Add the apology from UFC’s Dana White to the immeasurably long list of non-apologies (he used the ‘faggot’ in a rant earlier this week). While a simple “I got it wrong, I’m sorry” would have sufficed, White decided to go the “You don’t understand me and you got it wrong” route. GLAAD seems to have accepted his apology, which is all he really wanted anyway: To get the faggots off his back.
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 3:06 PM
I accepted his apology. The faggot slur is very impulsive; it’s easy to understand how it can be used without malice toward gay people.
And in the end, he apologized to those hurt by his usage, which is what matters.
He could’ve simply gone the way of some stupid rapper shrugging off offending gays, and gloating about it. Instead, he seems to at least be worried by whether he’s perceived as a homophobe or not.
I don’t know about you, but someone of his stature, in such a typically homophobic culture, saying that he supports many of our issues and is not OK at all with gay bashing is pretty damn good.
Come on.
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 6:41 PM
That’s a bulls– response on your part, Cyd. If you did two minutes of research on this topic before posting you would have found this White interview with openly lesbian ESPN.com commentator Mary Buckheit where it quickly becomes very clear White is sincerely sorry. And he backs it up with examples:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=buckheit/090403
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 8:50 PM
Oh, dearest of dear straight person, I’m so remorseful that you were called to account for your underlying homophobia! Please forgive me that by my mere existence you must be somehow discomforted for impulsively using gay slurs to express your beloved inner hetero prejudices to my detriment, and to the extreme detriment of every anxious gay or lesbian teenager out there who might very well be on the verge of suicide because of the impact of hetero mandates to be straight, or be no one! How stupidly rude of me to save face by asking the majority of homophobes to look deeply within themselves to question why the “queers” are the last safe bastion of unjustified slurs cast by figureheads of sports!
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 9:38 PM
We’ve all heard fake apologies, and I’m not sure this isn’t one of them, but I feel like there’s a very random quality to when Outsports editors take offense and when they don’t. I will say, as repellent as I found (all of) White’s comments, for pure homophobia I think this is pretty far down the list. He used a very offensive term carelessly, and deserves censure for that, but I don’t think he used it with any malice toward the LGBT community. In my mind, this is less offensive than “I wouldn’t want a gay guy on my team” kind of stuff. White used a horrible word in an offhand way and made a half-decent apology. As far as I’m concerned, forgive and forget the slur as long as he doesn’t do it again.
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 10:10 PM
Hey Brad, I think I understand the gist of your comment, but feel compelled to say that no single gay entity, whether it’s OutSports or the HRC, can comprehensively police the media to call every bigot on their individual brand of prejudice. I’ll take what I can get when it comes to prominent figureheads who spout their homophobic proclivities “off the cuff”, which seems to be the more revealing moment of truth about what they intend to say in the future. If any institution can divert homophobic tendencies into a more informed expression, I’m all for it. We are, after all, a minority of opinion. When you envision a miniscule 10% David staring down the 90% Goliath, the strategic choices of whom to call on the carpet become very narrow indeed, don’t you think?
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 11:15 PM
“I feel like there’s a very random quality to when Outsports editors take offense and when they don’t.”
Guess you’re right. We all have our “offense meters” set at different levels and Cyd and I often disagree on whether or not we should feel outraged. My guess is that our readers are the same way — some comments elicit a passionate response, others a shrug. We try and report on them and offer our take, then invite you to offer yours.
on Apr 3rd, 2009 at 11:55 PM
Me thinks it worth noting, with regard to Lucrece’s comment about the mere “impulsive” nature of our modern day use of the faggot slur, that for many generations in the American South, the casual reference by the white majority to African-Americans was routinely “niggers” or more colloquially “niggras” without even many black citizens understanding why this was offensive. Custom does not justify the acculturation of derogatory labels which, given enough acquiescence, become the pigeonholes into which second class citizens are derogated. We minorities must exercise more vigilance about our status, whether merely perceived or more rudimentarily “acceptable” in common usage, when it is set aside under a marginally inducing rubric that makes us “others” worthy of less deference than the majority of citizens. In other words, let’s define ourselves rather than allow hate filled terms define us. We are every much 1st class citizens in this democracy as are all persons entitled to the full benefits of the US Constitution. Nowhere therein is a provision to relegate any minority to 2nd class acceptance before the law of the land. And yes, words really do matter, with these seemingly “normal” slurs of “faggot” and its ilk at the root of daily oppression of us all.
on Apr 4th, 2009 at 12:17 AM
You nailed it, Brad.
The Super Bowl Snickers ad that caused an uproar, in which the concept of homosexuality was portrayed as something to be ridiculed and mocked, in front of the largest American television audience of the year … Cyd decided the ad was hilarious and gays were overreacting.
In this one, a person with no prior history of bigoted acts uses a slur once in an overheated moment, apologizes, and goes on at length in an interview about how he’s remorseful for it … and Cyd decides it is “hollow …”
Seriously, do you guys just flip a coin to decide what is offensive and what isn’t? Or maybe you figure out which response will garner the site the most publicity elsewhere and go from there?
on Apr 5th, 2009 at 2:41 PM
Where did I say I was offended by what he said? Where did I say it was offensive? Where did I say he was a homophobe? Or that his comments were homophobic? I didn’t say any of that because I don’t think it. I thought it was dumb of him to use that word more from a strategic perspective. To me, a quick “Sorry, that was dumb of me” would have been perfect. Instead, he goes off on how people don’t understand him. But please, show me where I said what you’re claiming I said.
The one person he didn’t apologize to was the ONE person I think he does owe an apology: The reporter he attacked. What he said about the reporter was just nasty and unprofessional.
on Apr 5th, 2009 at 10:00 PM
I’ve been following the UFC and Dana White for a number of years, and I think his apology is completely sincere. The way he markets his company, so unlike, say, the WWF, is not agressively hetero. And I believe his position on social issues has been very much toward the liberal side.
I think the problem is the word, “faggot,” and the way it’s used. “Cocksucker” is another such word. It’s an expletive. Why? I’m a damned good one (really good!), but even I use it as a derogatory term, simply because, when used as a derogatory term, it’s sort of drained of meaning other than that it’s derogatory and considered offensive. “Queer” used to be that kind of term, but it’s pretty much been, through really good and clever politics among a group of young guys, drained of bile and is now a political/social moniker. “Motherfucker” is another word that’s said without really having a meaning except that its offensive. When you call another driver a “motherficker,” I doubt you really mean that he or she is so.
Dana has a foul mout. It’s part of the world of the UFC. I doubt he does a hell of a lot of mental editing when he goes on a rant. I wouldn’t have it otherwise, because, working in government as I do, I find it really refreshing to hear someone not bother to sanitize his monologue.
on Apr 6th, 2009 at 4:12 AM
mike you are dead on. cyd spends almost every podcast guffawing at us for being “too sensitive” when we jump on him and Jim for calling Tom Brady fat or defending their all-white KOTH, yet he gets all huffy when HE’S the one who is being overly-sensitive and gets called on it. don’t you know that cyd is the one and only authority on what we gay men are to take offense at?
on Apr 6th, 2009 at 8:28 PM
So things said in a podcast from a few weeks ago make sense now.
Hey, at least he apologized, and this seems more sincere than others of his caliber.
Dana White isn’t the only person who recently coughed up the word “faggot” during a presentation…