The black and white of racism in MMA

The fact that they are no longer fighting each other has done little to dampen the flames on the ongoing ‘friends to foes’ fire-pit that is the relationship between Jon ‘Bones’ Jones and  ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans. While we love the fun and games aspect pre-fight banter, former champion Evans has (not for the first time) blundered his way into murky territory with some allegedly racist comments. Here we go again…
Let’s set the stage: Evans and Jones, former training partners and friends, throw their past allegiance out of the window when they realise that they are going to be paid a considerable amount of money to punch each other in the face. It starts with trash-talk and descends into ugly name-calling and nightclub confrontations being policed by Georges St Pierre, a man determined that the general public not be entertained by any fight at which he is present (Only joking Georges!).
Over the past few days, the squabbling hit a new low, with Jones’ revelation that ‘Suga’ has sent him ‘racist’ messages via his phone, a charge that Evans denied. ‘Bones’ countered with a picture of the message itself, forcing Rashad to backtrack and admit that he did in fact send it, but it wasn’t racist. He did so in what is quite possibly one of the worst thought out statements in MMA history on MMAWeekly Radio this week.

“…But it’s not that I think being a white boy is a bad thing, it’s not against white people in general. It’s an insult to him because he’s not white, you can see where the insult comes in. That’s the extent of the insult right there – it’s not an insult against white people, it’s that he’s black and I’m calling him white.”

Let me get this straight then, it’s cool for me, fake ass white boy that I am, to use the term ‘black’ in a derogatory manner towards another white person? So next time Michael Pepper or Isaac Kuhlman wind me up on MMABay Radio, I’m good to call either one of them a ‘fake-ass black guy’? Presumably then Rashad would have no issue with say, Brock Lesnar calling Shane Carwin the ‘N’word’? Because hey, it’s not an insult against black people, it’s just that Shane Carwin is white, so calling him a pejorative term for a black person in a derogatory manner is just a pop at him! That makes perfect sense!
I’m unsure as to whether Rashad Evans has simply put his foot in his mouth with a private conversation that went public, or if he is genuinely oblivious to the fact that his explanation of the txt message was actually more offensive than the message itself. This is, after all, the same person who called ‘Rampage’ Jackson an ‘Uncle Tom’; a dated and prejudiced term for a black person who is subservient to white authority figures.
The real issue at hand here is that of public relations; there absolutely was no way Rashad should have been allowed to give that ridiculous explanation on a radio show. That’s his manager’s fault, not his. The only way that situation should have been addressed in public (if it was addressed at all) is via a carefully crafted and reviewed press release or statement. These PR faux pars are endemic within MMA as it finds its feet as a professional sport. With the explosion of social networking, and the UFC actively and financially encouraging their fighters to participate in twitter exchanges, we’ll likely see more ‘foot in mouth’ incidents before we see less of them.
Personally, I’m not offended by the message at all. I grew up in a foreign country and went to an international school – casual jabs at each-other’s national heritage were par for the course and all taken with a pinch of salt. With that said, personal views are irrelevant with such a touchy subject; the fact is that whether he likes it or not, Rashad Evans is a figure in the public eye and statements like the above will only hurt his image in the long run. Genuine racism, whether by accident or design, is abhorrent and has no place in mixed martial arts or anywhere else. While it’s unlikely that Evans is genuinely racist and more likely that this was just a near-the-knuckle jibe gone wrong, the situation remains that some people will be seriously offended by it.
Maybe Jon Jones is at fault here too. It was he, after all, who made the situation public by revealing the contents of private messages. ‘Bones’ may have the ‘good guy’ image, but these situations are rarely one way traffic.
Either way, I think we can all agree that nothing positive is going to come from two of the sport’s most well-known fighters trading racial slurs, whether they’re intended to cause offence or not. I might not be offended by it, but that doesn’t mean it’s what I want to see when I fire up my computer in the morning. MMA is one of the few world-wide sports in which it doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, black, white, brown, yellow or purple…it transcends race, creed and cultural barriers. The more people respect that notion, the better.