The Problem of Zero Tolerance and Racist Remarks

Oklahoma Sooners baseball coach Larry Cochell has resigned in response to racially charged remarks he made off-camera in an ESPN interview.

Speaking about African-American player Joe Dunigan III, Cochell “praised” the player by saying, “He has no n***** in him.”

That is indeed offensive. But is it enough to force a man to resign? Should what we say be weighed greater or even equal to what we do? As ABC News reports, the player’s father has already forgiven the coach. Joe Dunigan Jr said:

Those words are powerful and derisive. They were inappropriate and offensive. But he is a man who has done so many good things in his life. He has treated us like family. We have broken bread with him. I know he is a Christian man. We all say things that we don't mean, and I hope people down there don't color him as a racist because he made a mistake.

We do not know enough to speculate on whether Cochell’s comment was indicative of a pattern of honest-to-god racism, or whether it was just an incredibly stupid thing to say. But in our debates on racism and prejudice in general, we often focus too much on what is said and too little on what is done.

Would it have been more appropriate for Cochell to say “He has no ghetto in him.” The meaning is really the same and just as short-sighted as what he really said, but “ghetto” is not as loaded of a word and Cochell could very well still be at his job.

Certainly there’s no need to tolerate true racists, particularly in leadership positions But one insensitive statement does not a racist make. There are, unfortunately, a lot of degrees of racism. And many people, probably most, hold some racist ideas. But our society’s zero-tolerance for racist statements has not come close to ending true racism. Punishing speech does little to change opinion. What we should be doing is actually talking about these issues. Why would a seemingly good man have such seemingly prejudiced ideas? We should care more about the answer to that question than we care about punishing a man for his words.

It’s a very tricky subject, but a little more tolerance for intolerant language might actually help us move toward racial understanding.