Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito has received a huge backlash from the racial epithets and profane language in a slur of text messages and a voice mail message left for Miami Dolphin’s tackle Jonathan Martin. Incognito left the message in April 2013, a year after Martin was drafted.
“Hey, wassup, you half n***** piece of s***. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. [I want to] s*** in your f***ing mouth. [I’m going to] slap your f***ing mouth. [I’m going to] slap your real mother across the face [laughter]. F*** you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”
Last week, Martin left the team after an unspecified incident in the team cafeteria. This shows that even a 6-foot-5, 300 pound lineman can be the victim to bullying and harassment. The locker room culture is much to blame, especially in the testosterone driven sport of football. Go into any locker room and you will hear the use of the “n” word by non-African American athletes all the way down to high school level sports. It is just sports culture. However, it leads to incidents such as Incognito’s. Take Riley Cooper for example. In August, the Philadelphia Eagle wide receiver was caught on video using the “n” word at a concert.
“I will jump that b**** and fight every n***** here bro,” Riley said. Cooper was fined and sent to racial sensitivity classes. This calls for more rigorous diversity and racial sensitivity training. Something needs to change this aspect of sports culture because it will get worse.
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.