I’m not a fan of Oklahoma. We have history.
My dad lived there so I’ve spent a few summers languishing in its godawful heat. It’s where my dad died from cancer thanks, in part, to the state’s refusal to provide insurance options through Obamacare. When it comes to doing stupid shit, I have a pretty high tolerance for bullshit from this state. So imagine my surprise when I was dumbfounded reading the apology of Oklahoma “broadcaster” Matt Rowan for using the n-word on air.
Let’s first set the scene. Rowan is the owner and operator of the streaming service OSPN, which broadcasts girls high school basketball games. Before one of these games, for which Rowan was a commentator, the national anthem played and everyone paused. As the song began, one of the teams kneeled causing Rowan to get angry and say the words, “f—— n—–s” into the live microphone.
Let’s be clear. What surprised me here isn’t that a white, Oklahoman man got angry and called a group of teenage girls expletives on a live broadcast. That’s reasonable by Oklahoma standards. What surprised me is his response:
Here’s the full statement he released.
I wasn’t alive for the civil rights movement so I missed some crazy justifications for racist behavior, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard the argument that “racism is a symptom of diabetes.” While this quote should have been an Onion article, it’s instead an onion of an article that peels back more levels or incompetence and delusion each time you read it. So let me spend the rest of this post asking some simple follow up questions that I would love to ask Matt about this insanity of incompetence.
HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHEN YOU’RE ON AIR?
Broadcasting is a tough job and most people can’t do it well. As tough as this job is, at the end of the day you kind of only have one responsibility. Know when you’re on air. Every broadcaster should be acutely aware of this especially when said broadcaster is also the OWNER OF THE STATION. But let’s take race and the national anthem out of this situation. A broadcaster is supposed to be an unbiased reporter of the game. Why would you ever verbally take sides against either of the teams when your job is to be a neutral presenter of events? It begs the question, if he didn’t own the station would anybody else have let him on air?
THAT’S NOT HOW BLOOD SUGAR WORKS?
Much like Oklahoma, I’m not a stranger to diabetes. I have several family members with it and legit fear a future where I might have to draw blood daily. I’ve seen what happens when blood sugar levels spike and drop and it’s not bigotry. People become confused and disoriented but they don’t magically become racist. For someone that’s already racist, watching people kneeling for the anthem and responding by calling them “n—–s”, is not an action of discombobulation.
Playing devil’s advocate, maybe he got diabetes mixed up with tourettes. But even when you substitute tourrettes in his explanation it still paints him as irresponsible and fully responsible for his behavior. If you have tourettes, you definitely shouldn’t be in the broadcasting profession especially if it makes you say racial epithets.
WHY ARE YOU NOT CLOSELY MONITORING YOUR BLOOD SUGAR?
Let’s take him at his word and believe that high blood sugar makes you racist. If that’s the case, wouldn’t you do everything in your power to ensure your blood sugar is stable before a broadcast? In the quote he says, “during the game my blood sugar was spiking.” During the game? The incident happened during the national anthem before the game even started. Lying quote aside, if I had a condition that made me involuntarily say unprofessional things, I probably wouldn’t have chosen broadcaster as a profession. But if I did it anyway, I would absolutely have a way to check my air-worthiness just before I go on air. Given that the game hadn’t started yet, we can assume that he had just started the broadcast. If his blood sugar was off enough to have called teenage girls expletives on a live stream, surely there must have been some other red flag warning about his condition in the moments before he went on air.
WHY ARE YOU TALKING DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM?
Finally, I have issues with him getting mad at these girls “disrespecting” the anthem when he himself is disrespecting the anthem.
As a teenager, I worked as an usher at a sports arena. When the national anthem came on we were told to stop whatever we were doing, even if we were in mid conversation. While most fans around the stadium also paused during the song, many continued to ignore the pastime and continued to walk and talk like nothing was amiss. This is something that always tickles me when people get angry with Kaepernick and the other athletes kneeling in protest. These “patriots” are angry at the athlete for disrespecting the anthem when they could see much more egregious examples a few feet away in the stands
Being angry at some high school girls for quietly giving their undivided attention to the anthem is hypocritical when your response is to ignore the same anthem to engage in a conversation to berate them. At the end of the day, the hot mic is just karma coming around on a truly horrible person.
CONCLUSION
Looking at all the questions together, it’s clear that this man is a lying, racist, incompetent broadcaster that has no remorse for the action he took. Ultimately, he’d rather let the world know that he is godawful at his job rather than acknowledge and admit he’s a racist. While it’s clear that he’s both, it’s terrifying to think that he’s only worried about improving one of those flaws.
Unsolicited Opinion 