Ethics

'why would someone go out of their way to say I'm not a genius'-Owen Wilson in Royal Tennenbaums

Should a coach be forced to resign for saying someone is not the N word?

It's an interesting debate. I will never defend anyone using the N word under any circumstance. unless you are named Chris Rock.

But is this too extreme? Have we reached a point where comments count more than character? You get the sense that you spend your whole life saving people from burning buildings, but say one (albeit a biggie) wrong thing and it's all out the window.

Are we judging people on the content of their character, or on a ten second sound bite?

You could argue that a sound bite can say a lot about someone's character, and I wouldn't disagree with you, but my fear is PC demands black and white answers in a gray world. Most people are neither good nor evil, and if the kid in question and his family are willing to forgive the guy than who the hell are we to say.

Having said all of that I would ask him to leave as well, but it does raise some interesting questions about the role of PC thinking.

Are there free speech questions? Should you be employable only if you have never (at least publicly) said the N word.

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm defending people using the N word, I certainly will not. Using it in most any context is reprehensible.