OU Asst. Coach Cale Gundy resigns after reading "shameful word"

and yet, had the player not written it, the coach would still be there. As someone with jewish ancestry, I would never use the K word for just that reason. If I want it gone from the racist/bigot lexicon, then it starts with me. I would never say “well I can use it but you can’t”. That’s just self serving and silly.
And I had a teacher in high school that would do the same thing as what he did, if she caught you passing a note, she would read it aloud. And she was the department head, so pretty sure she had done it for years. People stopped passing notes pretty quickly. It’s a great dissuader.
And of course it was wrong, no one is defending what he did, but anyone who has ever read from a page in public knows you get ahead of your brain sometimes in where you are on the page. He likely blurted it out before even realizing what he had done.
But even if he hadn’t, and knew what he was doing, is it really a mistake that warrants an entire career being thrown away? Joe Mixon who defended him (to his credit), literally punched a female student so hard she needed reconstructive surgery, and he stayed at OU. This guy read something one of his students wrote, and his career is over. There is no one claiming he used the word himself, that he has ever used it, that he has ever done a single racist thing in his life, that he used it pejoratively towards the player, yet here we are. Read what his kid wrote and 25 good years gone.

but again, setting all that aside let’s say Joe’s characterization of him is accurate. Are the kids better served by him being there or not? It’s just a reactionary response that no one benefits from in the end, just to say “we don’t tolerate racism”, even though there was nothing racist about it. It was just a mistake. But those aren’t allowed anymore, blood must be spilled.

 

Isn't that how things work now?

You going to call a Black person a n-word? You going to stop and lecture a Black person in public if one uses the n-word? My bet is the answer to both questions is no. You under full well when it is and isn't acceptable to use the word. And the idea of a white man lecturing Black people about the proper use of a racial slur white people created to harm them is just so unbelievably tone deaf.

 

Had the coach not said it, he would still be there. He's a grown man. He is accountable for his actions. Don't blame the player for what the coach voluntarily said.

That's your choice. Some Black people choose not to say the n-word. That's their choice.

You not saying it doesn't stop racists and bigots from saying it. Again, you can make your own choices on what language you do and don't want to use.

Actions have consequences. Using a racial slur while on the job will often cost you your job.

I'm sure the kids will be fine with the coach who is replacing him. "Blood must be spilled" is an interesting way of characterizing a situation where a man resigned from his job after using a racial slur during a meeting. It's hard to take that melodramatic characterization seriously.

 

Does that make it right?

No, just the opposite as far as me saying it. I'm actually offended when I hear anyone use it (including a black person) and I don't offend easily. I'm saying it's not acceptable for ANYONE to use the "N" word. The fact that black people use it with other black people gives it a legitimacy that it SHOULD NOT have. It's a word that needs to fade into distant memory (along with several other words in the language).

 

There are a lot of words like that where only certain groups can acceptably use them. For example the negative word to describe gay people used to be said out in the open. Not anymore, though. But, some gay people might use that word with each other in their own company and joke around with each other with it. At no time do I feel like I should be allowed to say it just because they say it. Women call each other the b-word in front of men all the time, but you better not say it to them… especially in the work place. It means something different coming from someone not in the epithet’s target group. It doesn’t bother me that I can’t walk up to a group of gay people or women at work and start throwing around certain words. It also doesn’t bother me that they might use them.

 

Good points imo. The word is embedded deeply in both white and black cultures though it's use within each has far different meanings in most instances. As a white guy, I'm acutely aware of the social prohibition against me using it - and that restriction probably helps me as a person. Society would probably be better off if it was dropped from use by each group.

 

Read both statements, it’s pretty clear he was forced out but allowed to resign, given his years of service. Which is why I used the language I did. For something that had no racist intent, and on someone who had no history of racism by all accounts.
And you can ask almost any Jewish person here, it’s not just me. The word just is almost never used, even jokingly. And of course no one is pie in the sky enough to think that it will stop a bigot from using it, but people get license when a word like that is so commonly used in popular culture. You take away misunderstandings (like this almost certainly was), rationalizations, justifications etc.
bottom line is that we’ve just come to a point in society where we don’t talk or listen, anything bad has to be instantly purged - no second chances, no discussion.
It doesn’t make things better, it makes them worse.

unrelated example, I remember during the Rodney along riots, an interview with Maya Angelou. She was talking to a white friend of hers who was angry at black America for the riots, what they did in LA etc. Maya’s awesome response was “it’s ok, let’s talk about it”. The subtext was that she knew her friends heart and that they could have an open honest discussion. And it always stuck with me as the model for how to treat race in this country. If decent people are willing to talk and find common ground, that’s how things get better.
Those days seem long gone.

 

Meaningless white guy take incoming. A common explanation is that black people using the N word is taking the power back from racists and making it their own. As someone who has no meaningful say on how it is used, I don't understand why any black person thinks it's acceptable to use it in a derogatory fashion. I understand it can be used as a term of endearment which would seem to support black people taking back the word and making it something positive but again, outside of that I don't see the value.

Also, while I have no desire to use the word I think context should matter when it is spoken as in if it's a quote or a lyric.

I have no idea what's factual about the events in this situation and therefore have no opinion on it.

 

And this is just human nature. I say dumb stuff to my brother all the time, putting him down, and he puts me down. But he's family. If some guy off the street said some of the stuff I say to my brother, it would be very different and it would have a different outcome. Everyone know this is how it works. Not sure why some here are pretending like they don't.

 

I don't think anyone here is pretending like they "don't know how it works". But at least as far as I'm concerned, "how it works" doesn't mean it's "how it should work." There are certain words that simply shouldn't be given power. This is one of them as far as I'm concerned.

This exactly!

 

should people not white be fired or made to resign if they use the word honkey or cracker?

 

Yes, but John Lennon and Yoko Ono's protest song : Woman is the N__ of the World doesn't get much air play anymore.

 

It’s amazing the amount of power that one word yields to destroy the lives of so many. There are whole industries built around it. I think highlighting the use does more harm than good.

 

Depends on the setting. But neither of those words carry the same weight as the n word.

 

I would definitely get fired if I called a co-worker either of those words.

 

It seems fine to me. We understand the rules. So yes, I consider it "right."

Yet again, what standing do you have to tell Black people what to do with a racial slur designed specifically to harm them? Whenever we have these convos, I can't help but feel like the white people who want to stop Black people from using it are bothered (even if only on a subconscious level) by the change in power dynamics around the word.

Are you alleging that it's racist that white people get in trouble for using the n-word? Or is it racist that Black people don't? If it's the latter point, you're arguing that racism is Black people taking control of a racial slur that was created to harm them? Nah.

 

Internet is funny. Same people wanting to impeach Biden for reading aloud “end of quote” during a speech are up in arms about “accidentally” reading the N word out loud. I love the nuance.

 

I almost always agree with you, but not on this. If you’ve read my posts, you know my feelings about racism. Assuming only the facts as presented, I see no racism here and consider this the type of extreme “wokeness” that harms the entire movement. HOWEVER, I must believe there’s more here. Unless and until more comes to light, I consider this firing unjustified.

 

i would argue that of all the words referenced, the K word is now the least used of all, including by the bigots. So it’s had the desired effect.
And to be clear, I have never had the desire to use the word he used, I don’t feel oppressed in not being able to say it. I never have uttered it once in my adult life publicly or privately (I don’t think I ever used it even as a kid either, but I can’t promise that, kids do dumb things - I was certainly not raised to use it). And I am not saying white america should have license to because black Americans does. I am simply saying if we want a word or incidents like this gone, the less people who use it the better. It can’t be perpetuated and eliminated simultaneously. If we are taking the gun control argument that a certain amount of bad has to be accepted with the liberty, then so be it. But as long as it is used in one corner the other corner will use it too. Just a fact of,life.