Hey, black America! Did you know there were black people and (insert n-word here, even though the SportsEye has no real problem with using the n-word, but many white people get scared when they hear the n-word and take drastic action when one of their own dares call somebody they also consider an n-word the n-word)?
Anyway, longtime Oklahoma baseball coach Larry Cochell resigned Sunday, five days after using a racial slur during off-camera interviews with ESPN. Cochell submitted a letter of resignation to school president David Boren, after a meeting with athletic director Joe Castiglione and members of the university’s black community.
Now, the first assumption that many journalists and sports fans and racists and African Americans make is that black people demanded that Cochell be fired for his incredibly stupid remarks concerning one of his black players and the the university felt pressured to do so.
Wrong. First and foremost was protection of the University of Oklahoma football program. If they were to lose a blue-chip black player because of something the baseball coach said, heads would roll. Cochell’s head rolled.
But Cochell was also fired not simply because of the repeated racial slur, but because he broke the code.
If you’re white and want to get fired from a prominent job, let the n-word start flying. You could use it in a town where there are no black people, and once it gets on the news, you’re probably toast if you are anything from elected official to coach of a high school athletic team.
The Massa of The Masters Hootie Johnson would throw out any member at Augusta National that let the n-word start aflying in a national newspaper, radio or television interview. Case closed, turn in your clubs.
Now, this same n-word probably flows like water at Augusta, but that ain’t a problem. What is said in private stays in private.
But if you say this on TV, you have broken the code, and even powerful white people won’t defend you. They’ll let you twist in the wind, get fired, retire, whatever.
The code says you can underpay, under-insure, under health care, over-arrest, over-sentence and over-brutalize black people as much as you like, white America. But if America were to change, it would be because one too many knuckleheads got on TV spouting out the n-word and insulting “those people.”