Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Harrison's words a reflection of society as a whole


(Note: This originally appeared as a column on the editorial page of the April 8, 2015 edition of The Anderson News.)

            By now you know what Andrew Harrison supposedly said.
If you don't know what the University of Kentucky basketball player said Saturday after the Wildcats were ousted from the NCAA Tournament, you obviously haven't been paying attention.
In case you really did miss it, here is a little refresher.
Kentucky went to the Final Four with a 38-0 record and was a prohibitive favorite to finish off an undefeated regular season. Wisconsin, however, had other ideas. The Badgers made the plays when Kentucky didn't and ended the Wildcat dream of an unbeaten season, 71-64.
A few minutes after the game ended, Kentucky coach John Calipari brought four of his players, including Andrew Harrison, to the post-game press conference, where media types from around the nation get their chance to ask questions that usually produce some kind of canned response.
Someone asked Kentucky's Karl-Anthony Towns about Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky, the national Player of the Year and a major reason the Wildcats went home two wins short of perfection. As Towns began to answer, Harrison muttered an expletive and a racial slur under his breath. The bad news for Harrison was that his microphone was live.
I won't repeat what Harrison said. If you don't know and are really curious, do a Google search. You will find plenty of references on the Internet.
Some downplay the racial slur as common language among young African-Americans. I get that and truly believe it was poor judgment on the part of a young man who had just seen his team's dream of a national championship abruptly end.
During his two years at Kentucky Harrison has always conducted himself well in the public eye.
Therefore, I am not about to condone what Harrison said. Neither am I going to condemn.
As a sports writer, I can't say I have encountered the slur very often, but I have heard the same expletive uttered many times by game participants countless times during games. Watch just about any major college or pro sporting event on TV and chances are if you read lips, you will see the same word uttered over and over. We often make light of it with terms like “colorful language.”
That, of course, does not make it right.
But such language, the type that kids would get their mouths washed out with soap for using not that long ago, has become somewhat accepted in every day life.
Why?
Last week, my wife and I were walking through Fayette Mall in Lexington when we saw a young man wearing a shirt printed with one of the offensive words that Andrew Harrison used. Why was it wrong for him say something and someone else able to purchase a shirt with the same word.
As I drove to the office Tuesday morning, I was stopped behind a vehicle “adorned” with a bumper sticker bearing another expletive.
I am sure the owner of the vehicle thought it was funny.
It wasn't.
My question again is why have we allowed such vulgar talk to become acceptable?
Recently, I sat down to watch a movie with my daughter – my choice of movies, not hers – and we made about 15 minutes before changing what was on our TV. The language was that embarrassing.
I am not old enough to know any first-hand reaction to Clark Gable's famous line in “Gone With the Wind.” Nor am I patient enough to sit through the movie to see the context in which he said it. What I do know is we have allowed our cultural standards to decline to the point where much stronger language have become common place in movies, music and every day life.
Andrew Harrison undoubtedly made a mistake and reached out to Kaminsky. He owned up to what he did and will have to live with it.
The more pertinent question is when will society own up to its mistake of diminished standards of decorum.