Jarnhamar said:
What do you think the reaction would have been if Don Cherry said this?
I didn't worship at the altar of basketball. In my experience those who did all tended to be black boys who weren't, let's say, very nice..
They were not generally thoughtful, they were often bullies. Their parents were able to spend $5,000 a year on basketball— $5,000 is a lot of money.
You can do other things besides spending your time on the court; you can go on a trip and learn about the world, see other things, eh? The world is a big place, maybe get outside of that bubble.
How do you think talking about
black boys would have went over?
To be honest, I cringed reading your use of that term. Like "you people", "boy" has a racist connotation when referring to persons of colour, so there is a slight equivalency if Don Cherry had said those words. However, he didn't and I was left wondering how you came to that quotation. Then I realized that you were "paraphrasing" Jessica Allen, someone who was earlier introduced to the discussion
(though there was little further discussion in response to the post) in what I assumed was an attempt to show a double standard in how a TV network reacts to an on-air personality who could be characterized as the opposite of Cherry.
And Allen didn't say those words either, she was talking about hockey and stereotyping the stereotypical hockey player so I was confused why you suggested putting those words in Cherry's voice vice Allen's.
Since I've taken the bait, perhaps it should be indicated that
Ms. Allen (and CTV) have apologized. While I hold the opinion that what she said was incredibly stupid, I could see where she was coming from. I also hold the same opinion of Mr. Cherry's comment though in no way do I see an equivalency between the two individuals. Like Remius (whose post originally referred to Allen's faux pas), I had no idea who Jessica Allen was. I had to look it up and can honestly say that I have never seen her program before (and probably never will); the demographic that likely tunes in to her probably does not overlap much to the type (stereotype?) who frequent this forum. That demographic being predominately female and being available to watch the program during normal (outside the home) working hours. I hold no opinion about the quality of Ms. Allen's performance skill or any other commentary that she has made.
Don Cherry, on the other hand, has been described as a "national icon", which, in my opinion, does not say a lot about our national iconography. Even Canadians who are not interested in hockey or bad fashion have been exposed to Mr. Cherry, usually because of some outrageous remarks that he made (even before this latest incident). He has (had?) a national audience, whether deserved or not. Ms. Allen has a more limited audience and it is likely if her actual comments had not been linked to the national debate about Don Cherry then they would have gone relatively unnoticed. This has probably been the most media visibility she has thus far received in her career. Hopefully, it won't go to her head and lead her to be outrageous for the sake of ratings.