Anthony Edwards posts anti-gay slurs on social media

[Roy H.]

He might get a bit more than we’ve seen.  This reminds me more of Meyers Leonard than anyone else.  It’s not basketball court trashtalking, but casual usage on social media, ostensibly to mock people who were minding their own business.  He’s a better player than Leonard, so he won’t be blackballed, but I expect a game.

I don't know. While what Leonard said was certainly not acceptable, there was no real context to what he was saying. It could be believable that he didn't know what the word meant and this could be shown in his apology as it was more one of disbelief and 'throw me on the sword.' He also wasn't directing it at Jewish people in particular.

Edwards didn't directly use the word 'fa**ot', which I guess is a positive, but the way he used 'queer' and followed it up with, 'look what the world done come to, bruh,' shows that he not only knew what he was saying and who he was saying it to, but that he is disgusted by that community as a whole. This isn't the same as someone casually 'no homo' imo and then realizing that what they said was hurtful.

I must be alone here, but at the end of the day why should this matter?

Even if he does feel "disgusted by that community" - how does one man's personal feelings about a person or group of people impact anybody but himself? 

If that is what he personally feels then that's what he feels.  Suppressing him from being able to openly voice/express the way he feels  doesn't change the way he feels and never will. As long as he's not going out taking ill actions against people in that community then at the end of the day its just feelings and words. 

Why does it matter if what he said was hurtful to a group of people? People say things all the time that could be taken as hurtful, often completely unintentionally.  If we endeavour to hold it against people every time they say something that someone might feel hurtful, then the entire concept of free speech is already dead and buried.

I'm a middle aged overweight European white straight male.  I have heard more then my share of weight related slurs and anti-European slurs over the years.  In the last 4 or 5 years especially I've heard copious people make very open, very public slurs against men and against white people.  At the end of the day I don't care.  I'm not going to ask for those people to be fined, or for them to be arrested, or for them to lose their jobs. 

If you don't like me because I'm white, fine.  If you don't like me because I'm fat, fine.  If you don't like me because my parents are European or because I only sleep with biological women, fine.  I don't care what random people that I don't know think of me - it has zero impact on my life.

Society today really has become way too fragile.  Being THIS obsessed with what other people think of you can't possible be good for a person's mental or emotional health.

Because he is an internationally renowned celebrity broadcasting this to the whole world. He is publicly okaying active discrimination.

The emboldened is beyond naive.

He uttered a slur that almost everybody in the western world (and on this very forum) has almost certainly said at least once or twice in their lives when joking around with friends or family. 

The problem is that today we live in a world where, due to the widespread reach of the internet, peoples lives in general have become far more public.  People more then ever have flocked to these online platforms as places where they feel they can openly express themselves and allow their fans / followers to get a more personal glimpse into the person they are and the world they live in. 

Likewise the fans / followers of these celebrities flock to these platforms because they WANT to get to know their beloved celebrities on a per personal, intimate level.

The only way this type of exchange is possible is if you allow people to express themselves freely and openly, and then it comes down the the age old concept of "if you don't like what I say, then don't watch". 

I work in corporate environments so I completely understand the idea of companies being able to hold employees responsible for things they say on social media due to potential reputation impact on the company, etc.  Totally get that.  Personally, I don't agree with it.  I believe what you do in your work life when you're wearing your work uniform and on the clock should be totally separate from what you do in your own personal life - public or otherwise.  The fact that you choose to work for a corporation should not infringe your right to openly and freely be yourself in your own personal life, so long as the actions you take in your private life do not impact your ability to do your job.  You can disagree with me on this, and i'm sure you do. That's fine.  This is just my personal belief and perspective.

When you start charging people because they said offensive or hurtful things, I think that openly a very big can of worms which (if we allow to get to far) may become impossible to close back up. 

For example, lets say you are a famous celebrity like Edwards, you have a strong religious belief that a gay lifestyle is unethical, and for that reason you choose not to engage with people who are gay.  Then one day a gay man comes to you and wants to shake your hand and take a photo of you, and you refuse because you don't want to be associated with them.  In today's political/social climate an action like this this could be taken as offensive and hurtful to people in the LGBT community, right?  It's not out of the realm of possibility that a player could be fined, suspended or otherwise punished by the league for such a scenario.  But why? If it makes this individual feel uncomfortable being photographed with somebody that he personally sees as unethical, why should he be forced to partake in a scenario that makes him feel uncomfortable?

Sure these are two very different scenarios, but they really aren't THAT far apart when you start judging people's actions based on their potential to cause offence or emotional hurt to others.

By forcing people to change the way they speak / live / act in order to avoid offending others, you are in essence imposing on that same person's ability to be their own person. 

I certainly don't think that what he said was nice, and I absolutely agree that saying what he said on such a public platform (being the public figure that he is) was pretty darn stupid.  But at the end of the day I'm sure said much worse things then this when i'm in a private place with friends, and i'm sure most other people here have at some point in their lives too...so I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm outraged or that he did something unfathomably reprehensible. 

He made an i'll advised comment in an inappropriate scenario.  I'm sure we've all done that to some extent or other.  He also apologised profusely for it.  I say give the man a break.  Everybody wants to sit here acting like they are perfectly innocent and have never made an offensive/inappropriate comment in their lives...give me a break.

Does this only apply to anti-gay comments, or are all slurs fair game?  What about symbols?  Like, if Kevin Love got a swastika tattoo, is that alright, under your principles regarding free expression?

(I think we could write a book about the sincerity of a religious person who won't shake somebody's hand pr be seen in a picture with somebody because they're gay, but that's for a different topic.)

[Kernewek]

Freedom of expression isn’t equivocal to freedom from consequence, regardless of how much some people would like to believe it were so.

Whether it should be or not is a mostly hypothetical discussion.

[gouki88]

He might get a bit more than we’ve seen.  This reminds me more of Meyers Leonard than anyone else.  It’s not basketball court trashtalking, but casual usage on social media, ostensibly to mock people who were minding their own business.  He’s a better player than Leonard, so he won’t be blackballed, but I expect a game.

I don't know. While what Leonard said was certainly not acceptable, there was no real context to what he was saying. It could be believable that he didn't know what the word meant and this could be shown in his apology as it was more one of disbelief and 'throw me on the sword.' He also wasn't directing it at Jewish people in particular.

Edwards didn't directly use the word 'fa**ot', which I guess is a positive, but the way he used 'queer' and followed it up with, 'look what the world done come to, bruh,' shows that he not only knew what he was saying and who he was saying it to, but that he is disgusted by that community as a whole. This isn't the same as someone casually 'no homo' imo and then realizing that what they said was hurtful.

I must be alone here, but at the end of the day why should this matter?

Even if he does feel "disgusted by that community" - how does one man's personal feelings about a person or group of people impact anybody but himself? 

If that is what he personally feels then that's what he feels.  Suppressing him from being able to openly voice/express the way he feels  doesn't change the way he feels and never will. As long as he's not going out taking ill actions against people in that community then at the end of the day its just feelings and words. 

Why does it matter if what he said was hurtful to a group of people? People say things all the time that could be taken as hurtful, often completely unintentionally.  If we endeavour to hold it against people every time they say something that someone might feel hurtful, then the entire concept of free speech is already dead and buried.

I'm a middle aged overweight European white straight male.  I have heard more then my share of weight related slurs and anti-European slurs over the years.  In the last 4 or 5 years especially I've heard copious people make very open, very public slurs against men and against white people.  At the end of the day I don't care.  I'm not going to ask for those people to be fined, or for them to be arrested, or for them to lose their jobs. 

If you don't like me because I'm white, fine.  If you don't like me because I'm fat, fine.  If you don't like me because my parents are European or because I only sleep with biological women, fine.  I don't care what random people that I don't know think of me - it has zero impact on my life.

Society today really has become way too fragile.  Being THIS obsessed with what other people think of you can't possible be good for a person's mental or emotional health.

Because he is an internationally renowned celebrity broadcasting this to the whole world. He is publicly okaying active discrimination.

The emboldened is beyond naive.

He uttered a slur that almost everybody in the western world (and on this very forum) has almost certainly said at least once or twice in their lives when joking around with friends or family. 

The problem is that today we live in a world where, due to the widespread reach of the internet, peoples lives in general have become far more public.  People more then ever have flocked to these online platforms as places where they feel they can openly express themselves and allow their fans / followers to get a more personal glimpse into the person they are and the world they live in. 

Likewise the fans / followers of these celebrities flock to these platforms because they WANT to get to know their beloved celebrities on a per personal, intimate level.

The only way this type of exchange is possible is if you allow people to express themselves freely and openly, and then it comes down the the age old concept of "if you don't like what I say, then don't watch". 

I work in corporate environments so I completely understand the idea of companies being able to hold employees responsible for things they say on social media due to potential reputation impact on the company, etc.  Totally get that.  Personally, I don't agree with it.  I believe what you do in your work life when you're wearing your work uniform and on the clock should be totally separate from what you do in your own personal life - public or otherwise.  The fact that you choose to work for a corporation should not infringe your right to openly and freely be yourself in your own personal life, so long as the actions you take in your private life do not impact your ability to do your job.  You can disagree with me on this, and i'm sure you do. That's fine.  This is just my personal belief and perspective.

When you start charging people because they said offensive or hurtful things, I think that openly a very big can of worms which (if we allow to get to far) may become impossible to close back up. 

For example, lets say you are a famous celebrity like Edwards, you have a strong religious belief that a gay lifestyle is unethical, and for that reason you choose not to engage with people who are gay.  Then one day a gay man comes to you and wants to shake your hand and take a photo of you, and you refuse because you don't want to be associated with them.  In today's political/social climate an action like this this could be taken as offensive and hurtful to people in the LGBT community, right?  It's not out of the realm of possibility that a player could be fined, suspended or otherwise punished by the league for such a scenario.  But why? If it makes this individual feel uncomfortable being photographed with somebody that he personally sees as unethical, why should he be forced to partake in a scenario that makes him feel uncomfortable?

Sure these are two very different scenarios, but they really aren't THAT far apart when you start judging people's actions based on their potential to cause offence or emotional hurt to others.

By forcing people to change the way they speak / live / act in order to avoid offending others, you are in essence imposing on that same person's ability to be their own person. 

I certainly don't think that what he said was nice, and I absolutely agree that saying what he said on such a public platform (being the public figure that he is) was pretty darn stupid.  But at the end of the day I'm sure said much worse things then this when i'm in a private place with friends, and i'm sure most other people here have at some point in their lives too...so I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm outraged or that he did something unfathomably reprehensible. 

He made an i'll advised comment in an inappropriate scenario.  I'm sure we've all done that to some extent or other.  He also apologised profusely for it.  I say give the man a break.  Everybody wants to sit here acting like they are perfectly innocent and have never made an offensive/inappropriate comment in their lives...give me a break.

Where is the line drawn?

The emboldened is, frankly, just silliness. I don't think this is particularly newsworthy, but when someone lives with other people, there tends to be consequences for behaviour found unacceptable by said group of people. We don't live in some fairytale where actions and speech do not have consequences.

[SDceltGuy]

Frankly its pathetic that we have people fake offended because a guy that bounces a ball said a word that they dont like.   I am embarrassed for anyone that use the words 'hate speech', especially to describe this particular event.     

I'm not offended, I just think he's an idiot.

It's also true that some idiots don't understand the definition of 'hate speech'.

And it's certainly a hallmark of idiots to use words and phrases that they don't understand.

So, I have to ask, SDcG - why do you go through great pains to make yourself look like an idiot?

I'm offended by this personal attack.   So much hate. 

[Kernewek]

Frankly its pathetic that we have people fake offended because a guy that bounces a ball said a word that they dont like.   I am embarrassed for anyone that use the words 'hate speech', especially to describe this particular event.     

I'm not offended, I just think he's an idiot.

It's also true that some idiots don't understand the definition of 'hate speech'.

And it's certainly a hallmark of idiots to use words and phrases that they don't understand.

So, I have to ask, SDcG - why do you go through great pains to make yourself look like an idiot?

I'm offended by this personal attack.   So much hate.

Frankly it’s pathetic that someone would be fake offended because someone on the internet said some words they don’t like.

[Neurotic Guy]

Frankly its pathetic that we have people fake offended because a guy that bounces a ball said a word that they dont like.   I am embarrassed for anyone that use the words 'hate speech', especially to describe this particular event.     

I'm not offended, I just think he's an idiot.

It's also true that some idiots don't understand the definition of 'hate speech'.

And it's certainly a hallmark of idiots to use words and phrases that they don't understand.

So, I have to ask, SDcG - why do you go through great pains to make yourself look like an idiot?

I'm offended by this personal attack.   So much hate.

So I guess it's true that when there is escalation in tone and emotion that it tends to beget an equal or bigger response.  The initial comment wasn't terribly kind nor was the response.  I do think there is some sarcasm in your retort here, but the truth is you have every reason to react when someone calls you an idiot just as others have reason to react when responding to something they find disconcerting.

I wouldn't say that I am offended by Anthony Edwards' comment or the posting of it, I just think that 1) it isn't very thoughtful which is something I value, and 2) it has the potential to spur others to make similar insensitive comments or provides affirmation to their thoughts about LGBTQ, or may even escalate their feelings about LGBTQ.   There is freedom for Edwards' to make his comments, and there is freedom for others to react to those comments.   None of this likely has any impact on those of us who have not been the victim of cruelty from others.  But perhaps if you or someone you care about has been harassed, bullied, or beaten because of your identity you might have a more emotional response to it.  Or not.  Because we do all get to respond based on our experiences and sensibilities.  For me, I think Edwards' comment and posting were immature and insensitive and I hope, as a person who has more influence on others than most of us, that he cares about the reaction to his choices.  But he doesn't have to. 
   

[gouki88]

Frankly its pathetic that we have people fake offended because a guy that bounces a ball said a word that they dont like.   I am embarrassed for anyone that use the words 'hate speech', especially to describe this particular event.     

I'm not offended, I just think he's an idiot.

It's also true that some idiots don't understand the definition of 'hate speech'.

And it's certainly a hallmark of idiots to use words and phrases that they don't understand.

So, I have to ask, SDcG - why do you go through great pains to make yourself look like an idiot?

I'm offended by this personal attack.   So much hate.

Very cringeworthy.

[dannyboy35]

  This is sooo no big deal BECAUSE he’ll be punished. People say mean things all the time but like people have already said , there’s a difference typing something out or broadcasting . You give a punishment because it’s mean . Nice people can say mean things do it doesn’t define him either.
  If people are too sensitive today or not it doesn’t matter . Quick slap in the wrist. Let’s be nice to each other instead and move on.

[Donoghus]

Punishment rendered.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
·
50s
Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards has been fined $40,000 for using offensive and derogatory language on social media.

[Roy H.]

Punishment rendered.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
·
50s
Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards has been fined $40,000 for using offensive and derogatory language on social media.

Lol.  The league definitely takes this seriously.  That's less than the $50k Leonard got.

[Moranis]

Punishment rendered.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
·
50s
Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards has been fined $40,000 for using offensive and derogatory language on social media.

Lol.  The league definitely takes this seriously.  That's less than the $50k Leonard got.

You should see the comments on Shams tweet.  I'm just going to say WOW.

[slamtheking]

saw the title and thought, why would this guy be using anti-gay slurs?  must be a generational thing 

Was he Saint Elsewhere or ER?  Both great.

ER

[nickagneta]

Punishment rendered.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
·
50s
Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards has been fined $40,000 for using offensive and derogatory language on social media.

Lol.  The league definitely takes this seriously.  That's less than the $50k Leonard got.

You should see the comments on Shams tweet.  I'm just going to say WOW.

Social media is a cesspool made up of a lot of the most ignorant, uniformed, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, bullying, unbalanced and politically extreme people in America, who would never utter a word they type on social media in a normal, "in front of others" environment and certainly never at work.

I'm glad I am off it. I looked at that thread. There are some seriously messed up people saying messed up stuff in that thread.

[Donoghus]

saw the title and thought, why would this guy be using anti-gay slurs?  must be a generational thing 

Was he Saint Elsewhere or ER?  Both great.

ER

Goose was his magnum opus.

[Moranis]

Punishment rendered.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
·
50s
Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards has been fined $40,000 for using offensive and derogatory language on social media.

Lol.  The league definitely takes this seriously.  That's less than the $50k Leonard got.

You should see the comments on Shams tweet.  I'm just going to say WOW.

Social media is a cesspool made up of a lot of the most ignorant, uniformed, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, bullying, unbalanced and politically extreme people in America, who would never utter a word they type on social media in a normal, "in front of others" environment and certainly never at work.

I'm glad I am off it. I looked at that thread. There are some seriously messed up people saying messed up stuff in that thread.

Yes there are.  And sadly most of them probably believe 90% of what they are writing.