Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Putting a whole different complexion on things

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Mike Peterson Published: February 1, 2014 1 minute 5 comments

(Keith Knight)

(Darrin Bell)

Okay, gang, this isn't about sports, though that happens to have been the venue, so, if you're not a sports fan, stick with me.

It's about the difference between tee-heeing over some kinds of misbehavior while going apoplectic over something far more minor. Or, shall we say, the "shades of difference" involved.

Here's what happened:

The NFC Championship Game came down to a final play in which, with less than 30 seconds left, San Francisco's quarterback passed into the endzone for what would have been the tying and, with the almost-automatic extra point, the winning touchdown, sending them to the Super Bowl.

Instead, Seattle defender Richard Sherman made a brilliant play, slapping the ball away and into the hands of a team mate. Result: Seattle is headed for tomorrow's championship game.

It was a spectacular finish to one of the best championship games in years.

Within a few minutes, an ESPN reporter caught Sherman on the sideline, at which point, the still pumped-up player declared that his opponents had woefully underestimated his talent.

Not quite in those words. It was not a gracious commentary, to say the least.

As it turns out, he and wide receiver Michael Crabtree, a divisional opponent he faces twice every season, have had an ongoing and bitter relationship, and Crabtree, though certainly the victim on that crucial play, may not be the victim in the game of "who started it."

In any case, Sherman's out-of-breath-out-of-context outburst touched off a firestorm of commentary in which the word "thug" was used a reported 625 times.

Sherman, who later apologized for the tone of his adrenalin-fueled remarks, said this about the term:

"The reason it bothers me is because it seems like it's an accepted way of calling somebody the N-word now. It's like everybody else said the N-word and then they say 'thug' and that's fine. It kind of takes me aback and it's kind of disappointing because they know."

Sherman hails from Compton, the underclass LA neighborhood where he earned a 4.25 GPA with honors and AP courses, and scored stratospheric SATs before enrolling at — then graduating from — Stanford, one of the few major football powers that quaintly continues to expect players to also be students. 

"I know some 'thugs,' and they know I'm the furthest thing from a thug. I've fought that my whole life, just coming from where I'm coming from. Just because you hear Compton, you hear Watts, you hear cities like that, you just think 'thug, he's a gangster, he's this, that, and the other,' and then you hear Stanford, and they're like, 'oh man, that doesn't even make sense, that's an oxymoron.'

Later, in his column at the website MMQB, Sherman listed "10 Things I Learned After America Learned About Me," among which was this:

5. It’s not all black and white. Race played a major part in how my behavior was received, but I think it went beyond that. Would the reaction have been the same if I was clean-cut, without the dreadlocks? Maybe if I looked more acceptable in conservative circles, my rant would have been understood as passion. These prejudices still play a factor in our views because it’s human nature to quickly stereotype and label someone. We all have that.

Sure. But also, bullshit.

The outrage began with Muhammad Ali, and went on to some legendary fainting spells when Billy "White Shoes" Johnson began — gasp! My smelling salts! — dancing in the end zone. The emergence of smack-talk in the NFL launched a cottage industry for horrified old men who longed for the days when the game was played in tuxedos and spats.

However, as legendary trash-talker and Hall of Fame player Michael Irvin explained, there is a deep hypocrisy between what they say they want from you and what they actually reward:

"But as I told Richard Sherman, they say they love Barry Sanders. Do you ever see them offering him a job after he retires? Do you ever see anyone bringing him up after he retires? They want you to act a certain way but then in the end they just boot you right out of the league. All of the people they talked about and said all of that stuff about, they get jobs in TV after they retire.’’

Irvin currently works as a commentator for NFL Network, as does smack-talking blowhard Warren Sapp, while, one of the funniest trash-talkers in NFL history, Shannon Sharpe, is an analyst at CBS Sports. 

And here's an additional point: The whole idea of "political correctness" is a red herring. The same people who weep over not being able to use terms that demean women or minorities fall into conniptions when anyone departs from their own personal linguistic rulebook. 

You don't have to be a genius, either, to recognize that certain terms and certain images have particular associations that you should be aware of, no matter how many people express disbelief that there is some perceptual difference between using a monkey to mock a white president and using one to mock a black president.

It's like expressing disbelief that you shouldn't drop an F-bomb when speaking to your grandmother's poetry circle.

Oh really, Grandma? You're telling me there's something called "appropriate context"? Oh, no, you're just being "socially correct." 

And now here's your moment of zen, proving that even white folks can detect this subtle hypocrisy: