What do you think about the fried chicken comment Sergio Garcia made towards Tiger Woods?

Ugh. I’m surprised he didn’t offer watermelon, too. People are idiots. :/

Is Tiger Woods even black? I know he looks a little darker than your average white guy, but he kind of looks like a mix of every race to me.

Either way, pro sportsmen who make racist comments about others should be met with a temporary to permanent ban from the sport. With golf being as pretentious as it is, I would say it calls for a permanent ban.

They don’t like each other, never have, it stems from when Garcia first came on the scene as a 19yr old. He pushed Woods all the way in the US PGA slam & apparently glared at him when standing on the 18th tee, Tiger took this as a lack of respect & the seeds were sewn.
The fried chicken remark can be taken as passive racism, if there is such a thing, not a surprise when you consider he’s Spanish. Sergio claims a lot of players dislike Tiger but don’t have the balls to come out & say it & whilst I can believe that, it’s also widely understood that Garcia is a miserable negative personality, a law unto himself basically.
Should’ve kept his mouth shut for now he’s dining on large portions of humble pie.

I wonder if Garcia used those words to be malicious, or if he was just stupid. It’s hard to know. There’s every probability that Garcia doesn’t know American history and culture.

So I am not willing to criticize him (Garcia) without a little more evidence of malice.

In the bigger picture and looking at the whole scheme of life, which is worse in regards to banning someone from a career? What Sergio said or what Tiger did to his wife and children?

Just to add, there’s no question of Garcia’s career being under any threat, maybe a hefty fine is in order. The boss of the european tour came out & defended Sergio with these words… “I believe Sergio has many coloured friends…” un-be-fuckin-liev-able!!

I think what Sergio said is inexcusable. He should get a hefty fine. Whatever his culture may be, he should learn the culture of the country that he plays in, and if he can’t figure out what is acceptable to say and what is not, he should keep his comments to the minimum.

That seems like the punchline to a joke, @ucme. You can’t make these things up. LOL

This reminds me of prior discussions on Fluther about when a joke crosses the line. Some say that there is no line when it comes to comedy. Does this joke by Sergio fall into that same category?

@ucme Seriously? @bkcunningham is right, you can’t make that up! LOL.

Personally, I think since they don’t like each other it was just a case of childlike sarcasm and stupidity. I do think probably Sergio talks like that behind closed doors, makes racial slurs of sorts, but I am not saying I think he is a racist necessarily.

I don’t think he should be banned from the sport. I guess some penalty for not conducting himself as a good sportsman.

@elbanditoroso I don’t think he was trying to be malicious, but, I think he knew fried chicken is a sterotype for black Americans. I say not malicious, because that word seems so strong, but I think he purposely picked it because Tiger is black. It seems at minimum he thinks of Tiger as a black man, and considers the stereotypes that go with that.

It was racist and disgusting.

This is such a good blog piece. I am happy to be able to share it with you all.

Here is an little bit of it from Grantland writer, Wesley Morris: The thing about racism (or sexism or homophobia) is that there’s a certain brand that people who’ve experienced it know is benign but that people who’ve never experienced it go crazy over. These people tend to be your white friends who can’t believe that, say, the fried chicken comment is really real. They’re the ones who suddenly turn into Medgar Evers on your behalf. It’s simultaneously endearing, exasperating, and totally understandable. If the president held a press conference for all the different groups that aim at him and his family he wouldn’t have time to address McScandals. For both, he’s got a white friend to get mad on his behalf.

I think there is a racial element in Spanish culture, certainly when it comes to sport.
Lewis Hamilton the British F1 driver was subjected to the pathetic sight of Spanish fans dressed in monkey suits taunting him at their home grand prix a few years ago & when England played Spain in a football match held in Madrid, some of the fans felt the need to yell monkey chants at the black English players, so there’s quite a pattern emerging here with Spain.

@bkcunningham & @JLeslie Yeah, these guys running sport are basically out of touch old farts, look at the dinosaurs in charge at Augusta with the US Masters, although they did recently appoint Condoleeza Rice with a membership.

@ucme I wasn’t aware. I don’t think of Spain as having many black people, where does that stem from?

I dunno, generational moronic thinking? Certainly don’t want to single out the Spanish, but Garcia is not helping his nation’s growing reputation.

There are people from every part of the wold, north; south; east and west; who would say things like this. Not just in Spain. People get emotional and become FANatical over sporting events. It doesn’t just happen in sports either. Remember the incident with the Swedish Minister or Culture? We could name an infinite number of incidents all over the world where people have acted in ways that others deem inappropriate and can be taken offensively. I’m not saying it makes it right. Just saying, like @ucme noted, you can’t just single out the Spaniards.

But like I say, this question concerns a Spanish sportsman, quite relevant then.

I wasn’t singling out the Spanish, I was just curious about any anti-black sentiment or racism in the country. In America we have a whole history to explain racism in our country.

I realize perception is everything, but if someone invited me over for fried chicken I would go. But I don’t attach any kind of stigma to food. I suppose I would have had to heard the tenor in which the offer was made. I’m kind of proud of my chicken actually and inviting my friends (black or white or yellow) over for fried chicken is not uncommon for me to do. I just can’t find a cole slaw recipe I am happy with. Cooking for friends is a gesture of love in my culture.
Is Garcia a hateful, spiteful kind of guy?

Sounds like the typical trash talk in the rift between blacks and Hispanics that we all know exists. I see this shit all the time. He did it where a lot of people heard it. He is stupid.

@woodcutter Sergio is Spanish.

Did you watch the second video in the link? It was a black guy saying he loves fried chicken and he is over getting offended for such inane reasons. I personally think it is much ado about nothing. Tiger Woods calls himself some mixture of about 18 different ethnicities, he claims his african heritage in this instance because he doesn’t get along with Sergio. I am white, I love fried chicken. This is Political correctness and ethnic sensitivity gone mad. Of all the black friends I have, most like fried chicken and would not deny it or care if you commented on it.

@rooeytoo: Maybe it’s a cultural thing (as you live in a different country) or maybe it’s because Sergio and Tiger are not friends, I’m not sure. If I had black adversaries and I told them to come over and I’d serve fried chicken, I know it would cause animosity. I think even with black friends, I would be careful making jokes about fried chicken – it might raise eyebrows.

@JLeslie split hairs much?

No it’s not cultural. There was just a case here where an aboriginal footballer was called “ape” by a 13 year old spectator in the stands. He ran over, pointed her out to security and she was removed from the game. He then went on to say how hurt he was, he is a well spoken footballer of any colour. It was quite a big to do. But I wonder what would have happened had she called a white guy an ape. I mean they are big guys, many have beards and tats, wouldn’t be unusual to call any opposing teams player an ape after they made a goal. Actually this guy isn’t even very dark, his skin tone is more like an indian or pakistani than the pure aboriginals.

So the player had the choice to dignify her remark by recognizing it or he could have ignored it, whatever. I guess I wonder if he did himself and aboriginals in general, any favours by showing pain, real or manufactured for the occasion. Now every goon who wants to annoy an aboriginal will pull out the ape word. Then we will no longer be able to refer to gorillas as great a’s. We’ll have to just use the first letter as we do with the n word.

I would have given her a dirty look and moved on. Employ the sticks and stones mentality. That is the way I would handle it. I don’t want to give to another, the power to penetrate my protection.

Tiger Woods needs to stop with the butthurt. He’s a rich professional and has nothing to ba ashamed of, except fucking around on his beautiful wife. If Sergio really wanted to fuck with him , he could have used that black stereotype and he would have hit home. Racism will never go away as long as people keep faking outrage over it. Move the fuck on already.

@woodcutter I don’t think it is splittng hairs, it is a different continent. Hell, my husband is “Hispanic” and in his country there is barely a black person. It is only when they come to the US they might even encounter many (or another country) and even have some sort of opinion. Except, that many Latin American countries the people do prefer lighter, whiter skin as being more attractive and sometimes part of the class structure. But, Sergio is Spanish, Spain, Europe, not Latin America, not the Americas at all.

@JLeslie But when everyone comes over to the “new world” they do get onto the culture of things. Everything goes here in the big melting pot.

@woodcutter He is Spanish, lives in Spain. He is not in our melting pot. Unless I am misinformed; feel free to correct me. He does spend time in the states, obviously. And, immigrants usually hold onto a lot of their culture. It usually takes until the second generation for complete assimilation, some people take to the American way right away.

Saying Hispanic and Spanish are the same is like saying an Irish-American and someone born, raised, and is a citizen of Ireland are the same.

The guy plays golf everywhere I’m sure. If someone wants to be a dick to someone in another country they won’t do it using their home country lexicon of BS insults because it will be an insult fail. Be like someone calling you a scank in Chinese, won’t have any meaning…unless you know the language. You really think a white golfer would have dared to even think about sayin that shit to Woods? Never.

@woodcutter Are you saying Sergio isn’t white?

@JLeslie Well going by the PC code the left has invented and declared law, anyone who isn’t black, is white. Makes it easier for them to tell the difference for the purpose of discussion I suppose. Just so there is no confusion?

@woodcutter Back when I was a teen I remember my boyfriend filled in white on a form. It was back before so many categories were listed for race on forms. Someone said to him he should check Hispanic. He said in his country his family is white. My husband’s father would check Hispanic on a form here, but he does not have an ounce of Spanish as far as I know, he just was born in Mexico. His family is from Israel, before that probably other parts of the Middle East. What about German-Argentinians? Are They Hispanic? Are they white enough to simply write white and not have to write white hispanics? The whole thing is ridiculous at this point in my opinion. As long as we are dividing people by race and nationality, I think the term African American is not a great term, because being from a continent does not determine someones skin color. Every South African-American I know is white.

Do people in other countries use terms like African-Canadian, African-Mexican or African Scottish and the like?

@bkcunningham The folks in those countries use far less flattering descriptor for blacks, I promise you. The US has it better. Europeans= not too nice with their racism.

Possibly @bkcunningham meant on government forms? Or, how they self identify.

@woodcutter I’m still curious, the German-Argentinian, do you just lump him in with Hispanics? Consider him not white?

Even the old form 4473 thats been around since the 60’s is singling out Hispanics, but why? The old gun background check form seemed adequate. http://www.ammoland.com/2012/07/atf-targeting-hispanic-gun-buyers-with-new-racist-form-4473/#axzz2UViizo00

@woodcutter Hispanic is not a race designation, it says it right on the form you linked. It also is on our census. They aren’t being singled out, the government tries to put everyone in a box. The Hispanic population is very large in our country. The government divides people up for multiples reasons, so do sociologist, and marketing departments in businesses.

You still didn’t answer my question.

What about Italian Americans from southern Italy and Sicily, are they white? Just simply white?

@JLeslie I don’t think anyone can answer that question. Can you?

I didn’t mean on forms. I meant do people use the term African-(fill in the blank) in other countries?

I’m just going to guess and say yes? Or whichever country of origin, like Tunisian, Moroccan, etc. I’ve read that the euro’s treat some of their immigrants like shit. It’s not just a Yank thing.