Jamie Reidy comments on the ugly reaction of some Boston Bruin fans who posted racists comments on Twitter.
Remember the good ol’ days, when the only bad things on Twitter were celebrity penises?
Last night the NHL’s defending champion Boston Bruins suffered a heartbreaking Game Seven loss when Washington Capital’s player Joel Ward scored in sudden death. This stunning development sparked anger in disappointment in all the team’s fans.
And racist rants in others.
Amazingly, just six-weeks after Southern Mississippi University band members were suspended due to racist taunts at a college basketball game, these Boston bigots thought it wise to put their hate on the internet, where it will fester forever.
Chirpstory.com compiled a list of ignorant, despicable Tweeters:
One guy is wearing the same Kelly green Irish T-shirt that I bought from the Notre Dame bookstore. Selfishly, I hope he is not a fellow alumnus.
For one million dollars, I’d never guess that a guy named “Joel Ward” is black.
Maybe these racist idiots like hockey so much because the ice is white?
Obviously, it’s unacceptable to use racial slurs for any reason.
But when did it become so acceptable to try and use shame to police society? Usually when shame is used to police behavior (from, I don’t know, words like “slut”) we acknowledge that this is inappropriate.
Yet when it comes to racism everyone suddenly becomes all “ends justify the means” by compiling and publishing lists of potential racists (or Defense of Marriage donors, or whatever other activity you want to discourage).
Good luck with that, I’d rather avoid sinking to the level of the bigots that I disagree with.
Is it disappointing? Yes. Shocking? No. I would assume he hears the n-word more often than reported by the media, A lot of sports fans seem to think slurs are permissible. I assume folks don’t use racist, sexist, homophobic, gender-phobic language generally. But fandom and beer brings out the inner bigot.
Is this a Boston thing, the thing where you put all the blame on one single guy even though it’s one play in one game in a multi-game series and it’s really the whole team that’s to blame? It’s very superstitious. No wonder people talk about curses. Yeah, it’s all his fault. Did he beat you in all four games? Was he the one failing to block shots on your own goal? No. Did he shoot wide when he tried to score for your team? No. If your team played like champions, one guy isn’t going to beat you. This… Read more »
I agree with your argument about not being able to blame one guy for the result of a series in a team game, but the Buckner example isn’t a perfect analog for this one, as he played *for* Boston and committed the infamous error that lost that game. In this case, the slurs were directed at the opposing player for scoring the game-winner that ended the series, so what these Bruin twits have done would be more like going after whoever hit a home run in extra innings to beat the Sox in a playoff series. Still wrong, but not… Read more »
Well, hey – Philly can’t win ’em all!
Does this surprise me? No. We live in a world where freedom of speech is not a high ideal but an excuse to curse and swear and say the rudest things to people and about people. Most of the people of this country are evil, so *yawn*, whatever…
Willie O’Ree was the first black NHL player. He played for the Boston Bruins. That’s why I’m a Bruins fan. Maybe they’re scared that black people will become dominant in hockey too. Where’s the Tea Party for Hockey? “This has nothing to do with race. We just want our sport back….”
At least we can appreciate the irony of ignorance.
And one of these Bud Light Lime-swilling brainiacs also managed to add the word “sand…” before the wretched N-bomb. Must be due to Joel Ward’s hailing from that vast, desert wasteland otherwise known as “Toronto, Ontario.”