TURNER’S TWO CENTS: Clippers announcers foul out
*I don’t know if Ralph Lawler is a bigot or not. He says he isn’t. But the longtime voice of the L.A. Clippers and his analyst sidekick Michael Smith sure behaved like bigots when they went out of their way to mock Memphis Grizzlies rookie Hamed Haddadi because he hails from Iran.
They avoided overt ethnic slurs during last Wednesday’s Fox telecast (there were no malicious slams against Middle Eastern headwear or the region’s historic domestication of camels), but Lawler and Smith’s contempt for Haddadi’s national origin was about as subtle as a brick.
Lawler and Smith went into Archie Bunker mode as the Grizzlies closed in on their 106-90 defeat of the Clippers. Haddadi got up from the Memphis bench and was met by this innuendo-laced banter:
Smith: "Look who's in."
Lawler: "Hamed Haddadi. Where's he from?"
Smith: "He's the first Iranian to play in the NBA."
Lawler: "There aren't any Iranian players in the NBA?"
Smith: "He's the only one."
Lawler: "He's from Iran?"
Smith: "I guess so."
Lawler: "That Iran?"
Smith: "Yes."
Lawler: "The real Iran?"
Smith: "Yes."
Lawler: "Wow. Haddadi -- that's H-A-D-D-A-D-I."
Smith: "You're sure it's not Borat's older brother?"
Lawler (laughing): "If they ever make a movie about Haddadi, I'm going to get Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part."
Lawler: "Here's Haddadi. Nice little back-door pass. I guess those Iranians can pass the ball."
Smith: "Especially the post players."
Lawler: "I don't know about their guards."
It’s worth noting that throughout that entire dialogue, Lawler and Smith repeatedly mispronounced the name of Haddadi’s homeland. Now, I realize that “Eye-ran” can be a colloquialism, but it can also be a deliberate dis. Either way, it’s incorrect and hearing it annoys Iranians and Iranian-Americans greatly. As broadcasters, with the responsibility to be accurate, Lawler and Smith should have known this. Maybe they just didn’t care?
Lawler and Smith’s alleged jokes play on American enmity toward Iran and they hint that Hamed Haddadi – and, by extension, all Iranians and Iranian-American – should be regarded with suspicion.
That Iran? The real Iran? What were those remarks meant to suggest? The Iran that’s led by a dictator who harbors ill will toward Israel and apparently wants to develop nuclear weapons? The Iran that took over the U.S. embassy back when Jimmy Carter was President? The Iran that’s been cracking down hard on anti-government protesters? But none of that has anything to do with Haddadi. He isn’t an envoy for Mahmoud Amadinejad. He’s a dedicated athlete who earned the right to play in basketball’s most elite league. He should be allowed to do that without facing ethnic ridicule and implied suspicion.
As Haddadi entered the game, Lawler and Smith spoke not a word about his achievements as an athlete, or the unlikely journey that brought him to the Grizzlies. They said nothing about how Haddadi’s presence in the NBA proves that the United States is the Land of Opportunity, or how having an Iranian in the league could help smash cultural stereotypes, build bridges of understanding and perhaps help thaw relations between Washington and Tehran. Rather than celebrating all of the extraordinary, uplifting and incredibly cool things embodied by Hamed Haddadi, Ralph Lawler and Michael Smith went on a jingoistic, anti-Iranian rant disguised as humor. They became Ugly Americans, carelessly and unnecessarily throwing around inflammatory comments about another nation and its people. Lawler and Smith dove into the gutter and dragged their viewers, Fox Broadcasting, the Clippers and the NBA with them.
Make no mistake, there was nothing harmless about Lawler and Smith’s on-air exchange. Whatever their intentions, their thinly-masked attack on Haddadi’s Iranian heritage is precisely the sort of thing that stokes the prejudice and xenophobia which can so easily ignite more vicious name-calling and even acts of violence. So, the Fox network did the right thing by suspending Lawler and Smith for one game. The duo should also be required to apologize publicly. For they did not merely insult Haddadi and the Iranian-American Clippers fan who complained; they insulted all of us. Racial and ethnic attacks damage the entire human family for they sow the seeds of fear, anger and division, preventing us from following our natural inclination to identify with one another and coexist peaceably.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/22/ralph-lawler-michael-smit_n_367007.html
Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.
THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!
Read more “Turner’s Two Cents” on www.UrbanThoughtCollective.com, and www.PasadenaJournal.com. In Los Angeles, watch Cameron Turner on “The Filter with Fred Roggin” selected weeknights at 7:30 on KNBC’s digital companion station, NBC Plus (available on your local cable system).
