Polarizing Opposites

The divisions in this nation don't seem to be getting any better on account of more attention being paid recently to the Really Racist Shit that goes on, day in and day out. If anything, it's getting worse.  Just this week came the following items:

* A woman of color in Texas was stopped for a ticky-tack traffic violation, ordered around like chattel by the arresting officer, charged with resisting when she failed to comply, and ultimately died in police custody.  The po-po's posted the alleged "full story" of the traffic stop from the onboard camera, but astute observers quickly noticed that the video had been doctored (the same car passes the scene in the exact same manner on repeat occasions, for one thing).  The cop has been suspended but not charged.

* A candidate for public office in Beautiful Northern Buffalo was caught on tape leveling multiple n-bombs against multiple city officials of color. While he lost the Conservative Party nomination to run for a city council seat, he lost it due to a petition technicality and not on account of what he said. He refuses to resign from the board of the local public housing authority which he now sits on, despite having offended a major portion of his constituency.

* In the world of fake sports, Hulk Hogan has been scrubbed entirely from the website and other public presences of this country's major professional fake wrestling organization. Turns out he got caught in an epic n-word-laced tirade.  I guess all those times he told us to be good and say our prayers didn't really count. Oh, brother.

* And in the halls of the World Wide Leader in sports coverage, their mid-morning blowhard of a national radio host talked himself right out the door yesterday when he said this:

 suggesting that baseball is so simple, even Dominicans can play it. Hardball Talk has the transcript:

    “It’s too complex? I’ve never bought into that ‘baseball is too complex.’ Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has not been known in my lifetime as having world class academic abilities. A lot of those kids come from rough backgrounds and have not had opportunities academically that other kids from other countries have. Baseball is like any sport. It’s mostly instincts. A sportswriter who covers baseball could go up to Tony La Russa and make an argument and Tony would listen and it would seem reasonable. There’s not a single NFL writer in the country who could diagram a play for Bill Belichick. You know, we get caught up in this whole ‘thinking-man’s game.’ Is it in the same family? Most people could do it. It’s not being a concert pianist. It’s in the same family.”

Most sources stopped at the second sentence mentioning those dumb Dominicans, and he complained bitterly about it being out of context. Sorry, but I don't think the rest of it helps his cause. He's still stereotyping an entire (and rather large) population of MLB players on account of his exhaustive research about some. 

He was scheduled to leave the network by fall anyway, moving over to Fox. Yeah- he'll fit in just fine over there with those attitudes.

And every one of these outliers- the cop, the public official, the Hulkster and the Herd- all have their defenders. The PC Police are at it again! He's a good man! You just don't understand.

No, actually, that's not the issue. The issue is that we DO understand better now.