Thursday, June 22, 2006

Inappropriate Dialogue


"Y'all Niggas is gay" ~ Riley Freeman, The Boondocks

If you haven't heard, Ozzie Guillen, the manager for the Chicago White Sox, called Sun-Times columnist a fag a few days ago to a group of reporters while the tape recorders and cameras were turned off.

My thoughts? Boo-fucking-who. Is it inappropriate? Yeah. It is. But in society we do this everyday - use words that are "derogatory" to describe what we think of someone. Look no further than the words of Riley Freeman for my example.

Aaron McGruder, the creator of the Boondocks, had Riley purposely call two white dudes "gay niggas" to imply that they were weird and ignorant, literally. Most people just thought it was funny, and it is. But there was more intent beyond being funny and being a black dude who could get away with using the word "nigga" over and over again on cable television.

Same can be said with Ozzie Guillen. Dude, who is clearly an idiot for thinking that since he goes to Madonna concerts that its okay to call people gay, clearly didn't mean any disrespect to homosexuals.

He meant to and should have just said what he said today: "(Mariotti) is a piece of shit."

That would have worked. Ozzie wouldn't have been fined or reprimanded. He should have watched his mouth. He shouldn't get a break because he's Latino. He shouldn't get a break at all.

But I think it's a situation where we have to look ourselves as well and wonder how many times we've said something offensive or that's not politically correct. We do it virtually everyday, but in the confines of comfort and not in the public eye.

I guess I just think it's a double standard because Aaron McGruder can get away with saying something like that in a sketch little happen, but Ozzie Guillen can't call Mariotti a fag without reprimand.

It must be noted that I agree with both McGruder and Guillen. Those two white dudes in the Boondocks were ignorant and weird (they tried to kidnap Oprah and nabbed Maya Angelou instead), and Jay Mariotti is weak (at least I think he is for not going in the ChiSox locker room to face the music).


Oh yeah, I know you're wondering why there's a random picture of Chris Rock on this post. I haven't been able to post pictures like I wanted to with my top five comedians, and it finally worked. So I thought I make use of this feature although I didn't feel like lookin for a picture of Ozzie Guillen or Mariotti.