Thunder's Brian Davis returns after being suspended for not knowing what he didn't know
by Berry Tramel Published: April 18, 2018 12:40 AM CDT Updated: April 18, 2018 12:40 AM CDT
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Brian Davis will get to the arena early Wednesday night. He likes to be early. Likes watching the drill team rehearse. Likes watching Rumble and his high-flying acrobats go through their routines.
Davis will be easier than normal to spot. He'll be wearing sackcloth and ashes.
Davis' employer, the Thunder, has quite sufficiently humiliated its television voice. Davis was no doubt shamed anyway, after he affectionately said Russell Westbrook was “out of his cotton-pickin' mind” on a nifty pass against Memphis last week.
The resulting social media uproar taught Davis, taught me, maybe taught you, taught millions of us, that cotton-pickin', a term we've heard all our lives and maybe even used a time or two, is not acceptable, especially in context with an African-American.
And when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Slavery, the great stain on American history, existed in large part to provide labor for Southern cotton farmers.
It's perfectly understandable that cotton-pickin' would be offensive to a large group of Americans.
It's also perfectly understandable that to a large group of other Americans, cotton-pickin' would be a colloquial term, substituted for “blasted” or “damn” or some word your mama really didn't want you saying. A group of Americans who think of Oklahoma sharecroppers, not Mississippi slaves, when they think of people who picked cotton. A group of Americans who remember “cotton-pickin'” being a favorite term of Bugs Bunny. A group of Americans who remember “cotton-pickin'” included in Smothers Brothers lyrics.
So count Davis among the group of us that needed educated. We just didn't know. You can't know what you don't know.
But this being the 21st century, and race relations getting worse instead of better, education is not enough. You must be punished for not knowing what you don't know.
Brian Davis was banished from calling Game 1 of the Thunder-Jazz playoff series Sunday night. Suspended for a game. He'll be back for Game 2 Wednesday night.
I don't know how Davis feels about the events of the last week. We spoke for a minute, but he's on lockdown from the Thunder. Not allowed to comment. And the Thunder won't comment.
I don't know if Davis' suspension came from Thunder chairman Clay Bennett or from the NBA office.
The Thunder is famous for appeasing players, even if the players don't need or want to be appeased. The logic is sound. We don't have a beach, and our Broadway is void of neon lights. Best to treat the players pristinely to make them want to stay.
The NBA, to its credit, is never slow to jump in on social issues. It's usually served the league well.
Some say the Thunder had no choice. It had to suspend Davis.
Except it's never wrong to do the right thing. And doubling down on Davis' embarrassment was not right.
Davis grew up in Baltimore. His mom was a coal miner's daughter. His dad's parents were South Carolina dirt farmers. Davis was sharp; he got into Northwestern University, wanting to be a newspaperman, then wisely migrated to radio. From there, television.
“I've kind of come at life with a little bit of a bootstrap mentality,” Davis once told us, back when the Thunder didn't restrict his interviews. “I never thought I'd ever get this far.”
He meant the voice of the Thunder and he meant Oklahoma.
Davis moved here from Seattle 10 years ago and has immersed himself into the city and the state. A few years ago, he even joked that he has even reverted to calling people “sir” and “ma'am.”
This is a guy who has come into Oklahoma homes 70 times a year for a full decade — literally 700 games — and used his voice to deliver Thunder action. Seven hundred games, talking on average two hours a night. That's 84,000 minutes. And never before has he talked himself into trouble.
Davis' transgressions have been hokeyism — “making chicken salad out of chicken something else” — and homerism. He never met a call for the Thunder that he didn't like. And while that personally drives me bananas, I also understand who signs his paychecks.
The organization that last week suspended him for the high crime of not knowing.
Many have said that the Davis affair has at least opened dialogue. But the opposite is true. The cotton-pickin' scandal teaches us only to keep our mouths shut, for even absent of malice, punishment is nigh for saying something offensive. The Thunder's actions teach us that ignorance is no excuse. Teach us that the experiences of one group trump the experiences of another. Teach us that dialogue is not an option. You just have to know, and if you don't know, you will pay.
Honestly, I can't remember anyone using “cotton-pickin'” in 20 years. Seems like I heard it a lot as a kid. Not much since.
I looked it up. Etymonline.com and phrases.org provide the etymology of “cotton-pickin'” and say it differs from “cotton-picker.” I've never heard the latter term, but phrase.org said “cotton-picker” was “derogatory and racist, the former was not.”
Splitting hairs? Absolutely. Time to shelve “cotton-pickin'”? Of course. Now that we know that it's offensive to a lot of people. Me, you, Brian Davis, most Oklahomans, don't want to offend people. But we can't know what we don't know.
Phrases.org also says that “out of your cotton-pickin' mind is no longer deemed an acceptable description of a black person ...” And it uses an example. The example used is Brian Davis talking about Russell Westbrook.
I'm not saying cotton-pickin' is an acceptable term. I'm not saying people shouldn't be offended. All I'm saying is that you can't know what you don't know.
by Berry Tramel Published: April 18, 2018 12:40 AM CDT Updated: April 18, 2018 12:40 AM CDT
.
Brian Davis will get to the arena early Wednesday night. He likes to be early. Likes watching the drill team rehearse. Likes watching Rumble and his high-flying acrobats go through their routines.
Davis will be easier than normal to spot. He'll be wearing sackcloth and ashes.
Davis' employer, the Thunder, has quite sufficiently humiliated its television voice. Davis was no doubt shamed anyway, after he affectionately said Russell Westbrook was “out of his cotton-pickin' mind” on a nifty pass against Memphis last week.
The resulting social media uproar taught Davis, taught me, maybe taught you, taught millions of us, that cotton-pickin', a term we've heard all our lives and maybe even used a time or two, is not acceptable, especially in context with an African-American.
And when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Slavery, the great stain on American history, existed in large part to provide labor for Southern cotton farmers.
It's perfectly understandable that cotton-pickin' would be offensive to a large group of Americans.
It's also perfectly understandable that to a large group of other Americans, cotton-pickin' would be a colloquial term, substituted for “blasted” or “damn” or some word your mama really didn't want you saying. A group of Americans who think of Oklahoma sharecroppers, not Mississippi slaves, when they think of people who picked cotton. A group of Americans who remember “cotton-pickin'” being a favorite term of Bugs Bunny. A group of Americans who remember “cotton-pickin'” included in Smothers Brothers lyrics.
So count Davis among the group of us that needed educated. We just didn't know. You can't know what you don't know.
But this being the 21st century, and race relations getting worse instead of better, education is not enough. You must be punished for not knowing what you don't know.
Brian Davis was banished from calling Game 1 of the Thunder-Jazz playoff series Sunday night. Suspended for a game. He'll be back for Game 2 Wednesday night.
I don't know how Davis feels about the events of the last week. We spoke for a minute, but he's on lockdown from the Thunder. Not allowed to comment. And the Thunder won't comment.
I don't know if Davis' suspension came from Thunder chairman Clay Bennett or from the NBA office.
The Thunder is famous for appeasing players, even if the players don't need or want to be appeased. The logic is sound. We don't have a beach, and our Broadway is void of neon lights. Best to treat the players pristinely to make them want to stay.
The NBA, to its credit, is never slow to jump in on social issues. It's usually served the league well.
Some say the Thunder had no choice. It had to suspend Davis.
Except it's never wrong to do the right thing. And doubling down on Davis' embarrassment was not right.
Davis grew up in Baltimore. His mom was a coal miner's daughter. His dad's parents were South Carolina dirt farmers. Davis was sharp; he got into Northwestern University, wanting to be a newspaperman, then wisely migrated to radio. From there, television.
“I've kind of come at life with a little bit of a bootstrap mentality,” Davis once told us, back when the Thunder didn't restrict his interviews. “I never thought I'd ever get this far.”
He meant the voice of the Thunder and he meant Oklahoma.
Davis moved here from Seattle 10 years ago and has immersed himself into the city and the state. A few years ago, he even joked that he has even reverted to calling people “sir” and “ma'am.”
This is a guy who has come into Oklahoma homes 70 times a year for a full decade — literally 700 games — and used his voice to deliver Thunder action. Seven hundred games, talking on average two hours a night. That's 84,000 minutes. And never before has he talked himself into trouble.
Davis' transgressions have been hokeyism — “making chicken salad out of chicken something else” — and homerism. He never met a call for the Thunder that he didn't like. And while that personally drives me bananas, I also understand who signs his paychecks.
The organization that last week suspended him for the high crime of not knowing.
Many have said that the Davis affair has at least opened dialogue. But the opposite is true. The cotton-pickin' scandal teaches us only to keep our mouths shut, for even absent of malice, punishment is nigh for saying something offensive. The Thunder's actions teach us that ignorance is no excuse. Teach us that the experiences of one group trump the experiences of another. Teach us that dialogue is not an option. You just have to know, and if you don't know, you will pay.
Honestly, I can't remember anyone using “cotton-pickin'” in 20 years. Seems like I heard it a lot as a kid. Not much since.
I looked it up. Etymonline.com and phrases.org provide the etymology of “cotton-pickin'” and say it differs from “cotton-picker.” I've never heard the latter term, but phrase.org said “cotton-picker” was “derogatory and racist, the former was not.”
Splitting hairs? Absolutely. Time to shelve “cotton-pickin'”? Of course. Now that we know that it's offensive to a lot of people. Me, you, Brian Davis, most Oklahomans, don't want to offend people. But we can't know what we don't know.
Phrases.org also says that “out of your cotton-pickin' mind is no longer deemed an acceptable description of a black person ...” And it uses an example. The example used is Brian Davis talking about Russell Westbrook.
I'm not saying cotton-pickin' is an acceptable term. I'm not saying people shouldn't be offended. All I'm saying is that you can't know what you don't know.
