Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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Unfortunately, the Las Vegas Raiders’ accomplishments on the field have been overshadowed by their former leader’s hate-tinged words a decade ago.
Jon Gruden apologized, but he also tried to provide context by claiming he often calls liars “rubber lips,” a term that is far from commonplace and sounds like a far-fetched way to make a racist trope more palatable.
As a Black woman, I am not buying it. In fact, I am offended by this half-hearted attempt to shove something distasteful down our throats. If I hear one more white person say they don’t think Gruden’s comment that DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, has lips the size of Michelin tires was that bad, I am going to burn rubber.
Unless you are a person of color, you should stay in your lane on this one. Bravo to Mark Davis for having zero tolerance for what turned out to be an ugly pattern of Gruden lobbing disparaging remarks against women, gay people and people of color.
A league whose employees are 70% black and whose viewers reflect the changing demographics of America really didn’t have any other choice than to usher Gruden out. Sure, people can change and some of the comments were made more than a decade ago, but the fact that they were made at all simply couldn’t be swept under the AstroTurf.
I applaud the Raiders for doing the right thing. Gruden may be gone, but the fight against racism is far from over.
