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Was Grantland Rice a Bigot?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Boom_70, Jun 13, 2011.

  1. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Interesting story today in DEADSPIN today by Tommy Craggs:

    http://deadspin.com/5810019/why-grantland-rice-sucked

    "Four years later, he called the success of American blacks at the Berlin games "Darktown on parade" and wrote: "America will be okay until it runs out of African entries. ... We may have to comb Africa again for some winners." Elsewhere, Joe Louis was "stalking" his prey, a "panther" with the "speed of the jungle, the instinctive speed of the wild."
     
  2. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    The same guy who had his job offer from Grantland.com rescinded when he went off on Lynn Hoppes' infamous "office tour" video? Now there's a guy with no ax to grind ...
     
  3. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    If he is so high and mighty on the subject, I guess he will never use the phrase "Rupp Arena" again.
     
  4. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    "A young Rice once wrote (most of the quotes here come via Charles Fountain's biography, Sportswriter): "Did you ever hear of the battles of Gettysburg, Bull Run or Waterloo? Of how Napoleon crossed the Alps on a mule and Washington the Delaware on a piece of floating ice? Well, all these were mere skirmishes compared with the struggle that took place yesterday at Athletic Park.""

    Prep writers everywhere owe a major debt to Grantland Rice.
     
  5. Let me put it this way. Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? Morons!

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Actually, this went up the day Grantland debuted. It can be considered part of Deadspin's official response.
     
  7. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    He was a man of times. I'd be shocked if he wasn't a bigot because bigotry was rampant in the early 1900s.
     
  8. Grantland Rice was no more a bigot than Jack London
     
  9. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Serious question.
    If Grantland Rice came along today and tried to turn the same phrases he did back in the day, would he ever be allowed to do more than string high school football games for the Podunk Press? And probably get bitched at by a forehead-slapping SE?
    Or do hacky writers today only do that because guys like Grantland Rice did it first, were allowed to do it, and achieved a degree of fame with that style?
     
  10. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I imagine 50 years from now, people will be asking if sportswriter X was a sexist and people will say "eh, no more, no less than anyone else. You have to remember the times."
     
  11. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Look how racist your grandparents and great-grandparents were 60 years ago and get back to us.
     
  12. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    TImes were different back then. Joe Louis was given a host of nicknames that would be considered offensive today.

    Heck, "Brown Bomber" was one of his most famous nicknames. Imagine calling anyone that today.
     
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