"Getz is Gay"

So scrawled White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham in a the dirt as a playful greeting to his friend on the Royals, former White Sox teammate Chris Getz.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/6412923-574/gordon-beckham-sorry-for-gay-slur-but-he-should-know-better.html

Beckham, in the comments to Telander, clearly does not seem to understand why this is offensive to people. He keeps trying to explain that it was just a joke, just a joke, etc., etc. He meant no harm. He apologizes to "anyone who was offended." But he used "gay" as an insult, and whether he was "joking" or not doesn't matter. In fact, "joking" makes it just as bad/worse. Would you say, "Getz is Black"? "Getz is a Jew"?

Can't believe these guys don't know better at this point. I think there are nuanced ways to joke about race and sexual orientation these days. Smart sitcoms do it all the time. It's called irony. That's not what this was.

 

Comes just a few days after the DeSean Jackson incident. Professional sports is realllll slow to come around on this one.....

 

The approach seems to be completely wrong, in terms of educating athletes. It feels - to me, at least - that they are being told that, basically, the rest of the world is just hypersensitive and that's why you shouldn't say these things. Because we live in a "politically correct" world and so forth and so on. Thinking never gets changed because they are only taught that saying it is wrong, because it offends people, and never get old why thinking it is wrong in the first place.

 

I'm a little torn.

What he did was wrong. There's no debating that. I hate that he did that.

But, I also hate that we're at the point where everybody is so hypersensitive about it.

Was what he did wrong? Yes... I wish there was some way to just smack the guy upside the head and say, "Hey dumbass, don't do it again." rather than have to listen to him apologize to "anyone who might have been offended..."

 

How many people still say gypped? Eliminate that and retarded and get back to me.

 

Just my opinion, but I think people have become way too sensitive to stuff like this.

 

Easy for you to say when you're not the object of the derision.

 

No, Hollywood gets away with it because their money goes to support "the cause."

He should be shot.

 

This is completely different than the hyper sensitive world you guys are talking about. Like racism, homophobia is a dangerous reality that has got to be combated. You call this hypersensitive... would it be hypersensitive if someone wrote the N-word, and then was criticized for it?

My guess is you will probably say "the N-word is different." Why, though? What makes the N-word different from "gay" or "faggot"? 60 years ago, it would have been called hypersensitive to call someone out for using the N-word in public. Now, thank God, we've realized that's simply not okay. Hopefully we'll get there soon with "gay".

And btw, Stitch, if an athlete used the word "retarded" in a post game presser.... how do you think that reaction would be?

 

and what cause would that be?

 

printdust, what was your opinion when the ESPN First Take host made disparaging comments about Jesus at the Mike & Mike roast?