Originally posted by Mike from MD:
Skillet, do you think Harrison would have offered an apology if not caught making his statement?
Of course not. Who would? Think about what you're saying, Mike. People say derogatory things about other people in private every day. Put a mic in any locker room in the country and you will hear awful things about players from the other team. It's life. People don't apologise if the person they are offending doesn't hear the offense. Not very noble, but hardly unique.
Bet you never experienced the violence perpetrated by angry black parents after your lily-white team beat their kids in a U10 football game. You are an ivory tower liberal has no idea what he's talking about.
I'm guessing this is your real issue here, Mike. You're upset over things that have nothing to do with this situation.
Have I been in racially-charged situations? Sure. I'm in my 60's. Seen a lot of nonsense in all directions over the years. But once I am out of such a situation, I try to understand it. Doesn't mean I don't get upset over it, but I try hard to put the anger or other emotions aside and make sense out of it.
Because I am, in fact, an "ivory tower liberal," I see it as a special responsibility to try to work toward understanding behavior, explaining it, and thinking about how to improve it. I think that after making his dumb comment, Harrison has done the right thing, and Kaminsky has responded graciously in return: "He reached out to me, we talked about it, [I'm] over it," Kaminsky told reporters Saturday. "Nothing needs to be made out of it."
As Slate hinted at above, I don't think Harrison was really making a racist comment so much as speaking in a regrettable vernacular particular to African American youth today (and to which Stephen Smith noted is a real problem). Kaminsky (and Decker) was the cause of Harrison's grief and he knew it. I think his sentiment was "I hate that SOB." And in a perverse fashion, it was a sign of respect. BUT, name-calling, using a racial epithet, and a profanity all wrapped up in one is really not a good thing. Apology offered whole-heartedly, and accepted graciously, good things.