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Former Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway said on a radio show Wednesday afternoon that he would not want a gay player on his team.
"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known," Hardaway said.
"I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States." (Quote and photo from ESPN)
The NBA took action against Hardaway. He's been banned from the NBA's All-Stars game weekend festivities. The ban indicates progress toward tolerance of homosexuality in professional sports, but is intolerance the root cause of demeaning others?
Tolerance is defined in The American Heritage Dictionary as "a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry." Tolerance is a fairly new buzz word in society. I think a better lesson, an older lesson to teach a child, before the teaching of tolerance, is to teach humility, or not to be arrogant.
Arrogance is defined in the same dictionary as the "offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride." The nature of the arrogant is to be unfair to others, to not practice tolerance, because to treat others fairly is to treat them as equals. If someone assumes he/she is superior to you, how can that person treat you as an equal?
Each year we have celebrities undergoing trial by media because they've said something to offend some segment of the population. Last year we had Mel Gibson's drunken rant against Jewish people, Michael Richards and the "n" word, and Isaiah Washington and the "f" word. This year we have Hardaway with "I hate gay people."
Let's consider the Grey's Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington and his use of the "f" word to demean his gay co-worker. People called Washington homophobic, wanted him trained for tolerance. I don't think homophobia is Washington's problem, and so ask what good will lessons in tolerance do Washington? I think all that posturing was a show to let society know Washington's type of rhetoric should not and will no longer be tolerated. That society is shifting to be intolerant of those who demean gay people.
One of the reasons I don't believe Washington is homophobic is that a phobia is a strong, often irrational fear, of a place, person, activity, or thing. Washington played a gay character in Spike Lee's Get on the Bus. If he actually had a strong fear of gay people, I don't think he could've played that role. The fear that he himself would be called gay and his discomfort in showing affection to a male lover, despite it being acting, would've been too strong.
I think Washington's problem is that he thinks whatever he may be, he is better than gay people, and so when he wanted to deliver what he felt would be a cutting insult to his co-worker he used the "f" word. I also think that Washington is already about as tolerant of gay people as he's going to be. He normally works with gay people without incident; so he "tolerates" gay people the same way that some white people tolerate African-Americans. They'll work around them, perhaps even socialize lightly, but not more so if they can help it.
From now on, Isaiah Washington will practice politically correct tolerance, give lip service to the concept, and he'll have the good sense not to vocalize his true feelings about homosexuality. Would it be different if Washington believed in the importance of humility?
If Washington practiced humility and honestly believed he was not superior to anyone else, he'd not indulge arrogance and use demeaning speech against others. He wouldn't do it because he'd believe others were not simply different but that they were intrinsically his equal and should be treated with respect.
Case in point, we don't want men to believe simply that men should be tolerant of women. We want men to believe that women are their equals. On the job, men who believe women are their equals are unlikely to belittle them or assume they deserve less than their male counterparts. In a heterosexual romantic relationship, a man who believes his female partner is his equal is unlikely to
