefit of the doubt (unless he's the one trying to suggest he said guerilla that is). -
RecordBreaker84 — 9 years ago(February 03, 2017 06:37 AM)
And ESPN continues to lose subscribers by the hundreds of thousands Let them crash, they use to be the best thing on TV, now they're just some lame political/sports hybrid bent on brainwashing. Screw them. I have a sports app that does just fine.