We’ve talked a lot at With Leather about the racist things you are and aren’t allowed to say about Jeremy Lin’s unexpected run as the HNIC (or its equivalent) of the New York Knicks. We’ve disagreed a lot, and I probably shouldn’t have tried to quote Lean On Me in the previous sentence, but the one thing upon which we could reach a consensus opinion is “if you’ve got something racially sketchy to say about Jeremy Lin, don’t say it in front of a camera or type it on the Internet”.

Unfortunately, Maryland football signee Stefon Diggs has just discovered Lin and didn’t get the memo, so here he is on his Twitter saying Jeremy Lin’s penis is an egg roll and his balls are dumplings, because “China”. And yeah, getting furious and demanding apologies for it are a stupid waste of time, but it’s worth pointing out and just kinda broadly facepalming about.

Personally, I think Stefon should get back into his transformation chamber, turn back into Steve Diggs and be the lovable nerd we all know and love.

[h/t Jason Kirk @ SBN]

UFC president Dana White is a polarizing guy who probably doesn’t share a lot of my opinions on things (for example, I’m guessing he doesn’t weep throughout the entirety of The Land Before Time), but he’s got a way of cutting through the bullsh*t and making some astute (if not totally obvious) points about sports, including:

1. Jeremy Lin deserves at least a good amount of the praise he’s been getting, and yeah, being an Asian guy is gonna be part of that.

2. There are a large number of African-American players in the NBA getting tons of praise and press.

3. Floyd Mayweather is a hardcore racist (“prejudiced” probably works better than “racist”, but stay with me).

4. Mayweather should probably just shut up and fight Manny Pacquiao, because he’s going to make a sh*t-ton of money doing so.

It’s the cold hard truth, and weird to imagine anyone having a realistic counterpoint besides “well, uh” or “shut up”. A transcript of the piece’s denouement, courtesy of Boxing Experts Blog:

Don’t worry about what all these other guys are doing and shooting your big mouth off on Twitter. What you should worry about is getting in there and making the fight that all the boxing fans want to see. Get in there and fight Manny Pacquiao. You don’t deserve more of the purse. If ever there were a fight in history that should be split 50/50, it’s the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. Shut up! Both of you split the money up and put on the fight that everybody, including me, wants to see.

I can’t tell you how much I’d love it if Mayweather’s response was lowering his head, shuffling his feet and mumbling, “yeah, you’re right, okay” under his breath. Unfortunately, the real response will either be completely silence or something involving jets and dogs and a wank about how many Twitter followers he has.

Maybe Floyd should just box Dana White instead.

If you refer to a Chinese and Taiwanese basketball player as a “chink” in your ESPN headline — or worse, use “chink in the armor” to describe the performance of the Chinese and Taiwanese guy’s team on the air — what do you do?

“I’m sorry” is a good start, because hey, sometimes unfortunate homonyms like “chink” or phrases with racist undertones like “shucking and jiving” become commonplace and get used harmlessly in harmful situations. It happens. What you should not do next is say “I am a great Christian!” or “my wife is Asian” as an excuse, because you are the dumb guy who forgot he couldn’t use “chink” when talking about a f**king Chinese guy.

First up is ESPN editor Anthony Federico, the man who started this all with his CHINK IN THE ARMOR headline and who isn’t afraid to whip out a meme in his apology:

He said he has used the phrase “at least 100 times” in headlines over the years and thought nothing of it when he slapped it on the Lin story.

Federico called Lin one of his heroes – not just because he’s a big Knicks fan, but because he feels a kinship with a fellow “outspoken Christian.”

“My faith is my life,” he said. “I’d love to tell Jeremy what happened and explain that this was an honest mistake.”

“It’s unfortunate that I said Kareem Abdul-Jabbar n**ger-lipped that cigar, but we’re both Sunni Muslims so I think he’d understand.” Sounds kinda stupid when you type it like that, doesn’t it?

Even worse is what I like to call the Judd Winick Defense, courtesy of anchor Max Bretos:

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Floyd Mayweather is many things, but he is not Lin-sane.

From his Twitter:

“Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.”

Predictably, that didn’t go over well. After a night of Twitter reacting as it does (with blind support, blind hatred and hashtagging of both “fact” and “ignorant”), Mayweather explained his point of view. He’s just supporting black athletes, you guys!

Mayweather, who will fight Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas in May before starting a 90-day jail sentence for domestic abuse, said he was speaking up for other players in the NBA.

“Other countries get to support/cheer their athletes and everything is fine,” the 34-year-old said. “As soon as I support black American athletes, I get criticized.

“I’m speaking my mind on behalf of other NBA players. They are programmed to be politically correct and will be penalized if they speak up.”

I guess I shouldn’t expect a guy who can’t grasp “don’t punch your wife to death in front of your kids” to understand it, but supporting black athletes isn’t what makes you worthy of criticism here.

You know that thing assholes do where they complain that basketball has gotten too “thuggish”, or college coaches say they have “white boys who can shoot”? You know how what they’re saying might have some feasible root in observational truth but is rendered pointless and f**king ridiculous by how stupidly they’re saying it? That’s the problem. That’s what you’re doing here. It’s fairly observant to consider how Lin’s heritage affects the way the public or the media sees him, but a waste of time to make it about you, and an insult to players of every color to suggest that tolerance or decent human thought is “programming”.

If I were to offer you constructive criticism here — and let’s face it, you have more duffel bags filled with money than I’ll ever see, which in today’s world makes you both fulfilled and right — it would be to take a break from getting punched in the face, use some of that jets and dogs money for counseling and calm the f**k down. And delete your Twitter. And stop hitting women.

[via CNN]

Yesterday, the above image was published by ESPN for the article, “What if Michael Vick Were White?” which appears in the Sept. 5 issue of ESPN the Magazine, or Highlights for Sports as I like to call it. Of course everyone’s heads exploded like that dude in Scanners over the picture of Michael Vick in whiteface. Some people freaked out because they said the image is offensive. Others freaked out because ESPN is stupid and it’s just a natural reaction to hate something that they did. Even more people attacked the article’s author, Touré, because they thought he came up with the title and picture. Such an angry culture we live in.

Touré insists that he had nothing to do with article’s title, the image, or people with one-word names. I’ve read the article twice and I’m not so much offended by it as I’ve simply shrugged my shoulders and wondered why the hell we’re still talking about this. Touré makes a great point – Vick’s crimes weren’t about race, as much as they were about where he’s from. There are neighborhoods, cities, families, and all-around mindsets in which dog fighting is considered normal. And we already know that, but Touré felt that we had to talk about it again.

I don’t want to talk about Vick’s problems anymore, though. As far as I’m concerned, Vick’s only real problem is his inability to pick up the blitz. I just want to talk about that exceptional white male that ESPN invented for the sake of stirring the pot. White Michael Vick has me seriously intrigued. So I set out to find out more about White Mike Vick the man, and what really makes him tick.

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