Tim Anderson calling a white
player the N-word last week has generated a whole bunch of responses pro and
con, including one from Blue Jays’ pitcher Marcus Stroman. “You can’t suspend someone for language,”
Stroman contended. “That’s ridiculous. Also what he said is normal slang trash talk
in our culture.”
Only the trash talking didn’t take
place in what could be called an African-American cultural setting; it happened
at a MLB park in Chicago, which qualifies as the most public of settings. Anderson’s language then has to be judged
accordingly and from multiple perspectives.
For instance, how should children and adolescents, regardless of race,
understand Anderson’s action: It’s OK
because the speaker is black? If he can
do it, I can? It’s just a word
ballplayers use?
My take is, you don’t say that in
public. As my parents would say, you can
act one way at home but not when you walk through the front door. Out there, it’s a whole different ballgame.
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