I can offer a clear and honest and unrehearsed explanation of why I was a bigoted little asshole in my teens, of how and why I came to change my worldview, and why it’s important that I did. The rehearsed apology is just about the worst possible way to deal with something like this, because it always sounds like insincere boilerplate.
Edit:
And if all you’ve got is the rehearsed apology, people can be forgiven for thinking that you don’t really mean it and, as your quoted section says, are just being “dragged kicking and screaming because he has been found out.”
In terms of doing the work, it’s striking that the day started with the ECB and players making supportive statements about the need to kick out racism, raise standards, be more inclusive etc. Obviously that message has been undercut, but there is a point about if you mean it then maybe you do need to interrogate yourself and each other. Looking through old tweets is, if nothing else, basic PR hygiene these days; had it been done, do we now believe that the response would have been anything other than hasty deletion?
Anyhow, in cricket news - England and specifically Mark Wood had a great session with the ball, reducing NZ from 287/3 to 294/7 in the space of 6 balls. Conway got a debut 200 before being run out - a shame he didn’t carry his bat but shows he’s a team player.
England - stop me if you’ve heard this before - have lost early wickets and were 18-2 at one stage, now recovered to 42, with Root looking pretty uncomfortable.
I think some people need to get past the idea that being a racist, sexist prick is something that everyone just needs to grow through between age 13 and 21/23/25/27/29.
If that is the way you think, chances are you are just learning not to SAY these things that you are thinking when you get older.
So, with NZ at effectively 176/2 on the morning of the final day, it’s NZ in control and have to decide if they are going to try and have a go. Burns’ century yesterday was probably enough to scupper their chances, but England may yet get a session and a half to bat.
England is at 47-0 as I currently watch. They only need about 225 more and have at least 55 overs left. At this point, shouldn’t they move to ODI mode, as this would be a pretty easy chase in that format? Take advantage of the NZ gift declaration.
There was a lot of muttering from the TMS team about the approach England took here, but England’s batting has been fragile of late (ie, since Strauss retired) and I do see why they choose to instead make damn sure they were going to still be there at the end. More intent and a little more strike rotation would have been nice, but once you’ve made the decision not to go for the runs it made sense. It was only 4 an over, but this was the final day of the match and England barely made the target score in the first innings, and it took them 100 overs. It wasn’t exciting, and perhaps if we’d had Stokes in the side it might have been different, but we drew a game we were in grave danger of winning, and we go to the second game with a little more confidence in some of the batting.
I don’t see how there was any way for England to go after this without massively increase their chance of losing. All the commentators and the Cricinfo commenters who took issue with the approach don’t appear to have been paying attention to the first 3.5 days of the match.
Not banned, suspended while they investigate further (i.e. read more of his tweets). This is potentially to his benefit - if more does come out, he won’t be as exposed as he was this week. It is in many ways a shame that what was an excellent on field debut is overshadowed by this, but there’s one person and one person only to blame for that.
More English players caught up in it.
Automatic bans seems only right. Got to be consistent. If a debutant is punished, then it’s only fair your all time leading wicket taker, current Keeper and World Cup winning captain are also punished similarly.
Making a marginalised group the punchline for a joke about how shit your mate’s haircut is is, at best, really fucking crass. Imagine, for a second, what it might be like to be a 15-year-old in the process of coming out, perhaps by getting a radical boyish haircut. Imagine the stick they might be taking at school for it. If they saw that tweet, would they take it as just some top banter? Or might it cut a little deeper than that?
Or if you like, imagine the 15 year old cricket fan and arsehole who sees it and his thrilling realisation that there’s a whole new, adult-endorsed way to insult his mates by yelling it across the playground in front of everyone, including 15 year-olds in the process of coming out. Or the process of deciding not to, at this point.
It’s not the most offensive thing ever, and certainly not as bad as Robinson’s tweets, but for a public figure it betrays a thoughtlessness and a negligent offensiveness.that doesn’t even think before making vulnerable minorities the butt of the joke. Could do better.