I'm not sure how the following paragraph made it into print:
The Wolves fired Dwane Casey, an energetic black fellow, as coach when he was 20-20. And now they are bringing back Wittman, clearly a Caucasian, who led the lads to a 12-30 charge down the stretch.
You might think I'm taking that out of context, but go and read for yourself. See if I am. Aside from a sentence mentioning some black Civil Rights leaders in the Twin Cities, there really isn't much there. I'm assuming that Reusse is trying to say that its too bad the black community didn't push harder to keep Casey on board. But what a fucking weird way to go about it, yeah?
8 comments:
Glad someone else caught this. I wrote a post about it as well, totally ridiculous comment to make. McHale will hire the worst coach he can find, regardless of race, creed or sexual orientation.
A few years ago, Reusse accused Viking fans of racism because they booed Daunte Culpepper but didn't boo Brad Johnson.
A year later, about the same time of year, he wrote a column about how Viking fans were booing Brad Johnson--and blamed Viking fans for being fickle.
In this case, they did bring back Casey after a year--they fired him after a year and a half. Reusse picks facts to imply they fired a black man, but retained a white man with a much worse record. That's not quite the case (and for the record, I don't think the Wolves should have fired Casey).
Reusse is always making these implications.
You might appreciate these two posts:
http://pacifistviking.blogspot.com/2006/08/why-viking-fans-hate-patrick-reusse.html
http://pacifistviking.blogspot.com/2006/12/patrick-reusse-scoffs-at-our.html
Well, I guess it IS the case they fired a black man and retained a white man. What I mean is, Casey was given more than 40 games to prove himself--he got 122. I think he is better than Wittman, but implying racism when Casey was fired after 122 games and Wittman is retained after 42--but cherry picking facts to make it look like Casey was fired after 40 games--is an intellectually dishonest thing to do.
(For the record, I think institutional racism is everywhere and in hiring and firing decisions, race may play a factor--I just hate the way Reusse implies it with shoddy columns).
PC is back
What I want to know is, which Movie Stars will be playing these two coaches in the film? I mean, they sound like the original "Odd Couple," literally.
"An energetic black fellow" could be Martin Lawrence.
An actor who is "clearly a Caucasian" could be Tim Allen.
Wild Hogs Redux! Other casting obviousness:
Brad Childress: Gerald McRaney
Kevin McHale: Fred Gwynne (circa when he appeared on the Munsters)
Glen Taylor: Uh... maybe Alan Rachins?
And to Pacifist Viking: I agree with your race comment but you're giving Reusse too much credit. He's trying to joke that maybe pressure from those guys would get Randy Wittman fired (or I guess could have prevented Casey from being fired) and that on merit he thinks Casey is demonstrably the better coach. Race, other than as a punchline, is beyone his critical reasoning skills.
http://www.petitiononline.com/76190811/petition.html
Petition to fire Patrick Reusse...constantly put up and pulled off of the free speech enthusiasts at the Strib site.
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