ESPN commentator on RGIII: "He’s kind of black, but he’s not really"

Good riddance, Rob!!

 

thank you

 

it wasn't right that they fired him for speaking his opinion.

 

He had the right to speak his opinion, and ESPN had the right to fire him for stating such remarkable stupidity on their network and rightly deduced it would cause a serious backlash if action was not taken. Plainly stated, his voiced opinion was bad for their business (as well as being incredibly offensive), so they let him go, that's just good business.

 

I'm sure ESPN has a contractual policy where on air commentators aren't allowed to make certain inflammatory statements.

Calling a BM not really Black because he has a White fiancee is a dismissable offense IMO.

If a White guy said it, his career would be over.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom to be an idiot.

 

Freedom doesnt mean freedom from consequence. I have a right to own a gun if I dont abide by the law my ass will face the consequences

 

I've never understood the kind of black man who would look down on another black man for interracial dating. That's a really weird corner of the "race thing".

With all the numerous other groups who hate social mobility for the black man, I'm surprised a black man would hate on it too.

 

I hear you. And since when did your sexual/interpersonal proclivities signify social mobility, anyway? When did it stop being about who you're attracted to and take on all this other weight?

 

i don't disagree with your opinion because it is the truth but my feeling is that this is the problem. there seems to be no place to facilitate an opinion without fearing repercussions.

personally i didn't find what he said all that offensive.....if anything made it offensive was the way he said it. the only real issue is limiting it to rg3. he should talk about lebron,kobe,tiger,etc because they all are the same.

 

what law did he break? the consequence he recieved in my opinion is the result of a corporate withhunt to protect there new golden goose.

 

apples and oranges-
when a white person does it, its racist. they have advantages due to being white in almost every facet of of life. if they wanted fairness they would dismantle the system of white priviledge.

besides that he didn't say it was because he had a white wife, he gave a list of reasons, one of which is that he had friends in dc that have been around rg3, saw his actions and interpreted them to be a certain way.

 

tbh, look at the video....i find too much ppl are parsing what he said and taking it out of context.

 

If he wanted to state his own opinion as to what defines "a real Black man" he should have started his own network or blog, then he can say what he wants on the subject.

We certainly disagree as to whether his comments were offensive, as far as I am concerned there is no "one way" or set of criterion that defines what it means to be, in his words "a real brotha". I'm sure the fact that I married a White woman, am a political conservative, love golf, classical music, and falconry would disqualify me as a "real brotha" and not "down for the cause" in his opinion, yet I have and continue to give of my time and resources to help people of all colors. That is what I find so offensive about his comments.

 

I agree, even though I still disagree with what he said. Perhaps the word should have been "everyday", i.e. "he's not the kind of guy you meet everyday", but who cares what this guy thinks anyway? I sure don't. In fact, I'd never seen him before this. Next topic.

 

Lets also not forget two things....

#1 The topic of RG3's blackness was and is irrelevant. Last time I checked, I cant just bring up any and everything I have an opinion on in my office meetings.

#2 Rob Parker's excuse for bringing it up in the first place was a straw man argument. No one concerned themselves with such a question until Rob Parker decided to speak for the "barbershop"

 

well again if you work for a company i don't disagree that you are accountable to their standards but from what he (rod parker) has said after the fact was in the green room before the show they knew what he was gonna say. so its phony on their part to pretend like this was some out of the blue statement by parker.

and again all of this talk about him mentioning rg3's wife is taken out of context. he was talking about the fact that rg3 seems to be someone who wants to distance himself from the black experience to endear himself to whites like oj and tiger did before him. just like his republicanism,etc.

 

true,but he did it on a sports talk show which is what they do.

 

1-1st take is a sports talk show. it's not comparable to a regular office watercooler.
2- rob parker never said he was speaking for all of black america. he specifically said it was his opinion.

 

1. Unless youre the owner, theres ALWAYS a code of conduct or protocol to follow.

2. I didnt say he claimed to be speaking for America. Not even sure where you got that. What Parker did was claim to speak on behalf of the people in his barbershop and or the ilk. i.E. using a straw man to excuse the validity of the subject.

Any way you slice it. It wasnt a subject that warranted discussion on a sports talk show. Like I said, it was and is irrelevant. A 22 year old rookie QB in a playoff hunt shouldn't be concerned with how hes perceived by a few crabs in a barrel.

Whats funny is, you never hear anyone question Antonio Cromartie or Dez Bryant's blackness.

 

The bolded part above speaks to my point, there is no "one" Black experience. There are, and have always been conservative Black people and coupling and even marriage between people of different melanin levels has been going on for centuries. To imply that any Black man who fits either or both of these categories is somehow "less" Black or trying to ingratiate himself to another culture is asinine beyond belief. Using Rod Parker's definition of a "real brotha" would exclude the likes of Frederick Douglass, a man who literally risked his life everyday to improve the lives of other Black people yet had a White wife during a time when that alone was enough to elicit death threats.

Max made a GREAT point with his example of how you never hear anyone question the "Blackness" of the many sports figures who have multiple brushes with the law, or numerous paternity suits, or any other bad behavior that is commonly ascribed to "Black" athletes. This kind of crap needs to change, and the sooner there is the perception that those like RG3 are the typical "Black" athlete, honor student in college, intelligent, well spoken, not in trouble with the law, good citizen, good role model in terms of life choices, ect., the better for all of us.