Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 23

Thread: Our PC Culture Just Got Even More Ridiculous - Bernie Goldberg

  1. #1
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    16,274
    Thanked: 14133
    Blog Entries
    1

    Our PC Culture Just Got Even More Ridiculous - Bernie Goldberg

    Every now and then a news item pops up that is so ridiculous that you figure it's just got to be fake news, somebody's idea of a joke. You check the calendar to make sure it's not April Fools' Day. And when you realize it isn't, you come to understand that in our hypersensitive culture, a news story can be factual, accurate and preposterous all at the same time.

    Which brings us to the TV play-by-play man for the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team in the National Basketball Association. The announcer, Brian Davis, was calling a game in which the team's star player, Russell Westbrook, was having another spectacular game. He had just made a pass setting up a basket – one of a staggering 19 assists he made in the game — when Davis put an exclamation point on the Westbrook pass, saying Westbrook was playing "out of his cotton-pickin' mind."

    Davis is white and Westbrook is black, in case you haven't figured that out. And in case you have absolutely no knowledge of history, slaves once upon a time picked cotton in the South.

    So reparations for the ugly past had to be paid, more than 150 years after slavery ended. How? By taking what passes for the moral high ground. The Thunder suspended Davis for one game. No fooling.

    Never mind that cotton pickin' is a term used in the South by a lot of old white guys and old black guys as a genteel replacement for a harsher words, like damn – and worse.

    "It's cotton pickin' hot today," sounds more refined to the southern ear than, "It's damn hot today" or "It sure is f'ing hot today."

    The term has ugly racial connotations only for those who look in all sorts of places for supposed ugly racial connotations.

    None of this matters, of course. The comment touched off a heated reaction on social media, where the sanctimonious play judge and jury. And when the verdict was returned, Davis was found guilty.

    A team executive, Dan Mahoney, the Thunder's vice president of broadcasting and corporate communications, said the Thunder considered the comment "offensive and inappropriate" and announced the suspension.

    But it gets worse. Davis, the play-by-play man, said while he meant no harm, he deserved what he got. "While unintentional, I understand and acknowledge the gravity of the situation," he said. "I offer my sincere apology and realize that, while I committed a lapse in judgment, such mistakes come with consequences. This is an appropriate consequence for my actions."

    The only word that comes to mind is pathetic.

    Like most journalists I try to write about things that are important. So I hesitated to write about something so inane. But after a while I came to believe that this is important – as an indication of how silly we've become on important matters like race.

    If using the term cotton pickin' is "offensive and insensitive" then what should we call words that really are offensive and insensitive? Doesn't making a mountain out of this molehill – if it's even that – trivialize serious questions about race in America?

    If there's any good news coming out of this it's that we've made so much progress on racial matters in this country since the days of Jim Crow, that matters like this come off to reasonable people, regardless of their race I suspect, as nonsense.

    In the bad old days, Martin Luther King wouldn't have wasted two seconds of his precious time on this. We shouldn't either – except to point out how cotton pickin' ridiculous our PC culture has become.

    https://bernardgoldberg.com/68975-2/

  2. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to fuego For This Useful Post:

    Ezekiel 33 (04-20-2018), Romans828 (04-19-2018)

  3. #2
    Our world is so much better for calling out and suspending Davis. Good grief.

  4. #3
    Senior Member Pentecali's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Posts
    3,973
    Thanked: 2541
    Blog Entries
    2
    I think this is one reason people in public are so uptight now. People in general seem much more nervous, fearful, afraid to even make any eye contact with another human being. Why? There’s so many delicate snowflakes, crazies on heavy anti depressants ready to snap. We need a great spiritual awakening and nationwide renewal like never before

  5. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Pentecali For This Useful Post:

    Ezekiel 33 (04-20-2018), Quest (04-20-2018), Romans828 (04-20-2018)

  6. #4
    Senior Member wheeze's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    1,488
    Thanked: 862
    Blog Entries
    1
    Now just wait a cotton picking minute here....

  7. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to wheeze For This Useful Post:

    Ezekiel 33 (04-20-2018), Quest (04-20-2018)

  8. #5
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    16,274
    Thanked: 14133
    Blog Entries
    1
    I've use that phrase since I learned it as a kid and until this story it's never crossed my mind it might be racist. I never even thought about "cotton picking'" and what it might be referencing. I'm sure the announcer didn't either. I saw a black sportscaster on a sports talk show (he's 50) and he said it never crossed his mind either. This extreme overreaction to things like this is desensitizing people to real racism.

  9. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to fuego For This Useful Post:

    Ezekiel 33 (04-20-2018), Romans828 (04-20-2018)

  10. #6
    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Ashville, Alabama
    Posts
    5,920
    Thanked: 3402
    Blog Entries
    2
    Quote Originally Posted by wheeze View Post
    Now just wait a cotton picking minute here....
    Mods...should we ban him for a week? A day? An hour?

    We simply MUST recognize and refuse to succumb to the pressure to conform!

  11. #7
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Oslo, Norway
    Posts
    14,487
    Thanked: 5793
    Quote Originally Posted by fuego View Post
    I've use that phrase since I learned it as a kid and until this story it's never crossed my mind it might be racist. I never even thought about "cotton picking'" and what it might be referencing. I'm sure the announcer didn't either. I saw a black sportscaster on a sports talk show (he's 50) and he said it never crossed his mind either. This extreme overreaction to things like this is desensitizing people to real racism.
    A non-American with basic knowledge of history would frown at that in zero seconds. It must have been one of those terms that just didn't die as racism became socially unacceptable.

    Who else besides slaves ever picked cotton ?

  12. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel View Post
    A non-American with basic knowledge of history would frown at that in zero seconds. It must have been one of those terms that just didn't die as racism became socially unacceptable.

    Who else besides slaves ever picked cotton ?
    "Poor white farmers, who previously had done little cotton farming, needed cash as well and became sharecroppers" after the Reconstruction - Wikipedia

  13. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by wheeze View Post
    Now just wait a cotton picking minute here....
    I am OFFENDED. For one thing, my ancestors were FRUIT PICKERS!!! And it didn't take a "minute". It took HOURS!!!

    Please revise your statement to read the following: "Now just wait a fruit picking several hours here...."

    Thank you for your cooperation.
    Christ's Victory Bible Teaching Center
    Web site: http://www.cvbibleteachingcenter.org


    Vindicating God Ministries
    (A Unique New Bible Teaching Ministry)
    Web site: http://www.vindicatinggod.org
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vindicatinggod
    Gab: https://gab.com/victoriousword
    Minds: https://www.minds.com/victoriousword/
    MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/troyedwards15

  14. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to victoryword For This Useful Post:

    Ezekiel 33 (04-20-2018), FireBrand (04-20-2018), Quest (04-20-2018)

  15. #10
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Oslo, Norway
    Posts
    14,487
    Thanked: 5793
    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan david View Post
    "Poor white farmers, who previously had done little cotton farming, needed cash as well and became sharecroppers" after the Reconstruction - Wikipedia
    "Many ex-slaves as well as poor whites worked in the sharecropping system in serf-like conditions"

    Okay so some were white and cotton picking machines weren't around until 1920. It was still a slave-like job.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Has your Ford Focus warranty expired? Get a fast online quote from CarWarrantyUS today. Enjoy the open road and leave the repairs to us.