In defending Garcia, Euro Tour CEO uses racially insensitive word

[The Dansome]

It just gets worse...

 

Responding to Sergio Garcia's apology to Tiger Woods, O'Grady tried to defuse the situation. However, he used the racially insensitive term "colored."

 

“We accept all races on the European Tour – most of Sergio's friends happen to be colored athletes,” O'Grady said.

 

 

http://golfweek.com/news/2013/may/23/sergio-garcia-george-ogrady-racial-remarks/

 

[apprenti23]

Oh god... Here we go again...

[Mr_Theoo]

Wow they just cant get out of their own way

[Tony Covey MGS]

I would think that this has now transcended offensive, and his settled nicely on inconceivable stupidity.

[westy]

Sigh - I can kind of accept that Sergio screws up in his second language (making jokes in your second language can go badly - you should see my efforts at German!). But damn how daft do you need to be to drop this clanger?

 

Just be nice if people in golf could focus on golf - perhaps they could try banning something else to deflect the issue?

 

 

 

[BK in TEXAS]

I would think that this has now transcended offensive, and his settled nicely on inconceivable stupidity.

Stupid is as stupid does......

[Aotearoa_Brad]

 

 

“We accept all races on the European Tour – most of Sergio's friends happen to be colored athletes,” O'Grady said.[/i]

 

 

Unbelievable. Yeah, cos' you can't be racist if you happen to have friends from different ethnic backgrounds!"

 

Seriously, I thought that a part of the process of becoming a professional athlete/organisation spokesperson was to undertake some form of media training? Clearly not!

[The Artful Duffer]

Open mouth. Insert foot. At what point would this get past anybody's PR dept? Media peeps? Or lawyers? Or just plain common sense?

[apprenti23]

This is just hilarious- at least they have the attention off of Sergio!

[Maverickping]

The media are a bunch of hired guns waiting to be drawn. Must be a slow day. I really don't find this to be all that insensitive. A wise man should be careful in how he presents his statements/actions et al but where does one draw the line? There are certain words associated with any race that most would consider to be out of bounds but this: my goodness.

 

Edit for this little gem that I somehow missed.

 

"“We accept all races on the European Tour – most of Sergio's friends happen to be colored athletes,” O'Grady said.[/i]"

 

My original statement is still my personal belief but this last little gem is spectacular! Someone else looks like they will be getting a talking to.

[Shambles]

In many places in the world, the same word can be a pejorative or a dignified term. In some places, " Colored " refers to anyone who is not Caucasian. I do not know that man's cultural background, but it is very probable that the terms used were innocent. Europe, on the whole, at least in the time I spent there, was not racially divided. These days immigration pressures have changed some places and the welcome of some nationalities but I believe people there still look on each other as just other people.

 

 

Shambles

[BIG STU]

Got to agree with Shambles on this one. I was born and raised in the south (north Carolina) "colored" ment people of color when I was growing up. It was in no way a derogeraty term where I was raised. When I grew up the word boy refered to a young man of any race. Now it just depends where you are at and who you are and whome you are referring to. I have a lot of friends that are African American of different ages and here no one takes offense of the words colored black or good ole boy because a good ole boy can be of any race or national origon just like lady or fellow. I don't think it was ment to be a derogeraty comment but in this world of the offended anything can be taken outta contex. The media loves to stir the pot so to speak. Would we have had all this contriversy if it had been anyone other than Tiger. Like him or not anything involving Tiger moves the needle good or bad. I remember the Fuzzy incident a few years back involving a comment Fuzzy said. Fuzzy was being Fuzzy but the media blew it up and K Mart Fuzzy's sponsor panicked and fired him as a spokesman. As I recall tiger thought it was funny or it least he said so. Fuzzy did apologise to tiger but Tiger said he was not offended. I do recall an African American friend of mine said " He's from California wonder if he has ever eaten a watermelon or good southern fried chicken?" we fell over laughing about this. I guess it is about mentality and how and where you were raised