ESPN Suspends Rob Parker For RG3 Comments

ESPN commentator Rob Parker has been suspended “until further notice†for remarks questioning Robert Griffin III’s blackness, according to a statement from ESPN.

Speaking on ESPN’s “First Take†Thursday, Parker detoured from a conversation about the Washington Redskins quarterback’s health and spilled into an unprompted critique of Griffin III that cast doubt upon his commitment to black culture.

"Is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?" Parker asked.

"He's not real. OK, he's black, he kind of does the thing, but he's not really down with the cause. He's not one of us. He's kind of black, but he's not really, like, the guy you want to hang out with because he's off to something else.

"We all know he has a white fiancee. There was all this talk about how he's a Republican ... Tiger Woods was like, 'I've got black skin, but don't call me black.'"

Parker’s statement, which went viral almost immediately, elicited a response from Griffin III’s father, Robert Griffin II.

"He needs to define what 'one of us' is. That guy needs to define that," Griffin II said, according to USA Today. "I wouldn't say it's racism. I would just say some people put things out there about people so they can stir things up.

"Robert is in really good shape on who he is, where he needs to get to in order to seek the goals he has in life ... so I don't take offense."

Robert Griffin III reacted to Parker in a brief post on Twitter Thursday night: "I'm thankful for a lot of things in life and one of those things is your support. Thank you."

ESPN has not offered a timetable for Parker’s possible return to regular appearances on the network, instead saying it is in the process of "conducting a full review."

Source: Sporting News

 

never heard of this jerkoff before, but hes confirmed that he has no buisness on tv

 

very happy about this

 

Not good enough. Fire his butt.

 

yep, that will be the next step unless they're going to get sued. they just have to make sure their lawyers have all their T's crossed and I's dotted.

it's hard to justify firing someone for having an opinion but maybe they can get him to resign.

 

He should be fired, and forced out of the media.

 

They kind of put themselves in that situation though with shows like First Take right? It's all about expressing opinions EMPHATICALLY and LOUDLY and "I'm right and you're wrong."

 

yep, and i'm sure that's why they've got the full court pressure on him right now to resign. firing a person for giving an opinion when you've hired them to give opinions is a sure fire way to get sued.

 

I understand not liking him for what he said, but why should he be fired? Why must people want to suppress freedom of speech if it's something that they don't agree with?

Hidden racism is far more dangerous than open discussion about it.

 

i understand what you're saying and there is a lot of truth in it but I also understand espn now has to find a way to get rid of him. companies can't keep people around that their customers hate.

my company would fire me too if i pissed off a bunch of our customers.

 

Parker should be fired

racist pr**k

Freedom of speech means the government won't censor you for it.

Big difference if you work for a private company and say stupid race-bating stuff in public.

So this is not a freedom of speech issue.

 

Sorry man. But I always thought a black man calling out another black man wasn't racist?

I think this whole deal got blown out of proportion. It wasn't like he called him the "N" word or anything. It sounded like he just stated his opinion(albeit a bad one) in poor taste.

 

I don't mean freedom of speech in the government manner. I mean as a society and members of this board. Why on earth would any member of this board want him to be fired? Why should we want to suppress people from expressing an opinion (hell he was actually only asking a question) just because we do not agree with it. It's stuff like this that slowly takes away our abilities to open communicating people.

 

i understand where you are going with this, and there is some truth in it. however, i think you're giving our society too much credit. hell, even this particular website would ban someone (or at least card them) for posting something along the lines of what parker said.

 

Are you joking?

 

A little tongue in cheek.

 

And to put light on the subject..

The guy was kinda putting it as a question. And on top of that I don't think anything he said was "that" bad. The show he is on is full of Dbags and usually bring up racy subjects. I just believe this is being blown WAY out of proportion. He didn't say anything negative about RGIII nor did he slam who he is..

This whole uproar is silly to me. Now, that is not to say it wasn't in bad taste, but it is not worth all the attention he is getting for it.

my .02

 

He pretty muched called him a sell out.

 

He basically called a black man... a white man...

Now that I think about it... I'm freaking offended here.