The Bonding of Men

I have been in too many locker rooms to believe that Richie Incognito behaved this way without the endorsement of his teammates. It is impossible to believe otherwise. It is fair to try to eradicate the use of an epithet in the interest of protecting people from being hurt over and over again. All should understand, however, that if you want to rid our entire society of its use both black and white people must stop using it. Otherwise the word simply becomes a loaded finger for the media to point at us all to make us hate more intensely so they can improve their ratings. It should also be remembered that destroying a word has never once been successfully accomplished in all of history. There is another aspect that is never mentioned in this discussion. Athletics is, aside from the armed forces perhaps, the only place where race hatred disappears and men simply all become brothers. I grew up always wanting to be accepted within the black community. I wanted to be accepted by them because I envied them. The use of this word is granted sometimes inside the world of sport. It happens. Black people allow it because they sometimes like a white person so much they want to eliminate barriers entirely. They understand what is going on. I have had it happen to me. It is a hard club to be allowed into and it never lasts because teams break up and this is only happens between close personal friends. But it does happen. This bonding of men is the most important part of athletics. The people who run our media should learn this so that they can become better people and not racists themselves.