I am sure that you all know about the Sergio Tiger feud by now, and about Sergio going all Fuzzy Zoeller on Tiger at a dinner recently, and then his clumsy apology for the "unintended" racist remark. (Digression alert: I happen to like fried chicken. It's a shame that it's not really good for you and I have to limit my intake of the stuff. So I have never understood why white folks use fried chicken as a putdown of us black folks. Especially when I see white folks tearing into the stuff on a regular. The Colonel did not get rich serving fried chicken to only black folks. Remember that.)
So anyway, Euro Tour CEO George O'Grady was apologizing on behalf of Sergio, and the poor guy came off looking worse than Sergio himself when it comes to this racial sensitivity thing.
"In trying to defend, or at least rationalize, Sergio Garcia's "fried chicken" shot at Tiger Woods, European Tour CEO George O'Grady took to the airwaves of Sky Sports. And in the course of his defense, O'Grady offered up this gem: "Most of Sergio's friends are colored athletes in the United States.''
Ouch. Yes, go ahead and look at your calendar ... this is indeed 2013. Golf has a reputation for being stuck in the past, and nowhere is it more apparent than at moments like this." [Source]
Well, as noted in the article, maybe "colored" has a different meaning across the pond than it does here in America. But my man in his position should have known better. As a white man, you can't just drop the C word when addressing racism from a position of power in 2013.
O'Grady immediately issued a statement of apology: "I deeply regret using an inappropriate word in a live interview for Sky Sports for which I unreservedly apologize."
Relax George; my racism meter is not registering with you. My stupid meter, on the other hand, is blowing up.
Speaking of stupid, someone ought to try and give the school district up there in New York a clue.
"In the annals of political correctness run amok in American schools, this story — if true — is easily an all-timer.
A junior-high school Spanish teacher has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired from P.S. 211 in the Bronx in March 2012 because of a misunderstanding over the word “negro.”
The non-tenured teacher, 65-year-old Petrona Smith, maintains that she was instructing her class about how to say the various basic colors in Spanish, reports the New York Post. The word “negro” naturally came up because “negro” is the Spanish word for “black.”
A seventh-grade student in the class took offense at the term, however, believing the word to be a racial slur. It’s not clear if Smith directed the term at the student. Whatever the case, he reported the incident to school officials.
But, wait. It gets better. Smith, a native of the West Indies, is black. And to top it all off, P.S. 211 is bilingual.
Smith’s attorney, Shaun Reid, called the charge that allegedly led to his client’s termination ridiculous.
'They haven’t even accounted for how absurd it is for someone who’s black to be using a racial slur to a student,' Reid told the Post.
School officials refused to make any comment about the allegations in the lawsuit. As such, the publicly-known facts are tremendously one-sided at this point." [Source]
OK, I suspect that the school district might have wanted to get rid of this teacher and that this was just an excuse to do so, or some sort of tipping point for past sins. But come on now, Negro?!
"But Field, what's the difference between 'colored' and 'Negro"'?
It's all about context.
Finally Field hands, I will be out of the country for the next few days, so I am not sure how my posts are going to go. I will try, but life doesn't always cooperate with this blogging thing.
If they let me back in the country, I will be in full blogging mode again sometime next week.
Peace.
