Former republican U.S. Senator Trent Lott and Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal aren’t that different.
Granted, one is an aging Caucasian politician while the other is a giant, African-American professional basketball player. So, one could argue that on the surface, they appear as opposite as ground and sky. But, deep down, they are merely two simple fools who don’t know when to think before they speak.
Lott got things started last month while speaking at a 100th birthday party and retirement celebration for Sen. Strom Thurmond. Lott said, “I want to say this … we voted for (Thurmond). We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.”
The problem was, Thurmond has long been labeled a segregationist for the stand he took against African-Americans during his U.S. presidential campaign in the late 1940’s. Lott’s comments drew ire from democrats and some republicans across the nation, and the backfire eventually led to Lott’s resignation.
O’Neal actually made his dip into the racial slur trough months before Lott, but the comments weren’t widely circulated until a couple weeks ago. On a radio program last summer, O’Neal, when asked about Yao Ming, the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick, said, “Tell Yao Ming, ‘Ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.'”
The comment didn’t catch much slack until Irwin Tang, a columnist for AsianWeek, told the Daily News of Los Angeles recently, “That type of comment is as bad as using the ‘n’ word.”
Although both Lott and O’Neal have been labeled as “racists” and “bigots” for their remarks, that’s probably not the case. Lott isn’t a bigot, he only said something kind about one.
And O’Neal, according to most everybody that knows him, isn’t a racist. He simply thought he was being funny trying to say something to Ming in Chinese – which he obviously can’t speak – and guessed wrong. He wasn’t funny, only offensive.
Lott should have figured that post-endorsing a racist would come off bad on him, but he didn’t think. He kept talking. O’Neal did the same thing. He has reportedly been practicing how to say, “I’m sorry” in Chinese, so he can apologize to Ming personally when the two play against each other on Friday, Jan. 17. But the whole ordeal could have been avoided if O’Neal would have simply stopped talking before his thoughts got him in trouble.
That’s why Lott and O’Neal aren’t really that different after all. They’re just two dimwits who, to their own detriment, spoke before thinking.
