The X Word

Athletes are fighting our culture wars again. They're dealing with backlash from language.

There's all sorts of words that can't be used in polite or impolite conversation anymore. There's "The N Word," "The F Word," "The L Word," "The R Word," "The B Word,"  "The F Bomb," and "The K Word" among others that just can't be used in language anymore.

By the way, if you aren't familiar with "The K Word," it's "The C Word" but that word makes my wife so angry I don't even say "The C Word."

The latest two offenders have been Kobe Bryant of the Los Angles Lakers and Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls. They both dropped "The F Word" in a game setting, Bryant at an NBA Referee, Noah at an unruly fan. Bryant was fined $100,000 and Noah $50,000. In an explanation, Bryant was fined $50,000 for the word and another $50,000 for directing it at an NBA employee.

One of the apologies that has been made by sportscasters on behalf of these athletes can be summed up with "When using these words as insults, they are not used to compare the insulted person with the people represented in 'The X Word' nor are they to derogatory to the people represented in 'The X Word.'" This lets them and us off the hook way too easily.

What the apologists are saying is that if a pro player says that someone "throws like a bitch" he is not saying that he throws like a girl. Really?

So if a pro player says "you're my bitch" he says that he owns you on the field of sport, but not owns like a man owns a woman? Really? If it's not ownership then why the possessive pronoun? And women are fine with this concept of ownership?

It has been said "there is no direct connection between the insult and the people represented in the insult," but that's a lie. If no connection were intended and if no derisive intent were intended then it wouldn't be an insult would it?

This charade is being addressed, at least by the NBA with fines, but the sports radio apologies have to stop. The reason it truly has to stop is that it lets us off the hook too. If the pros don't mean it then we don't mean it either do we? Really? If it starts on the playground then it's not going to stop at the pros.

OBLIGATORY NOTE ON POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
At one time, for maybe about fifteen minutes in the early 1990's, political correctness was about treating people with dignity and respect. It quickly seemed to turn into not offending anybody. There is a difference. One comes from a place of positive action and the other is from the negative. There's always a place for positive action. Negative never comes from a healthy place or goes to a healthy place.

So in conclusion, I'm not saying you can't bust someone's chops, working with a college baseball team some years ago I learned baseball players, coaches, and umpires are some of the great chopbusters of this age. But there is a right way to do it, and there's a way that costs money. Let's do the right thing.