White Is Oh So Wrong

Oh, that crazy Reggie White. If you were not paying attention during Spring Break, you might have missed Reggie White's little speech in front of the Wisconsin Legislature last Wednesday.

You missed a doozie.

White went on for an hour, starting by offending homosexuals then proceeding to insult basically every known race. You have to give him credit for being thorough.

I'm going to focus on what he said about each race, though, because I think stereotypes are good. White's message is an important one--different races are good at different things, and since you're a member of a race, there's a limit to what you can do.

Reggie made it very simple for us. To start, blacks are good at worship--when "you go to a black church, you see people jumping up and down because they really get into it."

Whites are good at organization: "You know how to tap into money."

Asians are creative and "can turn a television into a watch."

Indians--I think he means Native Americans--have the gift of "spirituality." They also avoided slavery because they were familiar with the territory and "knew how to sneak up on people."

My favorite, though, was Hispanics' gift from God. They are "gifted in family structure, and you can see a Hispanic person, and they can put 20, 30 people in one home."

He left out some other ones, though, which I might as well point out here.

Blacks are good at sports. But they aren't smart enough to play quarterback.

White people lack rhythm. Asians are only good at math. Native Americans are alcoholics. Hispanics are all illegal immigrants.

Why limit yourself to race? Football players are stupid, and men are more rational than women.

A couple days after his appearance, White went on ESPN's SportsCenter to defend himself. He declined to put his remarks in context.

White may indeed believe that his remarks would foster better racial understanding, and he might truly believe that what he said is right. But listen to what he said and how he said it.

Whites "know how to tap into money?"

That sounds kind of ominous. Hispanics can pack 20 or 30 people into a house? That's the best gift he could come up with? And the connotation of Native Americans' sneaking up on people is obviously bad.

I'm glad at least that I got a good one. I'm creative and inventive. And I can make a toaster oven into a remote control. Oddly enough, the legislators and audience members laughed at White's remarks about Hispanics and Asians. Does that mean racism against those two groups is funny and less repulsive?

One Hispanic caller to Jim Rome's syndicated sports radio show lamented, "I'm abusing my gift from God. I only have two kids!"

To be perfectly honest, we all have our hang-ups, and we're probably all a little guilty of racism. CBS spokesperson Leslie Ann Wade, whose company had been expected to offer White a football commentator's position, said, "Every human being has some bias about something in their world because of their life experience. But those biases have no place in the broadcast booth or in the workplace at CBS."

Marge Schott is still suspended from baseball for statements such as Hitler was "O.K. in the beginning." Various other sports figures such as Fuzzy Zoeller and former CBS commentator Jimmy the Greek have gotten in trouble for anti-black statements.

White gets off a lot easier. It's not clear that he wants to play football next year because he was pretty mediocre last season. And he only lost a job he didn't have yet.

He's still got lots of money because of football, even if Campbell's Soup and Nike pull the plug on White's endorsement deals.

But for White to go in front of a large audience and make such ignorant and insensitive remarks is truly stunning. He might be saying what he truly believes, but what he believes is wrong.

White didn't present those stereotypes as something he was struggling to overcome. He was fine with them. That's how he saw people. And that's why he's dead wrong.