Who can defend Sergio?

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Stretch

LOL ... I know you're lying because I'm not Alex Trebek!

"I'll take The Rapists for 200 please." ;)

[Ernest Jones]

Swords for $500. Uh...that's S words.

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by Wisguy

I agree with the comment above that being "a little bit racist" is like being only a little bit pregnant.  How does one decide how much bigotry is perfectly fine and hunky-dory and how much has crossed the line and is no longer acceptable?  Isn't the concept of "acceptable quantities of bigotry" analogous to saying "a non-offensive degree of rape" or "a reasonable amount of child abuse?"  Some things are just wrong regardless of the degree or quantity.

Here's a question for you:  what if Sergio (or Fuzzy before him) had instead said Tiger should have Tom Yum [soup] followed by chicken basil stir-fiy or Pad Thai?  Would it have been viewed as offensively stereotyping Woods?  He's got probably as much Thai ancestry from his mom as sub-Saharan African ancestry from his dad.  If Tiger had responded "Sergio can go choke on some paella," would anyone have been offended?  Should there be a difference?  After all, one of the most distinctive and best-appreciated aspects of any ethnic group's culture is their cuisine.  I guess the only real difference is that fried chicken and collared greens are not considered haut cuiisine or highly admirable/desirable foods.  Personally, 80% of the time, I'd prefer Popeye's spicy fried chicken to French or Spanish cuisine.

If those foods had a negative or derogatory connotation towards those ethnic group then yes, those would be racial slurs.  If not, then not.  But putting aside the hypotheticals that people are using to try to justify Sergio (and themselves?) there is no doubt that fried chicken mistaken as a derogatory reference to race given the history of slavery in the United States.  It means he is addressing Tiger not as a person but as a member of a race.  And he knew exactly what he was doing when he reached for fried chicken as his vehicle.  What are the chances that someone would say "We'll serve him tuna salad every night" about someone else and then it turns out that tuna salad has a negative connotation for people of that person's ethnicity?  It was either a racial slur or an amazing coincidence.