Quick and dirty on the story:
- A college pitcher said it was ridiculous that Mo'ne Davis, a young black, girl who pitched (and very well) in the Little League World Series, was getting a Disney movie made after her. His actual tweet included the word "slut," but not in regards to her sexual activity. He was dismissed from the team. What are your thoughts?
Now this has a lot of facets to it that are obvious and ones that are subtle.
Obvious:
- Female-based slurs (if he called her a "girl," would he have been dismissed?)
- Social media and responsibility when associated with entities with PR concerns (People say worse things on social media all of the time, but they aren't openly affiliated with institutions.)
Subtle:
- Race (would a white girl have gotten him dismissed?)
- Davis' great performances (if she wasn't as popular, would he have gotten dismissed?)
- Gender in general (would a black boy and calling him "thug" (I'm not sure if "slut" is as bad as "nigger," but I may be wrong) gotten him dismissed?)
If you removed one of these aspects and added another, the guy may not have even made news and/or have been removed from his team.
That's where I was interested in focusing. Don't get me wrong: he should have known better. You can't say anything on Twitter when you have some level of popularity without it being subject to criticism, right or wrong. And I think the team should have punished him in some public way in order to save face as an institution. You may turn off some black 18 and 19-year old recruits who saw Mo'ne as a black American story of pride if you didn't.
It's been said that the pitcher was a very good high school player, but I wonder if he had problems with the team beforehand. You don't just kick good talent from any organization without great cause.
I would have imagined the appropriate punishment would be to send Mo'ne a phone call/letter/email saying he's sorry and explaining himself, have the team run him ragged, and have him deactivate his Twitter and other social media accounts.
Kicking him from the team may very well prevent him from a career in baseball, because he'll have to transfer (which is sometimes difficult) in order to be seen and scouted. And it's going to potentially cost him scholarship money if he stayed (In their D-II division, he could have gotten a full ride, and some get a partial scholarship).
Overall, I think a punishment was warranted simply for the university's sake, similar to Oklahoma and the SAE fraternity. But I think a public apology (when I don't see how he was talking about her sexual activity here) and running him stupid would have sufficed. They just booted a very talented pitcher from their team, and in Division II, you're lucky to get any decent baseball talent that doesn't go to a D-I team or straight into pro ball. He meant a "rude" term for a female (because he's a crude, baseball player) more to say that she didn't do enough to get a whole movie made about her (and to be honest, I agree with that part. But Disney's not going to turn down a chance at cashing in on money.)
Long made short, is what folks in MRA groups complain about actually coming true on some fronts? Are we becoming too politically correct in an effort to appease very sensitive people? Or is this the proper course of action here? Is it borderline OK and not OK?