I wonder what would happen if this story was told another way?
Like this, for instance:
A thread.
One time, there was this guy named Jon who was a coach for the Oakland Raiders. He was not racist. He worked with an executive named Bruce. Bruce was not racist, either. They were part of the NFL, which is also not racist.
But then Jon left and moved to Tampa and won a super bowl with the players from the previous coach’s team. The previous coach was Black.
When Jon started coaching his own players after the Super Bowl, his team was terrible. So he hired his executive friend who was not racist
But Jon still sucked. So ESPN, who is not racist, hired Jon, who is not racist to broadcast games for the NFL, which was not racist.
Meanwhile Bruce, who was not racist, went to work for the Washington Redskins, which was not racist.
That’s when Jon & Bruce began trading racist email. And I know what you’re thinking. But just because Bruce was writing & receiving racist emails while he was the PRESIDENT & GM of a team with a racist name, doesn’t make him racist!
And just because Jon typed racist things to Bruce while Bruce was working at the not-racist team with the racist name doesn’t make racist! Doing racist things shouldn’t make you a racist! When Jon typed that a black dude had “lips the size of Michelin tires,” it wasn’t racial!
Jon didn’t even say he had “rubber lips.” He mentioned the SIZE. But it want racial!
And just because the guy at the team with the racist name didn’t say ANYTHING, it doesn’t mean he’s racist!
And ESPN is DEFINITELY not racist!
How can an organization be racist? Of course, their employees keep getting recorded saying racist stuff but it doesn’t make them racist!
And it doesn’t mean the NFL is racist just because they employed a GM who didn’t say anything when he received racist emails!
They are not racist just because they didn’t do anything when these racist emails emerged!
And just because the NFL is run by owners who kicked a guy out of the league for doing much less, it doesn’t make them racist.
They’re cool with Jay-Z!
guess how NOT RACIST the NFL is?
They let the guy who stayed silent about the racist emails hire the guy who was sending the racist emails to be the head coach of the team with a racist name!
Also they had a team with a racist name. But who’s counting?
When all of this emerged, the not-racist NFL didn’t do anything. The not-racist network did nothing. They didn’t get together like they did with Kaepernick. They didn’t suspend anyone. They didn’t change rules. And here’s the thing:
They ALL really believe they’re not RACIST!
They honestly think that racism is unlike anything else that ever existed in the history in the world. If you farm, then you are a “farmer.”
But, for some reason, you can DO RACIST THINGS things and still swear you aren’t racist.
You can have racist people RUN YOUR ORGANIZATION and not be a racist organization. You can even HAVE A RACIST NAME and PUT YOUR RACISM IN WRITING and no one—not “objective” newspapers who won’t even point out the lie YOU SAID DIRECTLY TO THEM…
“Rubber lips…” GTFOH
And most of all, you can allow the racist to be racist and say nothing.
If it were a robbery, you’d be an accomplice. If it were a white woman, they’d be held civilly liable. But it’s just a white man talking to a white man so, doing nothing about it doesn’t mean Jon’s racist.
But I don’t even dislike Jon Gruden. In fact, actually don’t have an anti-Gruden bone in my body
This could’ve an email.
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