Reviews Are In On Stevie's Standup Gig In Shanghai And They Are Not Good
Tim Rosaforte shares this from U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Fred Couples:
"If that was Joe LaCava he wouldn't be caddying for me today," Couples said Saturday morning, heading to Harding Park for the third round of the Charles Schwab Cup.
LaCava is his former longtime caddie, now working for Woods. While noting he's never had a problem with Williams, Couples also added, "If (a caddie) has that kind of anger for a pretty good guy, I don't want him around me."
Scott Walker at Golf Channel suggests that the atmosphere in Shanghai and beyond may have led to a level of unacceptable comfort:
But Williams’ comments are only part of the issue. The fact that he felt comfortable enough to say such nonsense at that gathering will remind minorities of golf’s exclusive past, of proverbial smoke-filled rooms where decisions were made, and where many of us were absent. There is nothing wrong with having a private gathering where folks can have a good time at the end of a long year. There is something wrong when one of the attendees considered it the perfect time and setting to say what Williams did. Thankfully, enough people in that room decided what transpired there should not remain hidden. But it was a reminder that of the anxiety that comes with the question, “What do they say about us when we are not around?”
Farrell Evans wasn't too impressed with Stevie's apology.
This apology reminds me of some of the mea culpas delivered by southern whites and even some northerners over the years. One hot Sunday afternoon in Mississippi Delta comes to mind. A middle-aged black woman argues with a white convenience store owner after he called her teenage son a boy.
"I didn't mean nothing by it," the man said.
"If you didn't mean nothing by it then why did you say it?" said the woman.
The woman's question is one that Steve Williams should ponder for a while.
Jason Sobel says the decision to fire Williams is a "personal issue" between Williams and Adam Scott.
Already some media outlets are calling for Scott to immediately discontinue his looper’s employment. That’s a personal issue between them, but this news hits home as a personal issue between Williams and every single person who takes offense to this overture.
Intended or not, Williams’ comment contained inauspicious implications. If he wants to refer to a former boss and friend with a derogatory term, that’s well within his right. When he uses a racial adjective, it becomes a hurtful comment on multiple levels.
James Lawton says Stevie's rank stupidity is really shining through.
Plainly he has now crossed the line between natural-born arrogance and an untenable belief in his ability to behave as bizarrely as he chooses. Racism, as course as any known in the bad old days, is the killing charge. The cause is rather more mundane. It is the consequence of unchecked stupidity.
Does "off-the-record" confer immunity for every Tom, Dick or Harry to say whatever he likes about whom ever he likes in whatever offensive manner he so wishes? Of course not.
That Williams was guilty of revealing an ugly truth about himself, unwittingly or otherwise, is beyond doubt. So is the punishment he should have faced. He should have gone. From the Champions event in China. From his lucrative employment with the Australian golfer Adam Scott. From the sport of golf. For good.
That none of these things had happened by the evening after the night before speaks eloquently about the cravenness and cowardice of the self-regarding, self-perpetuating, self-enriching administrators who claim to have the best interests of golf at heart.
Garry Smits explains the jurisdiction the PGA Tour has here and feels they need to suspend Williams to prevent the Presidents Cup from being overshadowed by the Tiger-Stevie reunion.
Later this month, the Presidents Cup will be played in Australia for only the second time. Scott is on the International team. This is the PGA Tour's international match play event. Wouldn't it detract and distract from the event and what it means to Australian golf to have Williams walking the fairways every day?
If Scott won't take action, and is as clueless as he seems as to the implications of Williams' comments, the Tour might have to.
Steve Elling suggests that might already be in the works, but because of the tour's policy of not disclosing fines and suspensions, we don't know.
As ever, PGA Tour communications chief Ty Votaw on Saturday offered no illumination relating to possible pending disciplinary action: “We will have no comment publicly on this matter. The tour does have the ability to discipline caddies of its members.”
Later Saturday, Votaw followed up thusly, implying some action might be forthcoming: "By the way, the fact that we don't have a comment on this at this time, that does not mean we will not have one in the future. Just wanted to make that clarification." Scott shouldn't wait for the tour to do his dirty work for him.
Geoff
**Another from Pete McDaniel of GolfDigest.com:
Count me among the offended. Sorry, Stevie. Apology not accepted.
It's your right to hate Tiger for firing you. It's even your right to slap him around verbally if he allows it, although, I would probably be a little more gracious to the person who made me rich and secured my family beyond my wildest dreams. However, it is an egregious error to broadside your former boss with a racial slur under any circumstance even in jest. As I've written many times, a racial slur is only amusing to the person not on the butt end of it. They should not be tolerated, period.
What is most disappointing is that you have probably shared more congenial conversations with me over the years than with any other media type. I enjoyed the horseplay and needling. The word play, however, comes from an ugly place and is totally unacceptable.
Reader Comments (47)
This is the only way to understand what's happening. BTW, what's this video about...racism or a joke?
Are they saying he's a racist?
Or do they want him banned because he might be a little bit of a dumbass?
To me this is all less about racism and much more about those people really detesting Williams and seeing this as a great opportunity to bury him.
Lawrence Donegan may as well have asked for Williams to be be beheaded such was the vitriol that came through. Some of the stuff that has been written is so far over the top is it ridiculous.
What I find more troubling is that some many of golfing best think that comments with racial overtones are acceptable and maybe even funny. Golf, as a sport, more than any other sport, has and continues to have a poor record for allowing non-white males to play the sport at all levels. It is comments, and thoughts, like these that contnue to define what the sport has been and continues to be - a great game warp in a racist and bogoted culture: the History that id the Masters, etc.
What I find more troubling is that some many of golfing best think that comments with racial overtones are acceptable and maybe even funny. Golf, as a sport, more than any other sport, has and continues to have a poor record for allowing non-white males to play the sport at all levels. It is comments, and thoughts, like these that contnue to define what the sport has been and continues to be - a great game warp in a racist and bogoted culture: the History that id the Masters, etc.
I have no idea whether SW is, or is not, a racist. His joke, however, opens the dialogue.It does confirm that he is an idiot. The idea that any comment said in front of 100+ people is "off the rocord" is ridiculous and stupid.
What I find more troubling is that so many in the golfing establishment think that comments with racial overtones are funny and even acceptable. Golf, as a sport, more than any sport,has a record of only allowing white males to play the sport at all levels. It is comments like SW's, made to large groups of people and acceptable becaue they were "off the record" to a group comprised of the sport's highest level, that continue to define what the sport has been and continues to be, a great game wrapped in a bigoted culture: The History that is the Masters, etc.
I think that it shouldn't rise to the level of the PGA getting involved- any blowback would be by Scott , the press and the galleries going forward. That shaming will likely be sufficient to check Stevies fat ego.
By all accounts this is a spoof of awards dinners, a 'come as you aren't' affair that's meant to offer respite from how guarded and bland the pro golf community usually has to be. A simple goon like Williams doesn't have any clever, subtle innuendo though, so it meant feigning some low-end racism.
For once it's the British press who 'didn't do irony' though, simply because it was a dream opportunity to take Williams out of the play.
That being said, the idea (advanced by Scott amongst others) that the statement was ok, bc it was in a joking evening is just wrong. The comment is inappropriate regardless of context, esp since Tiger and I'd venture to say few other Blacks (of any background) were in the room.
This of course isn't Steve's first offense so let's take a look at the last time he engaged in player name calling in a private setting:
Tiger said he disagreed with the comments, had Steve apologize both personally and publically, and discussed the matter
Adam (the classy one) has defended the comments, claimed they have nothing to do with him (despite his being the employer), said he hasn't discussed the matter with him and Steve offered a public apology
And the Phil comments didn't even bring up race (he didn't feel the need to say white prick)
Why did Williams need to emphasize the fact that Woods is black? Does he mention a person's skin color every time he references them in a conversation? I have no idea if Williams is racist, but people choose their words for a reason, and I'm just wondering why he wanted to include the word 'black'.
context is everything here, i think. as far as i know, unlike the us, new zealand has no history of african slavery.
the american obsession with what is and is not racist comes out of a specific historical context: hundreds of years of government-enforced slavery and then the near-slavery of post-reconstruction jim crow laws and then the long (and unfinished) civil rights struggle by black people to achieve the equal status that whites can take for granted.
this is not to say that only americans are racist, or that racism is okay in any context. it's just that the hysterical american approach is not not a one-size-fits-all deal. it is specific to our deeply rooted and toxic attitudes about race that still exist here in this country.
finally, isn't a waste of energy to take offense on tiger's behalf? it seems to me that his ability to do that is one thing that survived the thanksgiving fire hydrant masacree pretty much intact.
thugsone, this is exactly what Alan Shipnuck wrote about today:
http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,2097468,00.html
Why should only Tiger be offended by Williams' vulgar and unnecessarily racial comments? When Bubba Watson made his boorish comments about France, you didn't have to be born on the shores of the Rhine to call him out for them.
Intolerance and racism are alive and well,But you don't know what offends other people until they tell you don't presume we all find the description of our skin colour racist.
Elf I don't wish to pick you out of all the posts but mate come live with me for a year and you would have a complete different view
Your views now are not wrong nor are KLG's they are just someones opinions.
In this instance, I found the 'shove it up his a***hole' part so crude and over the top, the 'black' component almost died painless on me.
That said, it's amazing to me 'black' could be a pejorative descriptor, like 'fat' or 'scrawny'...I think, largely, it's a way to describe an 'other'...
Edit: Keith86 posted while I was typing. He's got a more nuanced view...
In summation:
It's a complex issue, most anywhere in the world.
And SW is a mouth breathing lout. :)
A cursory review of the comments doesn't reveal anyone that really thinks Steve is a racist. Hunterdog did say Steve's comments "open the dialogue" on deciding if Steve is a racist. Actually Hunterdog said that 3 times. Hunterdog, what exactly does that mean?
Steve caddied for a black man for over a decade. Steve was a groomsman in the wedding of said black man. Steve included said black man in his own wedding. Look at the large number of pictures of Steve embracing this black man with sheer joy on his face. If a post we saw earlier this week is true Steve employs a black man to maintain his website (I cannot confirm this, but bet it could easily be checked out...Gary Smits, you game?).
Are these the actions of a racist? Could a racist suppress his hate of blacks and associate himself SO CLOSELY with a black man for over a decade?
Hunterdog, please give us the other side of the trade?
What must Ben Wright be thinking right about now?
Oh, by the way, were any of you a fan of Andy Rooney? God bless his soul. From the Daily News today: "He was suspended by CBS in 1990 after listing 'homosexual unions' among behaviours he said can lead to 'premature death'. He was reinstated after a month and apologized."
Should Andy Rooney have been banished for life?