Dirty Mouth is Politcally Incorrect – In More Ways than One
Published by Charles Jay on June 15th, 2009 in Operation Cleanup

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So why do I sometimes wait a while before writing about something that makes big MMA news? Well, either (A) I want to wait a while to reflect on the ramifications of something, (B) I’ve got a different angle and I just wanted to see how many people noticed it, or (C) I just didn;t have the time before.

Maybe this is a case of all three.

On April 1, and not part of an April Fool’s Day joke, Dana White, the feisty president of the UFC, went on a rant in reaction to a story written by Loretta Hunt on a prominent MMA website. He called her a (Bleeping) dumb bitch” among other things.

Wow, that’s really cool, man.

White also made use of the term “faggot” in his missive. That got the attention of some gay and lesbian groups, in particular The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), who later got an apology out of him.

Here was part of it: “I never intended to hurt anybody in the gay community, or be malicious, or look like a hateful guy. I never meant to hurt anyone in the gay or lesbian community at all, in any way, shape or form.”

I know that these kinds of messages are often part of a “damage control” strategy, but I actually believe him, although I think the fact that he found it so easy to use the term casually says something about the lack of sensitivity of people in general, as does the fact that it was used as as derogatory term.

“I don’t want these kids out there watching me and thinking it’s cool. I don’t want that,” said White, and I think there is some validity to that as well; that is, validity to the implication that kids MIGHT think it’s cool to use that term. The UFC bases much of its popularity on the fact that it is addressing a very impressionable audience, many of whom want to look and talk like the people they see on television, not unlike professional wrestling.

So yes, Dana, the lesson is that maybe the gay/lesbian community watches the UFC too. Who knows – on occasion members of it may even be climbing into the Octagon. Be careful. You may find yourself put into a butterfly guard one night in that scared locker room and then you might REALLY get confused.

There’s another lesson to be learned too. Let me preface it by saying that although I’m sure I didn’t see him holding a copy of the Constitution in his hand as he laced into Loretta Hunt, I have to respect what he said as an exercise of the First Amendment. When you exercise it, you obviously can fall victim to the reaction of others, and there are limits to good taste.

But I would hate to see more instances like we saw a few years ago in the case of Rush Limbaugh, who made some honest observations about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and within days was fired from his brief gig with ESPN, or Don Imus, who was eviscerated by his employers amidst interest group pressure in an incident that has already been well-documented. I’d hate for people to be afraid to say something, just because they were afraid they might offend someone.

In my experience in politics, I have found that politicians aren’t always terribly interested in the Constitution. That is why White may have another reason to eat his words. He might have gotten a positive reaction from some UFC fans after the tantrum (“It was overwhelmingly positive from our fans. It was, ‘Yeah, you go, Dana. You’re the man’,” he was heard to say), but those kids don’t occupy state legislatures.

Bob Reilly, an assemblyman from New York, is the strongest voice opposed to the legalization of mixed martial arts in that state. You have to understand that this is a stupid guy; he says things like, “We ban cockfighting and dog fighting – should we allow humans to enter a cage to knee, kick, and punch each other?” while failing to add the disclaimer that the NYPD does all that on a slow weeknight – without the cage of course.

Just recently, during an ESPN piece that was done on White, Reilly expressed that after seeing White and his performance on YouTube, “I don’t believe this is a person who really would be a person that you’d want to enter into business with.” So it is safe to say that doesn’t help the cause.

I’m sure there was no way White could have foreseen that one thing might have something to do with the other. But if you want to qualify as a visionary, you might want to consider the ramifications of everything you do. In fact, it surprises me that the UFC, which with the hiring of Marc Ratner has turned itself into a political organization, would allow for such a mistake to happen, and that it will allow similar mistakes, no doubt, to happen in the future.

If you want to play the political game, with lobbyists all over the damn place, you have to understand that you didn’t draw up the rules. This particular game may have gone down as a defeat.

Still, that’s not my problem with White’s little speech.

I keep getting complaints that I don’t do Part 2 and Part 3 of these editorial ventures. In honor of the editor of the site, I present a trilogy – designed to cover a couple of angles of this thing you may not have thought about.

Next – something that got lost in the sizzle is the substance of Hunt’s story.