Glen Kuiper Not Fired For N-Word: MLB Announcer Suspended
By: NewsOne
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
NewsOne Featured Video CLOSE
Source: San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images / Getty
A Major League Baseball announcer had the very white privilege of not being fired after he said the N-word, fully pronounced with a hard R and all, with a smile on his face on live TV during a Friday night telecast.
Glen Kuiper, who announces for the Oakland Athletics baseball team, has been suspended from his position "until a review of what happened during Friday night's broadcast is completed," ESPN reported.
But anybody with fully functioning ears probably doesn't need to "review" anything after hearing exactly what Kuiper clearly said.
To recap, Kuiper was on the air Friday night recounting his experience visiting earlier in the day the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, where the Athletics were playing against the Royals.
Standing beside fellow broadcaster Dallas Braden, Kuiper gushed about how the two of them "had a phenomenal day" before he gestured with his thumb up and cited the "nigger league museum" as a prime example.
Braden, apparently not noticing the racist slur being said by his broadcast partner, can be seen shaking his head in earnest while pounding his chest in agreement with Kuiper.
The outrage was immediate, especially on social media. But it would still take until the following day for Kuiper to issue an apology. Kuiper, who has worked in that same capacity for 20 seasons, said his words "didn't come out quite the way I wanted it to" and asked for people to accept his "sincerest apologies."
The president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, a Black man, similarly asked for Kuiper to be forgiven.
On Saturday, a tweet purported to show footage from a game Kuiper was calling in 2020 in which the announcer can be heard talking about "nigger league uniforms."
Chances are that none of the above will help MLB's stated efforts to attract more Black American players.
The sympathy and willingness to give Kuiper the benefit of the doubt for saying the N-word on air stands in stark contrast to the swift firing of a white Mississippi news anchor who uttered a slang derivative of the N-word during a telecast in March.
In that instance, Barbie Bassett said, "fo' shizzle, my nizzle," after her co-hosts joked about a possible Snoop Dogg collaboration on the news show for NBC affiliate WLBT.
Bassett was fired behind the offense because "nizzle" is a form of the N-word.
The incident drew attention to Bassett previously making reference to a Black reporter's "grandmammy" on air, prompting her apology.
This is America.
You dont have to fish through this video. The word is there within the first 15 seconds.
[TROLLING]
This is an interesting situation.
First of all, I dont think he should be fired. It simply isnt clear if he knew what he was saying at that moment. A few days off will be sufficient.
But there is a more lasting issue here. In order to mispronounce the word Negro and turn it into n---er requires , in my opinion, a certain familiarity with using the n-word. This isnt the first time he has said that, I think it is fair to say.
It's not being used as a slur, it's an obvious mispronunciation. A suspension seems appropriate.
The idea that people want to take his job over this is absurd. The amount of power this word is given is off the chart, it's like something out of the middle ages where people are getting punished for heresy.
It's also obvious this was not the first time he said that word.
Your logic is absurd.
This is the relevant definition of heresy
opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted:
So use of the n word is simply someone expressing an unpopular opinion?
DO NOT REPEAT THE SAME THOUGHT OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Arvo...hmmm this subject gets very confusing at times...
So if a white person says N...then there is hell to pay as it is a derogatory term.
But if a black person says N then that's alright and accepted??
I hear it songs by rappers, (I thought I was hearing things) and somewhat stunned.
My Maori friend in NZ her son refers to his friends as N but spells it n_gga and it's freely used..WT???
So what the flying fig is the go on this??
You’ve got it figured right Shona ..... spot on.
Shona, "nigger" is a slavery era term that has survived , and is used by flat out racists still in 2023.
The slaveowners referred to their slaves as "the niggers".
Black people use the word in order to take control over its use as best they can. It does not normally have the same connotation when black people use it as when white racists use it.
What you state is spot on.
A black person using the 'n-word' is not interpreted as a pejorative. It originally was done to take the bite out of the word but has evolved into a slang expression akin to "brother/sister of color".
Anyone else's use of the 'n-word' will be interpreted as a pejorative.
That is how our culture operates.
And we all know this!
Well damn, get the hanging tree ready.
Lynch that white boy!
I think almost every adult US resident with a functioning brain knows that the the 'n-word' is among the most socially unacceptable words to utter.
Given the museum is entitled "Negro Leagues Baseball Museum", substituting the 'n-word' in the title is as good as calling all who consider themselves Negroes 'niggers'.
I would like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt but I do not see how this could be anything but deliberate on his part.
If one looks at the video, it seems pretty clear to me that this guy had a familiarity with the n word. His subconscious got the better of him a little bit and he blurted it out in the form he most likely has used numerous times before.
We of course cannot know what is in his mind, but I know that I would never make that mistake. The reason I would not make that mistake is because my mind associates the 'n-word' as a vile pejorative. So unless I was trying to emote such a pejorative, the 'n-word' would not even be something that would occur to me.
In short, I find it hard to believe that this is simply a slip. Your notion that this is a word he uses (at least somewhat frequently ... even if only in his mind) is logical.
GMA anchor, 20 year veteran, Ken Rosato joined a long list of ABC causalities for allegedly saying
"n8gg8r please" while off the air,
which was picked up by another person's hot microphone.
He was reportedly fired last Thursday within hours of the incident.
He and his agent vehemently deny that it was Rosato that was heard.