I just had to respond to this horrible bigoted statement that the former Miami Heat/Golden State Warrior point guard Tim Hardaway made publicly yesterday:
"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known," Hardaway said. "I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."
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OK, that's just a disgraceful, uncivilized, ignorant position. Completely unacceptable. More unappetizing idiocy came pouring out of this hater's mouth during a radio interview:
"And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that's right. And you know I don't think he should be in the locker room while we're in the locker room. I wouldn't even be a part of that," he said.
Tremendous unintended irony here.
He sounds EXACTLY like most of the men in Major League Baseball in 1946. You know, when Jackie Robinson was getting ready to join the Brooklyn Dodgers.
What an inhuman thing to say in either case. I would have no doubt that 5-10% of all the athletes he played with in his NBA career were gay, based on statistical norms in American society. Is Hardaway in some way damaged in any way by even having had this very real possibility happen to him?
Hardaway's meltdown obviously is another Michael Richards moment. Compounded by the fact that Hardaway had the gall to offer a half-baked apology afterwards, when someone (probably one of his myriad posse) came up to him and said "Ummm, you mighta put your foot in it up to the knee there homey..."
Hardaway, later saying he regretted the remarks, apologized for the remarks during a telephone interview with Fox affiliate WSVN in Miami.
"Yes, I regret it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said I hate gay people or anything like that," he said. "That was my mistake."
Too late, pal. Now we know the deep, dark, core of hatred many homophobes feel towards gay people. I'm straight (as if that mattered at all) with a family and we live in a town that is known as a gay mecca, and we have had numerous gay friends. One of them once told me, "Can you imagine living every day wondering if someone is going to attack you on the street because you're gay? With all the shit I have to put up with because I'm gay, how can somebody assume that I chose to be this way?"
Even in San Francisco, people go there for the express purpose of physically attacking gay people. Happens all the time.
I'm not interested in treating gays as martyrs or some kind of uniquely virtuous persecuted minority. They're people, dammit. Prone to the same fuckups, stupid behavior, mistakes, and yes, possessing the same creativity, intelligence, knowledge, and courage as anyone else. This is such an obvious truism it hardly needs to be said. At least to some people.
"You know, I hate black people, so I let it be known," Hardaway said. "I don't like black people and I don't like to be around black people. I am Negrophobic. I don't like them. They shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."
Funny how hate speech transposes so easily.
Tim Hardaway's own league, the NBA, was all-white basically until Wilt & Bill Russell came along, considerably after Jackie Robinson had integrated baseball. In fact, the Celtics were really the first basketball team to start playing African-Americans on their squad. (For that, Red Auerbach deserved a lot more credit than he ever received.) And let's not forget Texas Western.
In a way, Tim Hardaway has really done a lot of people a favor. Reminded us all of just how difficult it is to get people to treat each other as human beings instead of a convenient target to beat on because your girlfriend broke up with you or you lost your job, or you threw a rod in the engine of your pickup or some family moved into your neighborhood that isn't like yours, or what the fuck ever. At least Hardaway (unlike the Bush Republican crowd) is fuckin' honest about his bigotry.
Even if it evinces a colossal lack of empathy.
But man, that kind of speech really sticks in my craw.
***Update*** Our friend Lucius Vorenus, fresh from his combat in the Arena, beat me to it, darn him. Credit where credit is due.
And yes, I heartily agree with other posters here. What a half-assed apology. It's an apology for saying anything, not for the initial attitudes that gave rise to the statements in the first place.
As I've noted, it's the bigotry paradox. Condemnation doesn't change a bigot's mind - it usually just chases them into the shadows. But toleration or silence is much worse. Lack of response leaves the target of the attack to stand alone.
And that I just cannot abide. I never have and never will.