No More Pain

I love football.  I am not just a fan of football, I live for it.  If it were not for football I would fall into a winter funk so strong grizzly bears would wonder what was wrong with me.  It is the only thing that gets me through the harsh cold winters and I cherish it the way some people cherish their children.  So, you can understand why I don’t take kindly to anything that detracts from the sport.  I don’t like certain new rules the commissioner forces on the players and, recently, some of the players themselves are starting to get on my nerves. 

Enter Riley Cooper.  Riley Cooper is just the latest in a recent trend of athletes behaving so stupidly off the field, that I must now waste precious hours of my life hearing about it instead of focusing on the upcoming slate of games.  It ticks me off.  I am sick of it.  I am sick of turning on the NFL network or ESPN and hearing the same tripe and drivel that I purposely turn away from on E! or Entertainment tonight.  I don’t want scandal…I want football.

Should Riley Cooper have used the “N” word in a drunken fit at a country music concert? NO.  Let me settle this once and for all for all of you non-African Americans.  Do not use the word.  I know rappers use it.  I know black athletes use it.  I know millennial black kids use it.  But here is the thing.  As misguided as I think it is, I know why they use it.  It is a term of endearment between people who share a common experience.  When white people say it isn’t fair, that black people can say it and they can’t, it always makes me suspicious.  Why do you want to use it?  What is it about that word that is so intoxicating that you just have to say it?

I am a straight woman.  I know some gay people who use the word “faggot” when talking to or about each other.  I always shake my head when I hear it, but I have never wanted to say it.  Do you want to know why?  I know that young people like Matthew Shephard heard that word as they were being stomped and beaten to death.  Many young gay people have committed suicide because of the pain that word caused them as it cam hurling toward them out of the mouths of straight people who thought it was their right to belittle them.  I can’t explain why gay people would use that word, but it is none of my business.  As a straight person, I do not want to be associated with such a vile and ugly word and you will never hear it come out of my mouth.  Given the history of the word “nigger” in our society, I can’t understand why a white person would want to say it either.

Regardless of what your opinion is, you can’t deny that word is a bombshell just waiting to explode.  My earnest and sincere plea to all white players in the NFL, please don’t ever say it again.  I want my football season back!  Now, let’s talk about and strip clubs and guns…

Inclusion 365 mission #9

I will never allow myself to be associated with a word or phrase that causes pain to others, no matter what social mores allow.

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