Word: zoeller
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...nickname notwithstanding, professional golfer Frank ("Fuzzy") Zoeller saw Tiger Woods quite clearly. He gazed upon the new king of professional golf, through whose veins runs the blood of four continents, and beheld neither a one-man melting pot nor even a golfing prodigy but a fried-chicken-and-collard- greens-eating Sambo. Zoeller saw Woods, in short, as just another stereotype, condemned by his blackness to the perpetual status of "little...
...Zoeller soon paid a price for saying openly what many others were thinking secretly. K Mart, the discount chain with a big African-American clientele, unceremoniously dumped him as the sponsor of a line of golf clothing and equipment, and he abjectly withdrew from the Greater Greensboro Open tournament. "People who know me know I'm a jokester. I just didn't deliver the line well," Zoeller tearfully explained. But his real crime was not, as he and his defenders seem to think, merely a distasteful breach of racial etiquette or an inept attempt at humor. The real crime...
...many citizens the "browning of America" means a disorienting plunge into an uncharted sea of identity. Zoeller is far from alone in being confused about the complex tangle of genotypes and phenotypes and cultures that now undercut centuries-old verities about race and race relations in the U.S. Like many others, he hasn't got a clue about what to call the growing ranks of people like Woods who inconveniently refuse to be pigeonholed into one of the neat, oversimplified racial classifications used by government agencies--and, let's face it, most people. Are they people of color? Mixed race...
...Zoeller has since released a half-hearted apology, claiming that his "comments were not intended to be racially derogatory" and expressing his regret that "they were misconstrued in this fashion." He also said: "It's too bad that something I said in jest was turned into something it's not, but I didn't mean anything...
...Zoeller's remarks not only reflect bad taste and poor judgment, but also illustrate how some people's conception of humor is a flippant reference to a crude stereotype. It is even more discouraging to note that Zoeller does not seem to understand that he did not merely make a bad joke, but that what he said was racist. Zoeller has not demonstrated any true remorse for his statements or even expressed an understanding of why he should not have attempted to make a wisecrack about fried chicken. His "apology" could have easily been prompted by his publicist...