Last night, if you saw the Cincinnati Reds or if you were on Twitter, you heard announcer Thom Brennaman say of a homophobic slur. In fact, because of the circumstances you can hear it right now if you do not remember it or if you miss it and want to verify that fact. Then about two hours later, when he was pulled from the doubleheader’s broadcast Wednesday, Brennaman declared that he is not the kind of person who says homophobic sloppiness. “That’s not who I am,” he said. “It has never been.”
That is not true. It’s also a really bad apology.
Brennaman would be hard pressed to give a good apology. First and foremost because he’s pretty obvious is the kind of person who uses such gloves in a professional setting. And because he’s the kind of person who refers to LGBTQ people who use bad slurps.
He said it with vitriol and left because he did not know his audio was being sent out to the public. But the moral of the story has nothing to do with hot mics – which serve as a tube, not a truth serum. Intended to censor his bigotry from the broadcast, but not his colleagues only presents their own set of follow-up questions: Does Brennaman usually define a hostile workplace or is this kind of language widely condoned by the culture at Fox Sports Ohio? If anything, it’s handy that the microphone was hot for this revealing moment.
I do not think it is too much of an assumption to conclude that he can also engage in casual homophobia if he does not have a headset.
In the course of the air’s apology, Brennaman found time to call a run home and update the score, but not to say “homophobia,” “homosexuality,” “LGBTQ,” or “gay.” He mentions that he is a ‘man of faith’, but fails in any way to connect it with the issue (and without respect, honestly, the historical treatment of LGBTQ people’s Christianity makes it more defensive than contrast). When he says he’s sorry, it’s first to ‘the people who pay my wages’.
But he ended up insisting, and later doubling down on the idea that he’s not a person to apologize to. Which kind of underscores the sincerity of saying sorry only.
In an interview with The Athletic, Brennaman said, ‘I’m not that person. That’s not who Thom Brennaman is. ”
Later, in that interview, he explains exactly what he denies.
“I have never in my life, not one second of my life, been homophobic, I have been racist, I have been one of those words that are horrible, horrible words,” he said.
‘What he said is not a reflection of who Thom Brennaman is. I know this is not him, ”his father, former Reds spokesman Marty Brennaman, told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
This type of defense is evasive, passive, obedient and reluctant.
If there is a good apology where the perpetrator takes responsibility for his actions and does better in the future, this is exactly the opposite. It is a self-serving attempt to distance oneself from the bad thing before anyone even has a chance to forgive him for it. But why then apologize at all? What does Thom Brennaman regret if not that he is the kind of person who uses homophobic slurps? That is what he is accused of, and there is unforgivable evidence.
Brennaman’s sincere denial that we should deduce everything about him from his words and actions is not just dumb, it’s a form of gas lighting.
By preemptively freeing everything outside of an uncharacteristic accident, Brennaman himself expands the generous assumption that he may have participated in some sort of redemptive self-reflection and training. He does not seem to understand the concept of unconscious bias or that his assessment of what is and is not homophobic is uninformed and meaningless. The litmus test for problematic ideology is not whether the person who exists it thinks it is a problem.
I stack up on Brennaman because it’s worth taking a learning moment.
Picking him up from our TVs (Brennaman will be stopped with effect from Wednesday night) is a good step for Fox Sports Ohio and fans, but it does nothing for the man himself but the bigotry we know exists in the world. exists. People, even otherwise Hall of Fame-worthy pitchers, will try to say that this kind of sensitivity is a product of the times and that it is shameful to “cancel” a man over a single slur.
I do not think Thom Brennaman is necessarily beyond the point of reform because of what he said. But he will have to accept that he is the kind of person who says such things before he can change. Develop social norms, and hopefully for the better. The best way to not fall behind is to try to stop instead of indicating that you are good right where you are.
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