By MATT WOOD: Last weekend, we saw another underwhelming performance by Adrien Broner (28-1), in which he defeated an overmatched Carlos Molina (17-2-1). Perhaps more memorable than the fight itself was Broner’s haughty remark post fight:
“…but at the end of the day, I’m still Adrien the Problem
Broner- the Can Man- anybody can get it- Africans…
I just beat the f*** out of a Mexican…”
Broner was cut off by Showtime’s Jim Gray before he could finish his “thoughts” but the damage had been done. Yesterday, the World Boxing Council suspended Broner until he issues a public apology. The WBC welterweight belt was up for grabs in the main event between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana, so the sanctioning body must have felt that a strong reaction was in order to demonstrate how non-racist they are.
I’m conflicted in this circumstance, but I’m erring on the side of caution in the rush to deem certain speech as “racist” or “insensitive”. Some words are racially loaded, you know which ones I’m talking about- the real “slurs” of the language world. Do Broner’s words belong in a similar camp? Bear in mind, he called his opponent a “Mexican”- that’s it. The F-word is not what caused the stir. I see couple of ways that Broner’s remarks could be legitimately racist, but upon close inspection, neither hold up.
The first potential racial infraction in using language like Broner’s is disparaging an entire group of people by implying that the name of the group itself carries with it something negative. For example, last Fall trainer Freddie Roach allegedly called reporter Ellie Seckback a “F****** Jew” and member of Robert Garcia’s team a “Mexican” during a training camp scuffle. The sentiment expressed in those remarks is that simply being a member of those ethnicities implies something tainted or undesirable.
Is it implied in Broner’s remarks that simply being a Mexican is something bad in and of itself? I don’t think so, because right before that comment, he included Africans right along with the Mexicans as just another group in Adrien Broner’s list of “-cans”. Crude? Yes. Racist? Doubtful.
Yet another form of softer racism would be to assume that an individual is a member of a group based on appearance alone. For instance, calling a Guatemalan a Mexican. I think this reveals more ignorance than malice, however. This leads us to a very obvious question: is Carols Molina actually a Mexican? This may seem irrelevant, but I think it’s actually quite pertinent. Molina is a Mexican-American born in Los Angeles. So nationally he is a US citizen, but his ancestry is Latin American.
So maybe calling Molina a Mexican isn’t exactly correct, but are we really going to throw Broner under the bus for that? Do we really know what his intentions were? In the end, I think Broner just revealed (again) how oafish and unimaginative he is with this speech, not that he’s a hateful human being.
In closing, I must say that as a boxing fan, the last thing I want encroaching on my favorite sport is political correctness. I know that words can hurt, and some of them deserve repercussions from promoters, broadcasters, and sanctioning bodies like the WBC. If they want to issue a statement condemning something a fighter said, fine. But let’s put the breaks on coercing forced apologies out of the guys putting their lives on the line.
I would like boxers to remain the hardened, real-world individuals that they are- capable of blunt, sincere speech. When is the last time you looked forward to a press conference or a post-game interview in the NBA or the NFL? Probably never, because its players and coaches speak in a dull, neutered language that the media has steered them into like cattle. Boxers, on the other hand, while capable of stupidity, are also capable of humor, emotion, and authenticity. Let’s keep it that way.
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